Voyager, and the careful embroidery of their best songs is interrupted by lapses into pop-philosophical musing ("Going Nowhere") and sappy, self-absorbed poetic soliloquies. Particularly galling is the songwriting of flutist Ray Thomas, whose penchant for saccharine arrangements ("Sorry," "I Am") recalls the more top-heavy orchestrated ballads of the predisco Bee Gees. Yet the Moody Blues are at their creative best on "Running Water," "Meet Me Halfway" and "Blue World," with their lilting cadences and gentle flourishes. Despite the fact that The Present has more weak spots than usual, one knows better than to write off the Moody Blues, for they'll surely return again in a few years, offering new visions of romantic dream worlds. (RS 407)

ERROL SOMAY