George Thorogood & the Destroyers don't change their tune on
Move It On Over, their second album from 1978, but they do polish their attack just a bit. Where their 1977 album was a nasty, brutish affair, this is sharpened slightly, possibly due to
Ken Irwin's muscular production.
Irwin gives
the Destroyers some color and lets some air in between the instruments, and the difference is immediately apparent. Other than that clarity and a lack of originals, not much has changed on
Move It On Over:
Thorogood still leads
the Destroyers through barreling blues boogie, emphasizing feel and sound over groove. Hound Dog Taylor's Houserockers remain the crucial touch point around which
the Destroyers incorporate
Elmore James' careening slide and
Bo Diddley's hypnotic big beat. Everything else, including covers of
Hank Williams and
Chuck Berry, are shoved into this blueprint, a sound that
the Destroyers do so well, they never veered away from it (perhaps they learned their lesson from the album's lone stumble, the slow and feeble version of
James Moore's "I'm Just Your Good Thing"). Gold records and radio hits came later, but this is the album where everything fell into place for
George Thorogood; it's the record that defined what came afterward, and it remains one of his best. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine