review by daniel

This is not the effort that Love is remembered for. There is nothing surprising about that, considering the almost unreal quality of their next album, but there are still enough good tracks on this one to make it an obvious purchase for those who love “Forever Changes”. At least if you can keep your expectations within reasonable bounds. Personally, I expected little more than average 60s pop from this album, but I was surprised by how heavy and progressive it is in places (for a pop/rock album released in 1966 that is). The sax player even explores some really dissonant territories (after all that is what saxophones are meant to do!). Add the rich and interesting instrumentation (flute, organ, sax, harpsichord and harmonica in addition to the usual suspects) and the well-crafted songs to the pros-column and you got a minor classic, right? Not quite I am afraid. Rock critics generally like the six shorter songs on the first half of the album, but hate “Revelation”, the side-long album closer. Before you prog nerds get any ideas let me assure you that the critics are absolutely right for this once. The second side is crap. It is basically an extended blues-rock jam where the band does something that has been done a thousand times before, and does it painfully bad. The nicest thing you can say about it is that it is not often you hear harmonica and harpsichord in the same song (to be fair it includes some nice sax work as well). What a shame on an otherwise very good album.