Ray Thomas
Words & Music
Review by Gary Hill
This is a new collection of music from Ray Thomas. You probably know Thomas as a member of the band The Moody Blues. Thomas passed away in 2018, making this a posthumous release. It's sort of a career encompassing set. All the solo songs he recorded are included here along with several he did with the Moody Blues before they turned into the proggier act we all know.
This includes all the songs from his two solo albums, but I have only done track by track reviews of the numbers from his first album. That's because the second album is included on the DVD that is the second disc here. That qualifies it as a video (although it is really just the audio with graphics added), and we don't do those track by track. Let me just say that I think I find that disc to be the stronger one, and the one that's most close to the symphonic prog you expect.
The audio disc starts with three songs from the early Moody Blues. Then we get the Thomas solo songs. Two additional tracks at the end represent his collaborations with two other musicians. The DVD also includes two music videos. One of those was done back when the first album was originally released. It's more or less a performance video and representative of its era. The second is a new video put together for the song he recorded with Ryland Teifi. and it is a largely a tribute to Thomas.
This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2020 Volume 6. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2020.
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