As a music buff, it’s a weird thing to dig deeper into a band you never gave much attention to, only to discover that they played such a pivotal role in the history of pop music.

And yet, here I am with the Moody Blues, who are often credited as the founders of progressive rock.

And while the previous two Moody records in my collection are undeniably prescient, The Seventh Sojourn finds them fighting to hold their own against a flood of contemporaries.

When the group released Days of Future Passed, it sounded like nothing before it. Songs faded in and out of one another like suites. It was also the first album to make significant use of the Mellotron, a tape-loop keyboard that became synonymous with progressive and psychedelic rock.  It was peerless and prophetic.

Five years and six albums later, progressive rock was a whole thing. King Crimson had already released the prog-psych opus In the Court of the Crimson King. Pink Floyd had released the sprawling, spacey epic Meddle the year before. Emerson Lake & Palmer, Yes, and Genesis all already had a few records under their belt. The Moodies were no longer without peer.

But on Seventh Sojourn, they don’t seem to notice. There’s nothing to indicate here that they were threatened by the virtuosic solos and extended song structures of other prog outfits. Instead, they remain true to the formula that made their early records work so well: catchy pop songs with inventive arrangements.

“Lost In A Lost World” opens the record with a dark groove, big bright harmonies, and a poppy midtempo beat that might make you forget that the lyrics are mourning the people lost to the Vietnam War. As a standalone track, it might be my favorite thing I’ve heard from the Moodies. “New Horizons” follows: a big, dramatic, string-laden love song in the spirit of “Nights in White Satin.” The penultimate track, “When You’re A Free Man” is a psychedelic opus with spacey acoustic guitars, aggressive lead guitar, and pillars of synth strings.

The album’s first lead single, “Isn’t Life Strange” starts as a delicate ballad before exploding in a burst of anthemic electric guitars, drums, and harmonies. It forecasts Flaming Lips’ Soft Bulletin by almost 30 years. The second, more popular single is closer, “I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock and Roll Band)” is a bit deceptive—not only for its ripping, straightforward rock structure, but for its claim that nothing they do should be taken seriously. It’s also probably the reason I always assumed the Moody Blues were a boring dad rock band like Bachman-Turner Overdrive (and because I pulled it from my dad’s collection). But with the context of the lush, intricate arrangements of the rest of their songs, the song unfolds, revealing layers of horns, strings, and synths underneath the electric guitar riffs.

Truth be told, I expected to be completely disappointed by this record—an expectation no doubt driven by the strength of the early records and knowing that they took a six-year hiatus after its release. And while it might not be as consistent as Threshold or as ambitious as Days, The Seventh Sojourn is more than just a little satisfying. But for a couple forgettable tracks, this record has some of the best songs I’ve heard from them. And I will definitely keep my eyes open for more Moody records while crate digging.