Looking On - THE MOVE****

Looking On/Turkish Tram Conductor Blues/What/When Alice Comes Back To The Farm/Open Up Said The World At The Door/Brontosaurus/Feel Too Good

Looking On was the first Move album to feature Jeff Lynne, recruited from the commercially unsuccessful pop group The Idle Race. It features the very heavy UK top ten hit single Brontosaurus.

“Looking On introduced ex-Idle Race multi-instrumentalist Jeff Lynne to the line-up. The album marked a major change in musical direction. All but absent were the band's earlier slices of poppy-psych, replaced by a series of extended, heavy rockers. Critics and fans weren't particularly kind, and to my ears the change in direction was somewhat jarring. That said, the results were heavy rock, but done in Move style, which meant lots of experimentation and unexpected surprises that you wouldn't hear in a typical heavy rock album.”

“This is my favourite album by The Move, and it's the only one of theirs that didn't strike me as overlong. It's also insanely heavy. I'm surprised this one doesn't show up on more proto-metal lists. Downtuned riffs with crippling fuzz.”

“Looking On was a continuation of The Move's prior evolutionary trajectory towards progressive and experimental psychedelic rock music. Heavier than the earlier material, it still retains a psychedelic, experimental feel.”

“Simply calling the album progressive rock doesn’t do it justice, as it is truly an inspired blend of genres and ideas. Feel Too Good is the pinnacle of the album. Part boogie, part glam rock, part doo-wop, and part honky-tonk bar room piano, it represents the album’s greatest gamble, and triumph. The Move were on the verge of transitioning into The Electric Light Orchestra, and hints of their debut album can be heard on Roy Wood’s cello playing in When Alice Gets Back From The Farm.”

“A portrait of a band in flux, proto metal and prog rock mix sometimes uncomfortably with pure pop. There are interesting instrumentation and arrangements all around. What the record may lack in terms of execution and songwriting, it more than makes up for in ambition and creativity.”

“No longer a psych-pop hit single machine, this incarnation of the band moved in new directions, sounding something like a somewhat heavy jam band that discovered baroque instruments in the back of their studio. It's also evident that this is where that early ELO sound was born.”