George Thorogood & the Destroyers - Move It on Over (1978/2003) [HDtracks]

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.