Looking On
| Looking On | ||||
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| Studio album by The Move | ||||
| Released | December 1970 | |||
| Recorded | May–September 1970 | |||
| Studio | Advision Studios and Philips Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Freakbeat, hard rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock | |||
| Length | 44:10 | |||
| Label | Fly | |||
| Producer | ||||
| The Move chronology | ||||
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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, and the first on the Fly label, its catalogue number being FLY 1. 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.
It's also the first LP to feature both Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne as a tandem, with Wood’s use of cello and woodwinds and Lynne's piano in addition to their usual guitars and vocals, anticipating the work they would later pursue in The Electric Light Orchestra, whose debut album they were starting to record at around the same time. The jazzy fills on the title track also serve as a signpost of the style that Wood would later develop in Wizzard and the Wizzo Band.
The Move was effectively a dead band walking when Lynne joined in February 1970 after fronting (and producing) The Idle Race. Wood had wanted to launch a new group with Lynne that would feature rock and strings—to pick up, in theory, where the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" had left off—and retire the Move immediately. But despite mainstream media reports that the Move were finished—with Wood's blessing—contractual obligations and management pressure kept the brand name kicking, regardless of the drastic changes in sound and personnel.
Undaunted, Wood and Lynne took the opportunity to begin work on the embryonic ELO project in the studio and get the Move off the road, for the most part—the occasional live set in 1970 usually featured most of the tracks on Looking On, a cover of The Beatles' "She's a Woman," and just one of Wood's classic singles, "I Can Hear The Grass Grow."
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