The Move – Looking On
1970′s Looking On, the third album from The Move, came complete with yet another new member. Following the departure of chief vocalist Carl Wayne, Roy Wood, Bev Bevan and Rick Price were joined by Jeff Lynne. Lynne was an old friend of Wood’s and had even replaced the bearded bard in Birmingham beat group, The Nightriders, under whose stewardship they had transformed into toytown psychedelic curio, The Idle Race.
Another exponent of the more experimental side of music, Lynne’s arrival marked a change of direction for The Move, giving Wood a likeminded soulmate to spark against, as well as acting as the catalyst that would lead to the group’s drawn-out demise…
With Carl Wayne gone, Roy Wood took on lead vocal duties, freeing him of the constraints of writing songs largely for someone else to sing and taking the band into their most progressive phase with Looking On. Jeff Lynne’s presence, although only contributing two of the original seven songs, must’ve played a role in the musical territories The Move were now exploring, eschewing the psychedelic edge of Shazam and landing somewhere a million miles away from the psych-pop/singles band that had released the debut album, The Move.
For a start, the music is a damn sight heavier than what had gone before, with grinding basslines (ably demonstrated with the bowel-loosening riff of ‘Brontosaurus’), fuzzed-out distortion, belligerent injections of piano, and startling blasts of slide guitar (‘When Alice Comes Back to the Farm’). It often sounds like an electric orchestra (no pun intended) has been set loose in an abattoir! And that, I assure you, is a good thing!
Then there’s the fact that not one of the songs on Looking On sounds like it could ever be released as a single – though an abridged version of ‘Brontosaurus’ was, eight months prior to the album’s release, heralding what was to be “The New Move” and underlining Roy Wood’s commitment to the more progressive sound. Also, I assure you, a good thing!
Looking On has to be the Head Full of Snow top pick from The Move’s four albums. It’s a difficult choice to make from such a sterling body of work, but if one has to come first then it’s this one, leaving Message From the Country and Shazam to fight it out for second place. Not that this remains written in stone. Ask me in a few months time and Message From the Country might well have retaken the coveted spot of favourite son, such is the standard of the competition with which we’re dealing here. But I digress…
As far as standout tracks go, well that’s another tricky one. At a push, I’d have to say the ethereal grandeur and mystery of Jeff Lynne’s ‘What?’ fights it out with the grinding menace of Roy Wood’s opener ‘Looking On’ for the honour, but that’s not to take anything away from the other songs on here. There’s not a bad’un in sight.
Interestingly, Looking On was actually touted to be the final Move album, as Lynne’s arrival had put him and Wood firmly on the road to forming The Electric Light Orchestra. So much so that its original release in December of 1970 was all but overshadowed by their enthusiasm for the new band. However, due to contractual obligations this wasn’t to be and the following year The Move’s swansong Message From the Country appeared.
Fly Records have put together another sterling reissue with Looking On, combining top-notch sound quality, the usual glut of bonus tracks (only alternate takes in this instance, apart from Rick Price’s ‘Lightnin’ Never Strikes Twice’), superb packaging and the now customary photographic feast that is the informative booklet.
Quite possibly the crowning moment in the Roy Wood story, Looking On gets the Head Full of Snow seal of approval and while it may almost be the ‘forgotten’ album so far as success and known tracks are concerned, it’s a must for any fan of prog rock or The Move.
Looking On is reissued by Fly Records and available from Amazon.co.uk
See also:
The Move’s Debut Album
The Move – Shazam
Don’t just read and applaud. Subscribe to the rather splendid RSS Feed
Recent Comments