The Move-Looking On (1970)

The Move emerged from the fertile British psychedelic pop scene of the mid-sixties. Propelled by the brilliant musician Roy Wood, they conquered radio stations with a string of hits that kept them at the top for several years. With their second album, "Shazam", they took a step towards a more experimental sound, a shift that would become definitive with the arrival of Jeff Lynne, starting with their third album, "Looking On". Lynne planted the seeds for the band's music to move towards progressive ideologies. His arrival also led to experimentation by Wood, who played a wide range of instruments, giving the final sound a much more avant-garde edge. The title track of this third album is a kind of cornucopia that oscillates between blues and progressive rock, and in some ways already hints at the style that Electric Light Orchestra would develop shortly afterward. Meanwhile, "Turkish Tram Driver Blues" is a much heavier psychedelic piece, built upon a wall of sound that intertwines with more traditional guitar work. The early ELO style is also evident in "What", a reflective track composed by Lynne, and a similar path is followed by the dense "Feel To Good", another brilliant piece brimming with wind instruments and cellos, underpinned by heavy, resounding riffs. This contrasts sharply with "Brontosaurus", a clever fusion of heavy rock and roll with a honky-tonk rhythm. Ultimately, with this third album, The Move reached their artistic zenith and simultaneously became the natural link to the Electric Light Orchestra project, which Wood and Lynne would soon form and which would take over the sound and style where "Looking On" had left off.