The Move’s Final Album ‘Message From The Country’ Returns Remastered in 2025 with Bonus Tracks and Booklet
June 1971 saw the final album issued by UK rock band the Move. ‘Message From The Country’ was the band’s first on their new label, EMI, and second to feature Jeff Lynne as a member.
The LP was also the first recorded as a trio of Roy Wood, Lynne and Bev Bevan, with bassist Rick Price leaving early in the sessions, with Wood erasing Price’s work and recording new bass parts. Esoteric Recordings has issued the long player, supplemented with nine bonus tracks, five single sides, and four alternative versions in a newly remastered reissue, the first in two decades.
‘Message From The Country’ is a true group effort, with Wood and Lynne receiving four songwriting credits each, one shared by the duo, and one going to drummer Bevan. The album opens with the Lynne-penned title track, a rocker dominated by Wood’s thunderous bass line and vocal harmonies by Lynne and Wood. Lynne contributes a tasty guitar solo, and Bevan offers driving drum fills, which give way to an a capella outro. Wood’s ‘Ella James’ is a heavy rocker with commercial appeal, a throwback to early recordings by the band. Wood’s heavy bass joins a fine lead guitar line, Lynne adding a piano interlude to the tune, which features numerous tempo changes and is reminiscent of the pre-Lynne ‘Shazam’ period. ‘No Time’ is a Beatleseque acoustic ballad with gentle slide guitar, gorgeous vocal harmonies, memorable recorder by Wood, and drum fills from Bevan. ‘Don’t Mess Me Up’ is an Elvis pastiche, written by Bevan, who employs rich baritone vocals. ‘Until Your Moma’s Gone’ showcases Wood’s vocal versatility and throbbing bass, along with Lynne’s multi-tracked guitar and piano accents. ‘It Wasn’t My Idea To Dance’ has an exotic Eastern sound, thanks to Wood’s rhapsodic, dissonant oboe, his bass again dominant on a tune which has often been compared to the recordings of Frank Zappa. ‘The Minister’ is another Beatleseque Lynne composition with vocal harmonies, Wood’s oboe and thundering bass prominent, and Lynne’s guitar bringing ‘Paperback Writer’ to mind, the band displaying its heavier side. Wood’s ‘Ben Crawley Steel Company’ is a light-hearted Johnny Cash send-up, with Bevan handling vocals and Wood adding slide guitar. ‘The Words of Aaron’ finds Lynne’s guitar, piano and vocals joined by Wood’s thundering bass, the tune employing false stops and hints of feedback, while having an overall ELO feel, thanks to its guitar and electric piano outro courtesy of Lynne. The album proper closes with the Wood/Lynne-penned ‘My Marge,’ a light-hearted bit of cabaret with Lynne’s piano and Wood’s oboe and clarinet adding to the track’s exotic instrumentation.
The reissue’s bonus tracks begin with ‘Tonight,’ a Wood composition issued in May 1971 as a pre-LP single. The track nicely combines steel and wah-wah guitar by Wood with Lynne’s piano and gorgeous vocal harmonies by the duo. With its early Move feel, it reached #11 on the UK charts. The song was backed by ‘Don’t Mess Me Up,’ a track from ‘Message From The Country.’ Wood’s ‘Chinatown’ has a gorgeous melody and commercial hook, showcasing the composer’s steel guitar, with Bevan adding cowbell to the tune’s percussion. Lynne’s revved-up rocker ‘Down On The Bay’ has shades of ELO to go with its heavy riff, Wood adding slide guitar. The single peaked at #23 on the UK charts when issued in October 1971. The Move’s final single was Wood’s ‘California Man,’ a paean to he and Lynne’s rock and roll heroes Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. Lynne adds a piano interlude to the guitar-driven tune, with horn accents adding to its commercial appeal. The B-side was Lynne’s ‘Do Ya,’ with its gorgeous melody and vocal harmonies, tasty tempo changes, slide guitar from Wood, and Bevan adding cowbell to his drum fills. The single was reversed in the US, with ‘Do Ya’ becoming the A-side, where it would become the band’s only song to hit the Hot 100, and later a big hit for ELO when issued on 45 in 1977. The reissue closes with alternative versions of four tunes: ‘Don’t Mess Me Up,’ ‘The Words Of Aaron,’ ‘Do Ya,’ and ‘My Marge.’
The Esoteric Recordings reissue of ‘Message From The Country’ comes in a digipak, accompanied by a twenty-page full-color booklet with full track annotations, band, LP and single release photos, and sleeve notes by Mike Barnes. The music sounds incredible, thanks to the remastering job of Ben Wiseman. This reissue will appeal to fans of the Move, 1960s and 1970s rock, classic rock, and rock music in general.
Kevin Rathert
Move ‘Message From The Country’ (Esoteric Recordings, 2025)
