The hardest part of creating a groundbreaking masterpiece is what you do once it’s changed everything.

The Moody Blues were nobody special before the release of Days Of Future Passed. Then they released an album that transcended pop music and practically invented a whole new musical language (see: prog rock).

And then they continued their career? It’s one thing to carry on after a career-defining record several albums into your catalog. It’s quite another to practically start there. But listening to On The Threshold Of A Dream, their second post-Days offering, it feels like they weren’t too daunted by the task.

Threshold feels an awful lot like the band-only portions of Days of Future Passed. But where the earlier album shared the load with a full orchestra, this album finds the group shouldering the weight on their own.

Luckily, they’re up to the task.

This record lacks the palpable ambition of Days, but it doesn’t need it. Instead, it provides a track list of great psychedelic pop. After an spoken word introduction over electronic weirdness, “Lovely To See You Again” kicks things off with a bang, rocking and rolling with all the excitement and passion of an early Beatles track. That exuberance breaks and gives way to the moody “Dear Diary,” which features an absolutely wonderful swirl of flutes and Mellotron. “Send Me No Wine” blends jangling country guitars and lap-steel-mimicking synths. “To Share Our Love” drives with big riffs, big harmonies, and an urgent drum beat. The B-side ballad “Are You Sitting Comfortably” is an absolute gem, mingling fingerpicked guitars with layers of woodwinds.

But the most impressive moment is the four-track closing “Have You Heard?” suite. It opens with another atmospheric spoken word section (“The Dream”), which fades into a relaxed, morose pop song. That gives way to an ambitious instrumental track (“The Voyage”) that shifts from synthesizer noise to orchestral flourishes to piano riffs before reprising the pop song, swelling with synths and strings and woodwinds before collapsing in a way that gives “A Day In the Life” a run for its money. It even ends with a locked-groove like Sgt. Pepper. 

I don’t remember when I got this record—or any of the Moody records in my collection. But I’ve ignored them for far too long. This is exactly the kind of late 60s psychedelia that I love. This is side by side with albums like The Who Sell Out, Piper At the Gates of Dawn, Odyssey and Oracle, and In the Court of the Crimson King. And this will be getting much more time on my turntable.