Love is in the air on a 22-track compilation from Arthur Lee's Legendary Band! The oft-overused word groundbreaking could in fact have been coined to describe the brief and brilliant career arc of Love, the pioneering psychedelic folk-rock group that was the brainchild of singer-songwriter and formidable frontman Arthur Lee. They are one of the first fully integrated acts in popular music - the visionary Lee is an African-American from Memphis, TN, who migrated west before finding fame. It's also a fact that Love was the first rock band signed to Jac Holzman's now-legendary 1960s Elektra roster, where they were instrumental in helping The Doors get started. Love's genius 1967 LP Forever Changes is considered one of the best pop albums ever made, and undoubtedly vies for most inclusions on the all-time Top 10 lists of music critics everywhere. Love made four albums from 1966-69 (including that masterwork), and it's from this quintessential quartet of recordings - plus two non-LP singles from the era - that THE BEST OF LOVE draws its incandescent repertoire.

This 2003 CD is an entirely different release than the vinyl LP Best of Love that came out on Rhino in 1980. Although it does happen to include 15 of the 16 tracks from the 1980 release, the CD The Best of Love expands the program to 22 songs, adding a few tracks from Love, Forever Changes, and Four Sail (and dropping the 1966 B-side "Number Fourteen"). A Love best-of, it should be cautioned, is not the best way to appreciate a band whose first three albums are better heard in their totality, particularly Forever Changes. It's also true that for a bigger cash splash you can get the two-CD Love Story 1966-1972, which has all of these songs and more (including all of Forever Changes and some good tracks from the first two albums that miss the listing on The Best of Love, like "A Message to Pretty" and "The Castle"). Still, if you do want a one-disc Love best-of, this has a lot of good music and generally pinpoints the highlights of the group's early albums, though the Four Sail tracks and the non-LP 1968 single "Your Mind and We Belong Together"/"Laughing Stock" are in no way as good as the missing tracks from Forever Changes. The packaging and liner notes are good, too, though again it's not nearly as comprehensive as what you'll find on Love Story.

Some of the best-known bands in Los Angeles in the Sixties became brand names for a particular style of rock: jangling folk rock for the Byrds, portentous doom rock for the Doors. Love not only bridged the gap between those two groups, they also tried to summon up every color of psychedelia. The range of their sound meant that they never really progressed past cult-band status, but Love were a cult worth joining and still sound fresh and inventive today. Lead singer Arthur Lee, a black man from Memphis, led this interracial band into uncharted waters, singing about orange skies and snot caked on his pants. This generous twenty-two-track compilation ranges from hard-rock freakouts ("Seven and Seven Is") to wistful pop ("She Comes in Colors") to trippy mariachi ("Maybe the People Would Be the Times, or Between Clark and Hilldale"). It also includes the grooviest up-tempo version of "Hey Joe" you'll ever hear.



Tracklist:

01. My Little Red Book (02:33)
02. Can't Explain (02:40)
03. Softly To Me (02:56)
04. No Matter What You Do (02:45)
05. Hey Joe (02:43)
06. Signed D.C. (02:46)
07. Seven & Seven Is (02:19)
08. Stephanie Knows Who (02:32)
09. Orange Skies (02:51)
10. iQue Vida! (03:41)
11. She Comes In Colors (02:46)
12. Alone Again Or (03:16)
13. Andmoreagain (03:20)
14. Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale (03:33)
15. Live And Let Live (05:26)
16. You Set The Scene (06:52)
17. Your Mind And We Belong Together (04:28)
18. Laughing Stock (02:33)
19. Singing Cowboy (04:49)
20. Your Friend And Mine-Neil's Song (03:48)
21. Robert Montgomery (03:39)
22. Always See Your Face (03:23)