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.

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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.

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Across the history of pop music, there are certain years that feel more momentous than others. Moments in time where the social conversation, artistic trends, and brightest minds converge to create a hotspot of musical innovation that stands out among the arbitrary dividers of time.

One of those years is 1967, a year of psychedelic mastery that continues to unfold new masterpieces to me.

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