The Moody Blues release the album Keys Of The Kingdom, featuring the single “Bless the Wings (That Bring You Back).” This is the group’s first album of the 1990s, and the last studio album of new material until 1999. 
The most recent studio album the Moody Blues have released to date is indicative of the problems they were encountering around this time – namely, a lawsuit from dismissed keyboard player Patrick Moraz alleging that he had been denied his fair cut of the band’s financial gains – and the results of the decision against Moraz. The thought that ambassadors of musical goodwill might not be as good-intentioned as previously thought probably didn’t factor into sales, but it also didn’t help to turn out an album that wasn’t up to their usual standard. Still, it contains one gorgeous bona-fide Moodies classic, “Bless The Wings,” and leads off with “Say It With Love,” which is at least up to the standards of “Long Distance Voyager”‘s album tracks. Other than that, this album seems unbalanced. Whether the hasty departure/dismissal/who knows? of Moraz left a gap in the group’s sound – which I think it did, if you compare “Keys” to, say, “Other Side of Life” or “Sur La Mer” – or there were other internal difficulties, it’s hard to say, but after the previous two albums this one is a letdown.
- Say It With Love (3:57)
- Bless The Wings (That Bring You Back) (5:11)
- Is This Heaven? (4:05)
- Say What You Mean (Parts I & II) (5:39)
- Lean On Me (Tonight) (4:59)
- Hope And Pray (5:03)
- Shadows On The Wall (5:08)
- Once Is Enough (4:04)
- Celtic Sonant (5:02)
- Magic (5:11)
- Never Blame The Rainbows For The Rain (4:58)
Released by: Threshold
Release date: 1991
Total running time: 53:15
1993 music review by Earl Green