Love: Forever Changes

Love was one of the great underground bands of '60s Los Angeles. An integral part of the music scene, lead singer Arthur Lee was instrumental in having Elektra sign the Doors and was one of the first people to give a young Jimi Hendrix a job.

As the black frontman for one of the only integrated psychedelic bands, Lee broke down many barriers. But he was a fragile genius. Not only did he refuse to tour outside of the group's hometown, but while writing and preparing Love's third album, 1967's Forever Changes, he was convinced he was about to die.

The songs themselves serve as a soundtrack to Los Angeles, where a beautifully produced sheen lies over lyrics of death, despair, and violence. Lee's fears lend a darkness to his writing, and the bursts of electric guitar, dissonant melodies, and bizarre lyrics under the highly orchestrated surface are representative of both the dark undercurrent of the late '60s counterculture and of a paranoid individual's madness.

Each song on the album has its own unique quality, but Lee's vision truly comes out in the paranoia of "The Red Telephone," the lyrical fill-in-the-blanks of "The People Would be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale," and the brilliant closing track, "You Set the Scene," where politically charged lyrics undercut beautiful strings and horns. In addition, there are two solid contributions from guitarist Bryan Maclean, including one of the great album openers of all-time, "Alone Again Or."

The bonus tracks add a single, an outtake, and alternate takes to an album that was already as beautiful and transcendent as such other classics of the time as Sgt. Pepper's and Odessey and Oracle. Hopefully, with the release of this expanded, remastered edition, Love's masterpiece will at last find the listenership it deserves. (Rhino)

—Cameron Leader-Picone

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