Album: Forever Changes (1967)
Artist: Love
Favourite Song: Gosh I hate picking these. Possibly "Alone Again Or". But also "You Set The Scene", if just for the brilliant second-half.
Tracks: 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 Or Between Clark And Hilldale / Live And Let Live / The Good Humour Man He Sees Everything Like This / Bummer In The Summer / You Set The Scene
Synopsis: Some claim this to be one of the greatest albums ever. I don't think this is necessarily the case, but an almost impeccable set of melodies and lovely instrumentation make it one of my favourites.

"I heard a funny thing someone said to me / He said 'You know, I could be in love with almost everyone'"

I've grown sick of writing lengthy album reviews. For starters, the time it takes to do those things is far too great, especially considering the overall low quality of the end-result! Truth be told, this is probably a bit of "blog-filler", intended to keep those neurons firing amidst the general quiet that has taken over this once sprawling virtual city, which used to be a marketplace of ideas, and the bustling centre for exchange of thought (no, I only jest gentle reader!). I've also gotten tired of ratings, because once I get started on trying to figure out a number, I can't stop (seen how many times I changed the rating on The Doors? And those were only the ones I bothered to publish!).

But hey, why start off the review of this delightful album on such a gloomy note? You'll find Forever Changes on a fair few lists of "Greatest albums ever", especially when those lists are compiled by the general public. After seeing it rank high up on a couple of these lists*, I rather ambitiously picked it up, expecting some marvellous lost artifact of the '60s, with pop songs par excellence and what have you. I wasn't quite prepared for what I did get - the gentle acoustic guitar to start off "Alone Again Or" seemed a good start, and was followed by a pleasant enough brass section. But then I noticed the trumpets and horns seemed to be appearing in every song - and the more I listened, for some reason, the more irate I became. I had the feeling that all the songs sounded the same, and that the horns were some sort of cheap gimmick.

It took a while to rectify such harsh judgement. When I listened to the album much later in the year, things seemed to click. I started to find the arrangments interesting, and the songs were far from similar - it went from the gently beautiful ("Andmoreagain") to the gloomily defiant ("A House Is Not A Motel"). A couple more listens and it all seemed to make sense. What I now think is this: it's a collection of some immaculate pop-songs, with some interesting orchestration. Some work, some don't, but overall, it's a thoroughly pleasant experience.

The melodies? Very strong throughout, although there are crests and troughs. The opening track, "Alone Again Or", is one of the melodic heights, but how can one discredit the haunting "Andmoreagain"? I can't get enough of the little section with the "heartbeat" - it's just so charming! "A House Is Not A Motel" is one of the more energetic numbers, with some vaguely Hendrix-esque electric-guitar soloing at the end - somewhat pointless, but they're listenable enough. Often overlooked is "Maybe The People Would Be The Times", with a trumpet and vocal hook I simply can't get enough of. The lyrical trick is simple enough - leaving out the last word in the first couple of stanzas - but it's neat how the trumpets are used at this exact spot, as though they are speaking for Lee.

The interesting thing about the album is that Arthur Lee supposedly thought his time was up when he made it. He cryptically said that he felt there was something about being 22 years old that just made him feel like that was it, that his life would be over soon. The album then was just his way of having the last word on everything, pronouncing his judgement on life and love. Lyrically, then, there are some underrated gems to be found, but admittedly not all of it works. Songs like "The Red Telephone" are definitely morbid - the narrator opens the song by telling us he's "Sitting on a hillside / Watching all the people die". It gets weirder still in "Live And Let Live", where Lee sings "There's a bluebird on the branch / I guess I'll get my pistol / Because he's on my land". Wow! Not the sort of album to play just before you go to sleep, huh?!

But though there is a cloud of gloom that hovers over a lot of the songs, there is a final burst of hope. The closing number, "You Set The Scene", opens up plain enough, with a fairly simple melody and rather obscure lyrics that detail "If you want, she brings you water / If you don't, then you will burn". But then the instrumentation changes, and a trumpet sounds Lee's final speech: which I find to be my favourite moment of the album. It's a little hard to explain why - I suppose it's because of the overall positive feeling, optimism in the face of seeming despair. He announces "This is the only thing that I am sure of / And that's all that lives is gonna die", at which point your cliche-senses perhaps start tingling. But the saving grace for me is the simple declaration "This is the time and life that I am living / And I'll face each day with a smile". His sincerity is questionable, true; but I take it to be him deciding to smile bravely on, even if knows there's a chance that this is all meaningless; indeed, "And for everyone who thinks that life's a game / Do you like the part you're playing?".

As with most albums that sneak there way onto "Greatest albums ever" lists, listeners seem to be generally divided into two camps: those who praise it to the sky, and those who dismiss at as nonsense compared to any number of other great albums. Very briefly, I don't think this is any serious competition to some of the other big names (Sgt. Pepper, Blonde On Blonde): but hey, it's a brilliantly orchestrated pop album, isn't that good enough!? Sure, there are better pop-albums, and its originality is questionable. But taken purely as a listening experience, I think this is rewarding, even if it might take a while to get used to.

* Although such lists are pointless in that the exact order of albums is for all intents and purposes totally whimsical, they do serve a useful purpose - namely, that they can help introduce albums that might otherwise slip you by. This is a bit of a double-edged sword, because you can easily go into the album expecting a masterpiece. If what you get is merely very good, then you might be left with a bitter taste, which is projected onto your dislike of the album in question. But I digress..