Tuesday's List: I Rank the Moody Blues Studio Albums

If you've heard the songs Go Now!, Nights in White Satin, Tuesday Afternoon, Question, Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band, The Voice, or Your Wildest Dreams, then you're already aware of the Moody Blues, a British rock band from the sixties that has endured to this day...although it's going on eighteen years since their last non-Christmas studio album.  When they started out, Denny Laine...later in Paul McCartney's group Wings...was the lead singer and they focused on covering others' rhythm and blues songs.  But the band stagnated in popularity when their first album went nowhere on the charts in 1965, Laine and some others left, and Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined and changed to a more orchestral/electronic/progressive orientation. From 1967 through 1972 they produced seven albums of this type...subsequent works tended to have a much more pop music flavor to them.  If you look at this list of mine, you'll clearly see where my preferences are!  My favorite composer/singer in the group has always been Ray Thomas, who was in the original lineup and retired in 2003...he's responsible for my all-time favorite song of theirs, For My Lady, off Seventh Sojourn. And now, without further ado, my list of favorite-to-worst Moody Blues albums (in capitals), with my three favorite tracks from each one listed under the title:

1 IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD (1968)
     Legend of a Mind
     Departure/Ride My Seesaw
     Voices in the Sky
2 ON THE THRESHOLD OF A DREAM (1969)
     Lazy Day
     Are You Sitting Comfortably
     Never Comes the Day
3 TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN (1969)
     Eyes of a Child/Floating
     Out and In
     Candle of Life
4 SEVENTH SOJOURN (1972)
     For My Lady
     Isn't Life Strange
     Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band
5 DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED (1967)
     Nights in White Satin
     Peak Hour
     Tuesday Afternoon
6 A QUESTION OF BALANCE (1970)
     Question
     Minstrel Song
     And the Tide Rushes In
7 EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR (1971)
     Nice to Be Here
     After You Came
     The Story in Your Eyes
8 THE PRESENT (1983)     
     Meet Me Halfway
     Sitting At the Wheel
     Running Water
 9 OCTAVE (1978)
     One Step Into the Light
     The Day We Meet Again
     Steppin' in a Slide Zone    
10 LOST DISTANCE VOYAGER (1981)
     Gemini Dream
     The Voice
     Talking Out of Turn
11 KEYS OF THE KINGDOM (1991)
     Celtic Sonant
     Lean on Me Tonight
     Say It With Love   
12 THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE (1986)
     Your Wildest Dreams
     Talking Talking
     The Other Side of Life
13 STRANGE TIMES (1999)
     The Swallow
     My Little Lovely
     English Sunset
14 THE MAGNIFICENT MOODIES (1965)     
     Go Now!
     True Story
     I'll Go Crazy
15 SUR LA MER (1988)
     I Know You're Out There Somewhere
     Miracle
     River of Endless Love