MOVE

One of the things i always wonder is how do certain bands come up with such LAME band names? Well THE MOVE literally refers to the shifting positions of band members from one band to another. Yeah, lame, i know but luckily the music of THE MOVE on their debut album MOVE is far from lame. This is yet one of a gazillion bands to have emerged from Birmingham, England in the 60s. This is a band that had significant success in their native UK by scoring a total of 20 hit singles in a five year span but had absolutely no success in the US or other English speaking countries which meant their career was a fairly short seven year span but a sweet one nonetheless. While the band was known for its innovative and progressive leanings beginning on their second album "Shazam," on this debut album they are all about psychedelic pop and were one of the main shakers of the short lived genre called "freakbeat" which incorporated many aspects of the early British beat scene with psychedelic elements like studio effects and stereophonic embellishments as to give it a strange contemporary achronistic feel at the same time.

What can i say about THE MOVE's first album? Well, it is very catchy psychedelic pop music from 1968. The main influence seems to be The Beatles, who apparently left a vacuum in the 60s pop world when they jettisoned the predictability of the early and mid 60s and moved on to proto-progressive releases such as "Sgt Pepper's" and ushered in an entirely new "free expression" musical world. Well, not everyone was ready for the liberation of this sort and that's why bands like The Monkees were manufactured and other bands like THE MOVE hungrily moved into the formerly occupied musical territory. While the 60s were burgeoning with psychedelic pop bands from all corners of the globe, THE MOVE were actually quite talented in this niche and they nailed the psychedelic pop sound they were going for. Yes, this does sound like it should have been released 3 or 4 years prior before the advent of Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Zappa, however for 60s pop music that takes its antecedents and compiles them into a whole and fine tunes all of these elements, this is pretty good. There is not one bad track on here and it sounds like every track on this debut could have been a pop single of the era.

The Beatles seem to have the biggest influence on this one with extremely catchy hooks that mostly utilize guitars, bass and drums but have piano, harpsichord, brass and woodwind orchestral embellishments on many (especially ending) tracks. There is also an element of sunshine pop like the type of The Turtles but also the cover tracks by Eddie Cochran and The Coasters bring an element of good old fashioned 50s rock 'n' roll to the mix. This album also has a very strong sense of pacing. It begins quite innocently in the sunshine psychedelic pop arena but as ti progresses adds more complexity, most of the time bringing The Beatles to mind, but often meandering into the Baroque pop of The Beach Boys. While this is 60s pop through and through, the sophistication of it all is very much appreciated. Yes, the sound is a bit anachronistic but only by a few years. The fact is that every track on here is extremely catchy and well performed. I particularly love the energy delivered by bassist Ace Kefford who ups the energetic feel of the era a bit. While the ideas may be recycled for the most part, the delivery is very contemporary. This album was a grower. Nothing progressive at this point but if you like excellently performed 60s psychedelic music then you cannot forego such a wonderful experience as THE MOVE's very first album. I personally enjoy this one very much.