Forever Changes

One of the psychedelic era’s most pleasing albums, 1968’s Forever Changes represents the apex of the mercurial Los Angeles group’s short but influential career. Leader Arthur Lee channels an otherworldly authority for the complex songcraft put forth, from the elliptical, delightfully weird lyrics to the unusual string and horn arrangements that compliment the group’s flexible folk-rock backbone. Guitarist Bryan MacLean contributes two of the album’s standouts (the often covered “Alone Again Or” and “Old Man”), while Lee lets loose a flood of wild imagery from the percolating drama of “A House is Not A Motel” to the gentle, loping-in-the-grass sway of “Andmoreagain” to the cathartic orchestral build of “You Set The Scene.” Rife with infighting and an inability to make an impact beyond the West Coast, Love soon dispersed and Lee went on to record several more albums as “Love” that were more solo projects never quite up to the same level. But then few albums are as mystically rewarding as one with “Bummer in the Summer,” “The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This” and “The Red Telephone” among their riddles.