(The) Move - Message From The Country - 1971 - (Remastered & Expanded 2005)

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, exceptthat the members of the Move are
obviously working much more closely together. Reduced to a trio and all
but wiped out as a live act, they went ahead and generated what was,
song for song, their most complex and challenging album. Heard today,
it seems charmingly ornate in execution, yet also simple in the
listening, very basic rock & roll dressed up in the finest raiment that
affordable studio time could provide. Despite the obvious jump from the
post-psychedelic "Message from the Country" to the driving, delightful
"Ella James" and the leap into airy pop-psychedelia on "No Time," not
to mention the novelty interlude of "Don't Mess Me Up," there's a sense
of unity here, the entire album somehow holding together as something
powerful, bracing, and visceral, yet cheerfully trippy. In that sense,
it goes The White Album one better. Based on its musical merits, it all
should have sold the way some ELO albums later did, instead of getting
lost in the transition between the histories of the two groups. And 35
years on and counting, it's still essential listening for fans of
either the Move or ELO,as well as Roy Wood.

(The) Move - Message From The Country - 1971 - (Remastered & Expanded 2005)

01 message from the country.mp3
02 ella james.mp3
03 no time.mp3
04 don't mess me up.mp3
05 until your moma's gone.mp3
06 it wasn't my idea to dance.mp3
07 the minister.mp3
08 ben crawley steel company.mp3
09 the words of aaron.mp3
10 my marge.mp3
11 tonight (1971 single a-side).mp3
12 chinatown (1971 single a-side).mp3
13 down on the bay ('chinatown' b-side, 1971).mp3
14 do ya ('california man' b-side, 1972).mp3
15 california man (1972 single a-side).mp3
16 don't mess me up (early alternate session version).mp3
17 the words of aaron (early alternate session version).mp3
18 do ya (early alternate session version) + my marge (session version).mp3

@vbr