THE MOVE "Singles A's & B's - Hits and Rarities"

This CD is the best set available if you want to get the best of this great and sadly neglected band (in the U.S.anyway). it contains all the single A and B sides to all their classic singles. Much appreciated is the fact the record company licenced the band's EMI output so you get classic Move tracks like "California Man", "Chinatown and "Do Ya" and they've included the long lost "Vote For Me" as well and the full "Somethin Else from The Move" live EP as the last six tracks on disc 2. There is no more perfect Move compilation in existence. (Amazon) This collection is now out of print.

Hits & Rarities / Singles A's & B's is a nicely put together double-CD set from Repertoire Records -- it's actually a more expansive version of Edsel Records' Omnibus: The 60s Singles A's & B's issued that same year, assembling the Move's 40 official U.K. single releases (or, more properly, non-LP releases, since there are some EP sides represented), all dating between 1966 and 1974 (that latter date is a result of the belated 45 rpm issue of "Do Ya"). It's safe to say that no band this side of the Beatles (and perhaps not even them) ever packed more creative and challenging elements into their 45's, on the A-sides as well as the B-sides, than the Move did. Though they released four albums during this same period, the latter were so infrequent that they couldn't be the group's main vehicle for expression or experimentation -- it was the 7" platters that served this purpose, and it's even more to the credit of Roy Wood and company that they were able to pull that off successfully for five years. From the little vocal vamp inspired by Gustav Holst's The Planets at the end of "The Disturbance" to the reed accompaniment on "Flowers in the Rain," the gently lusting lyric buried amid the psychedelia-soaked "(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree," and the little near-quote from "Heat Wave" in the opening of "Vote for Me," there's just a lot going on in all of the group's songs, and one must give them credit for getting a lot of this recorded in the first place -- assembled together, it all makes for an imposing, at times almost overpowering collection of sounds, not just because of the innovations that they worked into their pop sides, but also the fact that, creative as they ever got, the Move always played their stuff hard, with a good attack on their instruments -- even "Blackberry Way," for all of its seeming debt to "Penny Lane," is played a lot harder than the Beatles ever attacked their instruments on the latter song, pushing that volume very hard (until "Curly," the Move never even issued a single side with an acoustic guitar in the foreground of the mix, and that was a fluke). For completeness' sake, the Italian version of "Something" closes out the first disc -- the second opens with the advent of the Jeff Lynne lineup of the band, kicking off with Wood's "When Alice Comes Back to the Farm" and Lynne's "What," which debuts the vocal/instrumental mix around Lynne's voice that would become the template for the Electric Light Orchestra. That disc gets to 20 songs by encompassing the five live songs off of the Something Else EP and the one odd song, "Useless Information," off of a Spanish EP. (Bruce Eder, Allmusic)

This is a career spanning best of which will delight and surprise many 60s pop/rock fans. Surprise? Yes - it's taken me till 2000 to check out The Move's records and I've been buying 60s music since 1972. They should be up there with The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Hollies and even, possibly, The Who (with whom they have many stylistic similarities) as the greatest of The Beatles' rivals.
In fact, don't buy this at all. One listen to the likes of "Fire Brigade", "Lemon Tree", "Curly", "Hello Susie", "Tonight" or "Do Ya?" and you'll want the entire catalogue: This band, and especially chief songwriter Roy Wood, should be world famous. Attention all Beatles / Who / Small Faces / Kinks / Byrds / Love fans! BUY CDs BY THE MOVE NOW! (Trouser Press)

trax CD 1:
01 Night Of Fear 02 The Disturbance 03 I Can Hear The Grass Grow 04 Wave Your Flag And Stop The Train 05 Flowers In The Rain 06 (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree 07 Cherry Blossom Clinic 08 Vote For Me 09 Fire Brigade 10 Walk Upon The Water 11 Wild Tiger Woman 12 Omnibus 13 Blackberry Way 14 Something 15 Yellow Rainbow 16 Curly 17 This Time Tomorrow 18 Brontosaurus 19 Lightning Never Strikes Twice 20 Something (Italian Version)
trax CD 2:
01 When Alice Comes Back To The Farm 02 What? 03 Kilroy Was Here 04 Turkish Tram Conductor Blues 05 Beautiful Daughter 06 Ella James 07 No Time 08 Tonight 09 Don't Mess Me Up 10 My Marge 11 Chinatown 12 Down On The Bay 13 California Man 14 Do Ya 15 So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star 16 Stephanie Knows Who 17 Something Else 18 It'll Be Me 19 Sunshine Help Me 20 Usless Information
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