Best sounding Move CD's

Greetings!

Does anybody here know of any generally good sounding Move compilations? I've heard some songs here and there, all of which souded relatively thin. Then again, I suppose it's possible that the songs weren't exactly recorded on the best equipment to begin with.

More specifically, any excellent sounding compilations which include at least all of the following?

- Omnibus
- Fire Brigade
- I Can Hear the Grass Grow
- (Here We Go 'Round) The Lemon Tree
- Cherry Blossom Clinic (NOT "revisited")

Thanks for any suggestions and input!

 

Hi Quentin.

Your supposition is correct. All the early tracks sound pretty thin and I assume nothing short of a remix will correct that.

Forgetting the sound there are a couple of brilliant single CD compilations of those early years available at budget prices. I believe they are UK releases so check out hmv.co.uk or amazon.co.uk or cow.co.uk.

If you want the complete early works do what I did and get the 3CD Movements box.

 

Have a look at this one.It's on Repertoire from Germany.It includes all the A and B sides and it tacks on the 1968 live Move EP.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000025AZJ/ref=m_art_li_14/102-6999607-7287312

 

Hey Cousin, is that your review over at amazon?

 

YUP !!!
I'm a big fan of this band.I've got it all the legit stuff.Ya know I really hope that they get around to releasing another BBC Move disc as some of the most interesting stuff they did for the Beeb was done during the Shazam/Looking On era.This stuff is circulating on bootleg but I don't have it.Unique versions of stuff like Beautiful Daughter(I think)(w/Carl Wayne lead vocal rather than Roy Wood) and better versions of Looking On stuff(a very underrated hard rock album,I just love the heavy guitar sound Wood and Lynne get.)I would also like to hear the only unreleased track from LO,it's a Jeff Lynne track called Falling Forever.A fragment of it is available on bootleg but I've never heard it.

 

Looking On was my favourite heavy rock album of its era.

When everyone else was buying Sabbath I was busy trying to convince my mates that there was a group around that actually combined heavy rock with melody and enormous musical talent called The Move. I knew about that talent because I'd been following them since the early days.

Roy of course is one of a handful of genuine 60s musical geniuses. Jeff is a great tunesmith.

 

Idle Race?

Which reminds me of the other Jeff Lynne related band prior to ELO- the Idle Race. While I have been successful in picking up the Move (except for Message to the Country- which is supposed to get a Deluxe treatment along the same lines as ELO I did recently), I've not had much luck in locating Idle Race. I have read there was a compilation CD with all their tracks but that it went quickly out of print. Anyone have this set, or better yet, a lead on where I could track one down?

 

To TSmithPage:

Two of the best CD comps for the Idle Race stuff:

Back To The Story (EMI) '96 2 CD set

The Best of The Idle Race featuring Jeff Lynne (See For Miles) '90

Both are sadly out of print.

Two of the best vinyl comps for the Idle Race stuff:

The Idle Race featuring Jeff Lynne Impostors of Life's Magazine (Daffodil - Dist. by A&M Canada) dbl album

Jeff Lynne & The Idle Race (Raven Records - Australia) '83

Good luck finding any of these...especially the Back To The Story cd. Supposedly, only 2000 were pressed when the plug was pulled on some careers at EMI in '96 just as the first, and last, batch of those comps hit the street. The new-hired honchos didn't seem too interested in a quirky, melodic, refreshingly different catalog of songs.

But the good news: the excellent sounding Back To The Story is soon to be re-issued along with the rest of the ELO catalog in Britain. Although the ELO remaster series has ground to a halt for now, hopefully the Idle Race release is still on its way in the near future.

Check out the "Face The Music" website for all things ELO. Rob Caiger, who has a big hand in the reissue series, publishes the newsletter and contributes to the site. He will even answer a question or two when he finds some time in his busy schedule...ala Steve Hoffman!

 

I never got into Looking On at first but it grew on me and I now prefer it to Shazam.I don't know why it has always had that "Idiot bastard son" thing about it when this album has been written about.It is a bloody good heavy rock album with twists and turns in a genre(heavy metal) not known for its quirks.I mean I love "When Alice Comes Back To The Farm"with its multitracked guitars and searing slide guitar lick and baritone sax and I love that cello break after each verse and then the slide guitar kicks back in and off they go again.Roy Wood's demented vocal,pure classic.I reckon Woody should be credited (or blamed) with inventing glam rock.When I first heard WACBTTF with that droning sax,I thought that's where Gary Glitter's sound came from and all that make-up and weird clothing RW pre-dated glam rock as well.

 

Wow...I've actually managed to log on from vacation. Obviously, this thread is THAT IMPORTANT to me...

This is in response to the original post. Essentially, there is a LOT of Move out there, and most of it sounds OK to good. As you've probably noticed, there're tons of budget comps out there, and even the actual albums (on Repertoire) aren't that expensive. That said, the songs you listed...well, look around, and you'll doubtless find at least one compilation with most of 'em (in fact, most of those are on the Repertoire reissue of the first album, where some of them even show up in crappy-but-hey-it's-first-time stereo on the bonus tracks).

Can you really go *wrong*? Not really. Like the infinitude of Zombies reissues, for example, most of the Move comps seem to use the same sources. I have a CD called "Roy Wood - The Definitive Collection" on BR music...it's this fantastically ghetto-looking thing from the mid-to-late eighties, and even IT sounds fine.

Re. stuff like the Movements set, and the Something Else reissue...most of it seems pretty unnecessary. The Omnibus set and the Singles As and Bs (which is out in roughly two millions versions) seem to be pretty complete.

