Cherry Red [Release date : 28.02.25]

1971: The Move record and release their final album, Message From The Country.

The band is now Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan. All accomplished musicians. All skilled, imaginative songwriters.

They are about to transform into The Electric Light Orchestra, a key moment in UK pop history.

This remastered reissue on the Cherry Red label also includes 9 bonus tracks.

It was the result of lengthy recording sessions during which Wood and Lynne undertook extensive overdubbing to create an album which is now regarded as a masterpiece.

In other words, it’s as much about how the ELO journey began as it is about how the Move ended.

The original album got glowing reviews from Allmusic, Rolling Stone and Uncut magazines.

By 1971, in the world of Wood and Lynne, the music shaped and formed by 1967’s “Summer of Love” had tipped over into a mixture of high concept pop (It Wasn’t My Idea To Dance, Word Of Aaron), and reflections of the decade’s best popular music – the Beatle-esque ‘The Minister’ and the sublime acoustic lilt of ‘No Time’ are perfect pop creations.

And if you think you’ve heard every twanging country song with a cool plot twist ending, listen to ‘The Ben Crawley Steel Company’, where the female protagonist, spurned and cheated by her boss, blows up his factory.

But the real standouts perhaps are the rockier ‘Ella James’, a Band like, Wood/Lynne co-write, and the undefinable title track, where Wood and Lynne sail off into harmony heaven, punctuated by all the studio moves ultimately made famous by Lyne and the ELO.

Among the numerous bonus tracks, taken from the 3 singles released around that time, ‘California Man’, which became a radio staple, and ‘Do Ya’, a B-side that became a memorable A-side for ELO are the most notable.

Best tracks and bonus tracks aside, the album dispels all the notions we carry about how bands are supposed to work, that they have an inevitable social order.

Instead, Message From The Country operates on the basis that the power rises from the bottom and authority is equally divided.

And it works perfectly. ****1/2

Review by Brian McGowan

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SMALL TOWN POLITICS Red Lights (indie)

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