Love – Forever Changes: Collector’s Edition – Rhino Records

by | May 15, 2008 | Pop/Rock/World CD Reviews | 0 comments

Love – Forever Changes: Collector’s Edition – Rhino Records R2 428796, Disc 1: 42:57;
Disc 2: 78:45 ****: 

(Arthur Lee, guitar and vocals; John Echols, guitar;
Bryan Maclean, guitar and vocals; Ken Forrsi, bass;

Michael Stuart, drums)
 

According to the liner notes in Rhino’s new
collector’s edition of Love’s Forever Changes, Rolling
Stone felt, at the time of the album’s original
release, that its “weakest point is the material.”
Some of the songs “meander,” they wrote, and “lack
melodic substance.” For a first time listener faced
with Forever Changes’ Classic Album status, similar
thoughts can run through the mind. But the album
received its place in the rock canon from someone
somewhere giving it a few more listens and having
their mind subsequently blown. What may sound like
meandering at first is the snake-like quality of the
melodies. Where most rock bands of their era used
three or four chords, Love used six or seven. When you
begin to follow where the melodies lead, the result is
a wonderful discovery that feels more psychedelic
than anything The Byrds or Jefferson Airplane ever

produced. 

What Rhino’s Collector’s Edition provides that previous
reissues have not is a previously unreleased alternate
mix of every song on the album except You Set the
Scene. Compiled from session tapes, the previously
unreleased mix is a bit rougher, highlighting the
band’s sound as opposed to David Angels’ arrangements
for trumpet and strings. Warmer and closer to the
sound of the original vinyl, the new mix is a reminder
that, despite all the complicated chord changes and
baroque arrangements, Love was first and foremost a
rock band.
Besides the alternate mix, the collector’s edition
also includes a few demos, backing tracks, and hard to
find singles from the period. Your Mind and We Belong
Together, a single released alongside the album, is
included and it’s hard to hear why it would be
considered single material. While it shares the same
kind of cinematic arrangement as other songs on the
album, it lacks the one or two hooks needed to really
perk an ear. If listeners heard Wonder People as their
introduction to the album, it’s hard not see why the
album didn’t sell very well (though the brilliant
Bryan Maclean-penned Alone Again Or was also released
as a single, so maybe that theory isn’t valid.) The
backing tracks are a bit boring and really only serve

to highlight how important Arthur Lee’s singing was
to the success of the songs.

Without the inclusion of newly unearthed alternate
mixes, it would be hard to recommend a new reissue of
Forever Changes. After all, Rhino reissued the album
the first time only seven years ago. But by focusing
on the meat and potatoes of a rock band, the guitar,
drums, and bass, the alternate mix makes all the
pretty arrangements a beautiful backing for a rock

band, not the other way around.

TrackList:
(Disc 1) Alone Again Or, A House Is Not a
Motel, Andmoreagain, The Daily Planet, Old Man, The
Red Telephone, Maybe The People Would Be The Times
Between Clark and Hillsdale, Live and Let Live, The
Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This, Bummer in

the Summer, You Set the Scene. 

(Disc 2) Same tracks as Disc 1, plus Wonder People (I Do Wonder),
Hummingbirds, A House Is Not a Motel (backing track),
Andmoreagain (alternate electric backing track), The
Red Telephone (Tracking Sessions Highlights), Wooly
Bully, Alone Again Or (Mono Single remix), Your Mind
and We Belong Together (tracking sessions highlights),

Your Mind and We Belong Together, The Laughing Stock. 

– Daniel Krow
 
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