But I might as well mention one semi-oddity, that will only matter to you if you love the song Beautiful Daughter as much as I do. The version on Shazam (with the man-on-the-street intro) sounds OK, but I've heard versions on comps (the Roy Wood one I mentioned above, but presumably any intro-less version is this version) that have wider separation and sound a LOT clearer than the one on Shazam (Repertoire's, at least).

So yes. USELESS INFORMATION for ya.

-D

 

Rob posted here at the beginning of the year but was unimpressed with the response on this board to the reissue of the first ELO album from the sound quality point of view.The folks on this board that heard it gave it the big thumbs down.It's a shame because the packaging is great and a lot of thought and care and research had obviously gone into it from a packaging/historical point of view but the sound was criticised(on this forum anyhows).It's a shame he never came back because he is doing a lot of exciting stuff with the Move/ELO catalogue,he seems to keep finding long lost multitrack tapes and keeps pushing back release dates because of the latest finds.The Move's "Message From The Country" and ELO's 2nd album come out in September.

 

Agreed, Singles As and Bs is a great compilation, but I've yet to see a Move comp with Jeff's "Open Up Said The World At The Door" on it. One of my favourites from Looking On along with "What". Two of Jeff's greatest songs with a twist of Roy in the arrangements!

 

Well, naturally, after all, we only expect the best from Peter Mew

But yeah, I thought about buying it, until I saw his name on it. I figured it wasn't worth paying the deluxe price for music drenched in No-Noise. It's too bad they (Abbey Road) always uses Mew for these things. Why couldn't they use someone else? For instance, the Phil Collins "Hits" CD was mastered by Chris Blair at Abbey Road, and that thing, to these ears, sounds good! No no-noise, and it had excellent dynamic range: deep, punchy bass, and not the treble wasn't spiked, or anything. Sounds really good, I think. Why couldn't they use him? I'm not gonna turn this into a Mew-bashing thread, because from all I've read here, I know most--if not all--of us here aren't too fond of his work. And E.L.O. doesn't deserve that sound treatment, either.

 

Well, naturally, after all, we only expect the best from Peter Mew

But yeah, I thought about buying it, until I saw his name on it. I figured it wasn't worth paying the deluxe price for music drenched in No-Noise. It's too bad they (Abbey Road) always uses Mew for these things. Why couldn't they use someone else? For instance, the Phil Collins "Hits" CD was mastered by Chris Blair at Abbey Road, and that thing, to these ears, sounds good! No no-noise, and it had excellent dynamic range: deep, punchy bass, and not the treble wasn't spiked, or anything. Sounds really good, I think. Why couldn't they use him? I'm not gonna turn this into a Mew-bashing thread, because from all I've read here, I know most--if not all--of us here aren't too fond of his work. And E.L.O. doesn't deserve that sound treatment, either.

 

Peter Mew is known as "The Mewtilator" around these parts('fess up who gave him that name on this board??).His work has been described here as "The Breath Of Death".He's about as popular as a fart in an elevator and just do a search with his name on this forum and wear flame retardant gear when reading the posts.

 

Dare I ask what Astley is called around here?

 

I can't recall him getting a name but he is held in the same esteem as Peter Mew Esq.(if not even lower).
Just go to the top right corner of this page hit the "search" button,type"jon astley" and enjoy.

 

Yeah, I'd definitely say lower. They both suck, but at least Mew's work doesn't leave behind "Star Wars" metally-flangy sounding effects ala Astley and his CEDAR depedency. Of course, I'd rather not listen to both, but given the choice, I'll take the sterile music over the metally-music.

 

Agreed!!
I'd take Goofy over The Wicked Witch any old day.
read this http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5361&highlight=jon+astley

 

I have a 1994 american one, called Great Move! The Best
of The Move. It's part of the "Legends of Rock and Roll Series"
that EMI put out, most of them had yellowish covers like
the Eddie Cochran and Ricky Nelson ones, but this only had
the Legends logo on the back cover. It has a beautiful
booklet with lots of info and pictures. I thought it had
pretty decent sound.
It's basically all the songs from the Message from the
country album, with Tonight, Chinatown, Down On The Bay,
California Man, and Do Ya added.
Credits:
compliation produced and researched by Ron Furmanek
cmplied by Steve Kolanjian
liner notes by Ira Robbins
Track annotations and discography by Steve Kolanjian
Digital transfers from the original british master tapes made by Ron Furmanek at Abbey Road Studios, London, January 1993.
Digital mastering, final assembly and editing by Kevin Reeves at Tower Mastering, Hollywood, California, April 1994.
Mastered from the original 2-track master mixdown tapes.

I later made my own Moves CD's from the orginal albums,
and I found the A&M original Shazam kicked ass over
the UK Fly Records twofer of the 1st album and Shazam.

Bob C.

 

Bob C,

I think Great Move! is quite well known here. I've seen it strongly criticised by other members but I really like it. Crystal clear sound.

(You either love or hate Ron Furmanek around here!)

Not the warmest sound around, but it's a great place to find the late singles and Message all in one place.

 

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005B8BX/ref=m_art_li_1/104-7311694-5983114

Anyone know how this sounds? Seems to have everything I'm lookin' for and the price is right! I've never heard of the record company, and I couldn't find any info on them on the web, so...

 

That looks like the best single CD I've seen, covers all eras.Two things though

1)I read that "The Girl Outside" is an alternate version available only on this disc.This disc was a special release in the U.K. only thru' a particular store or something like that.

2)The front cover photo is supposed to be from the band's first ever professional photo session.The photos had been forgotten and they tracked down the photographer who still had the negs.Nice touch !! Roy Wood looks really young in the shot.

 

The CDs I've seen on the Crimson label in Australia are cheap and nasty. Not sure if it's the same company in the UK though.

Go for one of the Repertoires instead. The sound is usually very good.