Roy Wood

Collects five of his original albums, in card LP replica sleeves! Features The Move's "Message From The Country" (1971), ELO's "Electric Light Orchestra" (1971) and Wizzard's "Wizzard Brew" (1973), plus his solo releases "Boulders" (1973) and "On The Road Again" (1979). Roy Wood is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands. The BBC has described Wood as being "responsible for some of the most memorable sounds of the Seventies" and "credited as playing a major role in the Glam Rock, Psychedelic and Prog Rock movements". In 2008, Wood was awarded an honorary doctorate for his contribution to rock and pop by the University of Derby. In 2015, his long and eclectic career was recognised with the "Outer Limits" award at the Progressive Music Awards in London. Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 as a member of Electric Light Orchestra.

Starting Up is the fourth solo album by Roy Wood, who played most of the instruments and sang most of the vocals throughout, in addition to writing and producing the album. The track "On Top of the World", featured strings arranged and conducted by Louis Clark. Roy Wood is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands. The BBC has described Wood as being "responsible for some of the most memorable sounds of the Seventies" and "credited as playing a major role in the Glam Rock, Psychedelic and Prog Rock movements".

The finest compilation of Roy Wood's work to date, drawing on his closing years with The Move, his sole album with Electric Light Orchestra, the biggest hits of Wizzard, and Wood's official solo albums and singles.

The gargantuan, galumphing Super Active Wizzo band out of his system, Roy Wood returned to the light, sunny oldies of Eddy & the Falcons with 1979's On the Road Again. As the title makes clear, On the Road Again is Roy Wood's version of a road album, the kind of record that was created on the road to be played on the road – that would be true if Wood were a conventional musician, but he's not, as this was not supported by a large tour and didn't even see a release in his native U.K. Therefore, this record is merely the yin to Super Active Wizzo's yang, a record that is about pop songs instead of instrumental interplay.

An intricate, deliberately idiosyncratic record, assembled piece by piece, Boulders perfectly captures Roy Wood's peculiar genius, more so than anything else he recorded. All of his obsessions are here – classical music, psychedelia, pre-Beatles pop, pastoral folk ballads, absurdist humor, studio trickery, and good old-fashioned rock & roll – assembled in a gracefully eccentric fashion. Some listeners may find that eccentricity a little alienating, but it's the core of Wood's music. He wrote tuneful, accessible songs, but indulged his passions and weird ideas, so even the loveliest melodies and catchiest hooks are dressed in colorful, odd arrangements.

This 21-song set is representative of Roy Wood's always inventive work with the Move, Wizzard, and as a solo artist. It contains no fewer than three U.K. number one hits, in addition to the seasonal "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," and which usually makes a chart appearance during the holidays. And the sound quality is uniformly fine, which certainly hasn't been the case with some reissues like The Best of & the Rest of Roy Wood & Wizzard, which is something of a companion piece to this disc. The songs range from the strongly Beatles-influenced early Move singles ("Blackberry Way") to their heavier, later material ("California Man" and "Brontosaurus," both of which have been covered by Cheap Trick) to the Phil Spector homages of Wood's rock & roll big band Wizzard ("See My Baby Jive," "Ball Park Incident," and "Angel Fingers") to sumptuous solo pop confections ("This Is the Story of My Love"). A gifted writer, arranger, and producer, Wood is an underappreciated original whose music should appeal to any fan of classic rock and pop.