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Love

Love - Love Audio CD

A fair review of the Love "Love" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Love reviews here, or go back to the Love tabs.

Band: Love
Title: Love
Rating:

Release Date: 1999-07-15
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: My Little Red Book 2: Can't Explain 3: Message to Pretty 4: My Flash on You 5: Softly to Me 6: No Matter What You Do 7: Emotions 8: You I'll Be Following 9: Gazing 10: Hey Joe 11: Signed D.C. 12: Coloured Balls Falling 13: Mushroom Clouds 14: And More

An Absolute Must
Love was possibly the best, but least talked about of the popular LA bands (Doors, Mamas & Papas, Turtles, Buffalo Springfield)at the time. What can I say?

I grew up in LA and was a teenager in the mid-60's. They had 3 masterpieces (Love, Da Capo & Forever Changes) that influenced everyone who listened to psychidelic rock including Hendrix! Arthur Lee was a genius. This was their first album.

If you've never heard this group before, take the plunge. You won't regret it. If you have heard them but don't remember the songs, listen again. You'll buy the other 2 CD's. And, it'll take you back over 4 decades.

Is there a better pop record?

And if they were the West Coast's VU, Arthur Lee's tunes were more accessible than the Velvets, even though they shared common melancholic themes ("signed DC," "Message to Pretty," "Mushroom Clouds"). A preferred pop classic and every good as early 60's Stones cuts--Lee sounding a lot like Mick Jagger. If Arthur Lee was thinking about death on the late (and weaker)"Forever Changes," he certainly wasn't promoting dropping out and tripping in San Francisco here. .

One of the greatest debuts and garage rock albums
The guitars chime and drive strangely and Arthur Lee writes. Up there with the early Who, there are not many garage rock albums better than this. . . well. . Arthur Lee lyrics, and every song is great. Especially their version of "Hey Joe" which is as good as Hendrix's, but in a completely different way. Check it out as it's a shame this band isn't more well known.

"Orange, sugar, chocolate, hot cinnamon and lovely things and you..."
For one thing, its cover is a wonderful addition to the "mid 60s sneering rock star" sweeps (the mid 60s were a great time for sneers). If nothing else, Love's debut is probably the group's coolest album. Of course, Dylan and the Stones still have a lock on first and second place, but these guys are still up there. On top of that, the album's aesthetic is just wicked awesome: It's a combination of disaffected garage punk, dreamy proto-psych, Byrds influenced folk rock, and smart, soulful pop. Arthur Lee's vocals are perched somewhere between wildcat and wise man, while John Echols' and Bryan MacLean's guitar runs jangle and scream. Combine that with the suitably loose `n' ready rhythm section of Ken Forssi and Alban Pfisterer (oh, of only I could pick my last name!), and you've got yourself a hipper-than-hip li'l rock outfit.

The songs are cool, too. "My Little Red Book" makes the grade by virtue of being a garage punk cover of a Burt Bacharach tune, but authorship and style aside, it's still a great tune. It's got this great throbbing bass/drum/rhythm guitar thing going, and Lee's throaty bellow is just about perfect. Elsewhere, we've got a haunting drug addiction ballad with a melody that's vaguely reminiscent of "House Of The Rising Sun" ("Signed D. C. "), as well as the poignant rumination of "A Message to Pretty. " There's a suitably rollicking version of "Hey Joe," and a similarly rollicking, suspiciously familiar tune by the name of "My Flash On You. " Best of all is Bryan's eerily beautiful "Softly To Me. "

This probably won't be your favorite Love album- people tend to prefer Forever Changes- but it's still a great debut, and a wonderful rock album in its own right.

Love At First Sound
Arthur Lee and company were always an inspired bunch, and it was clear from the get-go that they would be more than just another band from L. Love's 1966 debut album was an excellent sign of things to come. A. Most of their first album consisted of uptempo rock 'n roll numbers inspired by blues of The Rolling Stones and the vibrant, chiming guitars of The Byrds. However, Love had some tricks up their own sleeves. While these would be more fully realized on their second and third albums, they were sufficient at the start to make their debut an interesting - if not classic - album of the late sixties.

The Love album does show some signs of youthful unoriginality. "Can't Explain" is obviously a re-working of The Stones' "What A Shame", with seemingly only the faster tempo to distinguish it from the original. (Of course, the Stones would return the favor by borrowing a lyric from Arthur Lee's "She Comes In Colors" for the song "She's A Rainbow". ) The cover of "Hey Joe" feels like filler, even though it offers a nice vocal by guitarist Bryan MacLean and superb bass work by Ken Forssi, who shines throughout the record. Finally, the opening track and their first single was a cover of a Burt Bacharach/Hal David tune. Fortunately, and very much to their credit, they transformed "My Little Red Book" into a sturdy, staccato rocker, and arguably an early punk song.

Love's uniqueness shines through most clearly on the album's several emotive ballads: "A Message To Pretty", "Mushroom Clouds", which gives a hint of Lee's political mindset, and especially "Signed D. C. ", presumably a tribute to Love's first drummer Don Conka, whose drug addiction prevented him from ever appearing on record. (He is also mentioned by last name on "You I'll Be Following". ) "My Flash On You" also has an anti-drug message, which is more tragic than ironic considering the struggle with substances that Lee himself would face throughout his life. Bryan MacLean's contribution is the elegant "Softly To Me", which reveals a personal songwriting style that would culminate in what is perhaps Love's greatest song: "Alone Again Or", from Forever Changes. Lead guitarist Johnny Echols, for his part, offers "Emotions", a spooky mid-album instrumental.

One might be skeptical of the praise heaped upon Love's first two albums, given that their third is considered by many to be one of the greatest ever recorded. One could easily think that critics don't want Forever Changes to seem like a fluke, and thus they speak more highly of Love and Da Capo more than they should. It is true that Forever Changes is their best album, but it certainly shouldn't over shadow it's predecessors (nor its successor, Four Sail, for that matter). Love was justly one of the most popular bands on the Sunset Strip in the late 60s, garnering respect of peers who would become much more popular. Their eponymous debut was enough to earn them such acclaim at the time, even if it was hardly predictive of the masterpiece that was in the not-too-distant future.

You can see a complete list of all Love discography, or go back to the Love tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.