a Question of Balance

This is the Moody Blues installment in Universal Music's Collected series. The 54 selections span the band's nearly 40-year career – from early British Invasion-era songs through to the 2003 seasonal offering December. The original lineup hailed from Birmingham, England, and featured Ray Thomas (harmonica/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Denny Laine (vocals/guitar), Graeme Edge (drums), and Clint Warwick (bass/vocals). They had a massive worldwide smash with a remake of Bessie Banks' "Go Now" in early 1965. However, they suffered from the inability to provide a suitable follow-up, despite the undeniable groove heard on the blue-eyed soulful "From the Bottom of My Heart (I Love You)."

Their very names–Gettysburg, Waterloo, Stalingrad–evoke images of great triumph and equally great suffering, moments when history seemed to hang in the balance. Considered in relation to each other, such battles–and others of less immediate renown–offer insight into the changing nature of armed combat, advances in technology, shifts in strategy and thought, as well as altered geopolitical landscapes.