Looking On is the third album by The Move, released in the UK in December 1970. The LP is their first to feature Jeff Lynne, their first containing entirely original compositions. It includes both their 1970 singles, the Top 10 hit "Brontosaurus," released on Regal Zonophone in March, and the less successful "When Alice Comes Back To The Farm," released on Fly in October. Looking On is generally regarded as the hardest rocking, least popular and most eclectic album in the Move's catalogue, as it presents the band dabbling in heavy metal ("Brontosaurus"), blues ("When Alice Comes Back to the Farm", "Turkish Tram Conductor Blues"), prog-style epics ("Open Up Said the World at the Door"), soul ("Feel Too Good"), or, in the case of the title track, all four styles mashed together.

There's a good reason why the Move's eponymous 1968 debut album sounds like the work of two or three different bands – actually, befitting a band with multiple lead singers, there's more than one reason. First, there's that lead singer conundrum. Carl Wayne was the group's frontman, but Roy Wood wrote the band's original tunes and sometimes took the lead, and when the group covered a rock & roll class, they could have rhythm guitarist Trevor Burton sing (as they did on Eddie Cochran's "Weekend") or drummer Bev Bevan (as they did on the Coasters' "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart").

Apparently, the Move's discography is so complex that not even a lovingly compiled, rarities-laden, career-spanning box set like Salvo's 2008 Anthology 1966-1972 can fit everything within the confines of four discs. The devil is in the licensing, as it always is, something that always plagues Move compilations because their last album, Message from the Country, was on Harvest, while their first two - The Move and Shazam - were on EMI and the third, Looking On, was on Fly. Typically, the first three albums are grouped together - as they were on WestSide's 1997 box Movements - with Message from the Country left lingering on its own, a situation Salvo almost avoids on Anthology by cherry-picking the low-riding heavy blues-rocker "Ella James" and loading up the fourth disc with the wonderful post-Message singles that captured the band at some kind of a zenith: "Tonight," "Do Ya," "Chinatown," "California Man"…

Esoteric Recordings are proud to announce the release of a newly expanded and re-mastered edition of the classic 1968 live recordings made by The Move at the legendary Marquee Club in London. Of all of the groups to emerge in Britain in the latter half of the 1960s, The Move was arguably one of the finest. A powerful act on stage, the group was blessed with one of the most imaginative songwriters of his generation in Roy Wood.
On 27th February 1968 The Move staged a concert at The Marquee Club with the intention of recording the concert for release as a live record. Due to technical issues, some of the material recorded was deemed to be unsuitable for release. In an attempt to rectify this, a further concert at The Marquee was recorded on 5th May…

Esoteric Recordings are proud to announce the release of a newly re-mastered and expanded edition of the classic 1970 album by The Move, “Shazam”. Of all of the groups to emerge in Britain in the latter half of the 1960s, The Move was arguably one of the finest. A powerful act on stage, the group were blessed with one of the most imaginative songwriters of his generation in Roy Wood. “Shazam” is regarded by many as the finest The Move album, despite being recorded in a time of flux for the band.
In the Spring of 1968 bassist Ace Kefford departed the fold, with Trevor Burton assuming bass guitar duties. The band continued to enjoy success as a singles act, earning a number one hit with ‘Blackberry Way’ in November 1968. In February 1969 Burton also left the band to be replaced by Rick Price…

On the band's third studio release "Looking On", The Move found themselves moving forward past their hybrid Beatles/Byrds/Who psychedelic influences and more towards the harder Power Pop that both Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood would perfect on this album.
"Looking On" containing seven songs averaging six plus minutes was more in tune with the Progressive Rock movement of the early 70's with tracks like "What?" forming as a precursor to the band's development into the symphonic Art-rock band Electric Light Orchestra. Also on the album are the proto Heavy Metal tracks "When Alice Goes Back To The Farm" and "Brontosaurus" and Progressive Rockers in the title track and the prophetically influential "Open Up Said The World To The Door" which predates the innovative zaniness of bands like Split Enz, 10cc, Roxy Music and Queen.

The Move were the best and most important British group of the late '60s that never made a significant dent in the American market. Through the band's several phases (which were sometimes dictated more by image than musical direction), their chief asset was guitarist and songwriter Roy Wood, who combined a knack for Beatlesque pop with a peculiarly British, and occasionally morbid, sense of humor. On their final albums (with considerable input from Jeff Lynne), the band became artier and more ambitious, hinting at the orchestral rock that Wood and Lynne would devise for the Electric Light Orchestra. The Move, however, always placed more emphasis on the pop than the art, and never lost sight of their hardcore rock & roll roots. The Early Years is a twenty track collection covering most of the band's singles and B-sides from 1966 to 1970. While it falls short of the superior, though out-of-print, Best of the Move on A&M, it's the next best thing.

By 1971, it was clear that changes were in the offing for the Move. Message from the Country shows them carrying their sound, within the context of who they were, about as far as they could. One can hear them hit the limits of what guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards, with lots of harmony overdubs and ornate singing, could do. Indeed, parts of this record sound almost like a dry run from the first Electric Light Orchestra album, which was in the planning stages at the time. The influence of the Beatles runs through most of the songs stylistically. Particularly in Jeff Lynne's case, it was as though someone had programmed "Paperback Writer" and other chronologically related pop-psychedelic songs by the Beatles into the songwriting and arranging, but across its ten songs, the album also shot for a range of sound akin to the White Album, except that the members of the Move are obviously working much more closely together.

This may be more Move than the casual fan wants, but it's not just another rehashed collection. From the remastered sound to the presence of various outtakes (including lost live tracks), the 30th anniversary triple-disc Movements is as definitive a set as we'll ever have on this band, containing everything except for the Message From the Country album…

Compared to the Move's long-gestating 1968 eponymous debut, their 1970 sophomore effort Shazam is unified. It was not culled from sessions from a period of 14 months but instead largely made at one time… but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's any easier to get a handle on the album. The Move changed greatly in the period between their first albums, with original bassist Chris "Ace" Kefford leaving in a cloud of acid in 1968. In his absence, rhythm guitarist Trevor Burton jumped over to bass, beginning an odd period where the group was cutting songs, most penned by Roy Wood but a few written by David Morgan, a fellow Birmingham-based songwriter signed to the publishing company of Move lead singer Carl Wayne…

There's a good reason why the Move's eponymous 1968 debut album sounds like the work of two or three different bands - actually, befitting a band with multiple lead singers, there's more than one reason. First, there's that lead singer conundrum. Carl Wayne was the group's frontman, but Roy Wood wrote the band's original tunes and sometimes took the lead, and when the group covered a rock & roll class, they could have rhythm guitarist Trevor Burton sing (as they did on Eddie Cochran's "Weekend") or drummer Bev Bevan (as they did on the Coasters' "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart"). Such ever-changing leads can lend excitement but it can also lend confusion, especially when the group enthusiastically mixes up Who-inspired art pop with three-chord rock & roll oldies and more than a hint of British eccentricity…