Looking On [Deluxe Edition, Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

This is The Move's 3rd album originally released by the group in 1970 and introduces Jeff Lyne to the line up after the departure of Trevor Burton and Carl Wayne.

What makes this newly released reissue stand out is that it is superbly remastered and expanded. The sound quality is simply mind blowing and multi instrumentalists Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne's talents are shown off to maximum effect. Full credit must go to all of those involved in producing this cd from the old master tapes.

The material on this album is much heavier than on the group's previous albums and singles and several of the tracks are over 6 minutes in length. The two most well known tracks are "Brontosaurus" and "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm".

The cd is presented in a neat digipak and there is a 16 page booklet full of notes and photographs of the group.

This album is not for those who prefer to remember The Move for their better known singles as the band had moved on a long way from those days.
However this cd is worth buying just for the wonderful sound quality and is a must for fans of Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne. Not long after this album was completed the duo formed The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) before Wood finally split and went off to form Wizzard.

Four hairy, bearded Brummies walk into a studio in 1970, wearing shades (probably).

Bev Bevan (drums & percussion), Rick Price (Bass), Jeff Lynne (piano, guitar, etc.) and Roy Wood (any and every instrument he had at his disposal).

I remember buying this album on vinyl back in the early 1970s. The two singles ('Brontosaurus' and 'Alice') were the heaviest and loudest the Move ever released. I loved the way Roy Wood gave the vocals everything - this before the days vocalists experimented with megaphones. He continued to adopt this style of delivery later on with Until Your Momma's Gone and Wizzard's debut 45, 'Ball Park Incident' amongst other classic Wood compositions.

On first listening, 'Looking On' left me dazed. The only hint that these hit single-makers may head in a darker direction was the blistering 'Hello Suzie' - the opening track on the previous 'Shazam' album.

The opening title track (very Sabbath) and the closing 'Feel Too Good' are epic monsters - both long multi-instrumental songs dominated with heavy guitar riffs and drums. These, and Bev Bevan's 'Turkish Tram Conductor Blues' - again, vocals by Roy Wood along with the two singles are not the whole story, monumental though they are.

This was the first time Jeff Lynne worked in the studio with The Move after Wood finally persuaded him to replace original front man Carl Wayne.

On subsequent plays, I found that the brace of Lynne songs: 'What?' and 'Open Up, Said The World At The Door' balance the whole album with their experimental effects and Jeff's now-familiar voice. A very definite nod to the future ELO.

The album closes with an unlisted bit of studio fun (a prank to be repeated on the following years 'Message From The Country' - the only Wood/Lynne co-credited song ever - the silliness of 'My Marge'). A much-needed lightness to ease the senses after all the heaviness. Recent sources identify this as 'The Duke Of Edinburgh's Lettuce'.

While I'm on trivia - rumours did suggest PP Arnold contributed backing vocals to `Feel Too Good' - her itinerary at the time of recording matches this possibility. Back then, I believed this is mere speculation, though I loved the image it brought to mind. Recent research for the anniversary edition confirms this is indeed true, our first lady of soul is contributing along with Doris Troy...wow. The stuff of legend.

And more recently, this track can be heard on the soundtrack (CD Vol II) to the film Boogie Nights.

So, although the heaviest album either Wood or Lynne ever recorded, do not be fooled by first impressions. This session uses many, many instruments not usually associated with rock'n'roll. But never over-used: there's no wall of sound here. It's raw and nasty, melodic, twangy and inaccessible (at first) - in some places there are soundscapes so trippy you'll wish they would never end. After all this was originally a seven-track prog-rock session. Seven long tracks.

This CD reissue includes singles and b-sides belonging more to the `Shazam' era (but there was probably no room for any more bonus tracks on that CD) - but when these four boys checked into the studio to record this album no one ever saw The Move as flowery sixties popsters again.

Thirty-five years on I'm still playing it and never tired of listening to it from the opening drums of the title to the closing barrelhouse of The Duke's Lettuce...ah, nostalgia. Love it you guys.

Their 'Flowers in The Rain' launching Britain's BBC Radio 1 back in '67, paisley popsters The Move tipped the toys out of the pram in 1970 when they made their most compelling and original album in 'Looking On'. Key changes at play were the swing to more serious 'progressive' sounds and the arrival in Jeff Lynne of a writing partner Roy Wood could really spar with. Left to their own devices in the studio by new label Fly - distracted by ingenue signing Marc Bolan - the two got to work fusing hard rock with doo-wop, bar room boogie and chamber, crossing amplified sawing cello, piping oboes, sitar and squalls of lead guitar, the multi-textured melange driven solidly by the hod-carrying backline of bassist Rick Price and drummer, Bev Bevan while over it all piped the trademark megaphone vocal. The result: dense, melodic, melodramatic - contrived to be both raw and sophisticated. The singles 'Brontosaurus' and 'When Alice Comes Back To The Farm' are respectively lumbering and manic, while the lengthier 'What?' and 'Open up Said The World At The Door' indicate the door marked 'Electric Light Orchestra', a vehicle Lynne would have fired up right away but for contractual obligations. Cheaply-packaged, 'Looking On' limped out and was left. But this top notch reissue more than makes up for the injustice: beautifully re-mastered, lusterous gatefold digi-pack, plenty of period imagery, highly-informed and entertaining notes from Mark Paytress, expanded with studio out-takes and the 'Brontosaurus' B-side. Good-bye 'Blackberry Way' and Hallo 'Mr Blue Sky' by way of 'Paranoid', the Cinderella in The Move catalogue finally goes to the ball.