Performer Notes
- Love: Arthur Lee, Bryan Maclean (vocals, guitar); John Echols (guitar); Ken Forssi (bass); Michael Stuart (percussion).
- Includes liner notes by Ben Edmunds.
- FOREVER CHANGES is also included in its entirety on the 2 disc set LOVE STORY 1966-1972.
- Love: Arthur Lee, Bryan Maclean (vocals, guitar); John Echols (guitar); Ken Forssi (bass); Michael Stuart (percussion).
- One of the first pop albums to become a cult classic, Love's 1967 masterpiece, FOREVER CHANGES, is the pinnacle of the L.A. freak (the locals' preferred term over "hippie") scene. Singer/songwriter Arthur Lee's lyrics are increasingly fragmentary and paranoid, foreshadowing the band's eventual drug-fueled collapse. Yet these drop-dead hip tunes are set in arrangements featuring Herb Alpert-style mariachi horns, lush middle-of-the-road strings, and other tropes of the easy listening scene, creating a more unsettling sense of tension than if the songs were given the usual heavy rock instrumentation. Every single track is a stone classic, although second songwriter Bryan MacLean's contributions, the haunted "Old Man" and especially the simply gorgeous opener "Alone Again Or," deserve special consideration. FOREVER CHANGES belongs high on any halfway serious list of the greatest pop albums of the '60s.
Professional Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.108) - Ranked #40 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...Love were Lee's vehicle for a pioneering folk-rock - paranoid, punky, like the Byrds morphing into the Doors..."
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.108) - Ranked #40 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...Love were Lee's vehicle for a pioneering folk-rock - paranoid, punky, like the Byrds morphing into the Doors..."
Q (8/99) - Included in Q Magazine's "Best Psychedelic Albums of All Time" issue.
Q (8/99, p.138) - "...whenever lists are compiled for greatest album of all time, FOREVER CHANGES has its advocates....exquisite tunes...a rather elaborate Summer of Love chamber piece..."
Q (8/99) - Included in Q Magazine's "Best Psychedelic Albums of All Time."
Q (8/99, p.138) - "...whenever lists are compiled for greatest album of all time, FOREVER CHANGES has its advocates....exquisite tunes...a rather elaborate Summer of Love chamber piece..."
Uncut (p.99) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "A suite of songs as seductive as honey-traps, with such powerful psychological associations of sunshine that they almost warm the skin on your arms..."
Q (Magazine) (p.157) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "No self-respecting record collector should be without a copy..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.78) - "FOREVER CHANGES is Love's masterwork....David Angel's spellbinding orchestral arrangements are certainly key in establishing it as a transcendent album."
Mojo (Publisher) (1/02, p.69) - Included in Mojo's "Best Reissues of 2001".
Mojo (Publisher) (3/01, p.89) - "...'The' key '60s album....Totally suffused in acid: being full of bizarre juxtapositions, perceptual tricks, multiple viewpoint lyrics, lightning fast, almost schizoid changes of mood and topic, the personal fusing with the universal..."
Mojo (Publisher) (3/01, p.89) - "...'The' key '60s album....Totally suffused in acid: being full of bizarre juxtapositions, perceptual tricks, multiple viewpoint lyrics, lightning fast, almost schizoid changes of mood and topic, the personal fusing with the universal..."
NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #18 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.'
NME (Magazine) (2/17/01, p.45) - 10 out of 10 - "...An album of awesome intensity and tenderness....baroque and beautiful folk-rock the like of which had never been heard before - nore been bettered since..."
NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #18 in NME's list of the "Greatest Albums Of All Time."
NME (Magazine) (2/17/01, p.45) - 10 out of 10 - "...An album of awesome intensity and tenderness....baroque and beautiful folk-rock the like of which had never been heard before - nor been bettered since..."
Blender (Magazine) (p.81) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] font for artists from beck to Thom Yorke, lovers of knotty pop, and doubters of pop-culture euphoria."
Paste (magazine) (p.79) - "FOREVER CHANGES is a haunted record, from its fragile vocals to the deathly premonitions that loomed over frontman Arthur Lee throughout its recording process....The original album itself is incredible."
Record Collector (magazine) (p.91) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "It's an unparalleled combination of a dexterous melodic wit, ambitious arrangements that have bewitched generations and a lyrical vision veering between the unsettling and sensitive."
