In Search of the Lost Chord is a deep concept album that was built around the quest of discovering oneself.
The album is like part two of Days of Future Passed but without the use of a full orchestra. Each member of The Moody Blues can play various instruments, 33 instruments to be exact — from the Indian sitar and tambura to the orchestral oboe, flute, harp, and cello.
In spite of that, In Search of the Lost Chord is a rock album – mixed with British pop, psychedelia, and spoken-word poetry that also been used on the group’s previous records.
The album’s approach is somewhat experimental because of the usage of any instruments they could find — it was the group’s record producer Tony Clarke who set everything for keeping the sound more cohesive making it a very unique album from many of the records from the era. Tony Clarke managed to accomplish this by focusing on simplicity rather than the complex obscurity of recording an album.
In Search of the Lost Chord outcome was a success for the band’s career. It peaked at #23 on the US album charts and #5 in the UK. Then four decades later, it was considered as one of the most important psychedelic/space rock albums which led the group to choose space exploration to become the theme for their later album in 1969, To Our Children’s Children’s Children which was a dedication album to the Apollo 11 mission.
Listen to the full album below: