Forever Changes - Reception - Critical Recognition

Critical Recognition

Despite its initial dismal commercial showing, "Forever Changes" has since gained recognition as one of the all-time great rock albums. Two reviews published shortly after its release foreshadowed the enormous critical acclaim "Forever Changes" would engender from critics worldwide in the ensuing decades.

Pete Johnson, writing in the Los Angeles Times in 1968, said, "The LP ... can survive endless listening with no diminishing either of power or of freshness. Parts of the album are beautiful; others are disturbingly ugly, reflections of the pop movement towards realism." Gene Youngblood, in the May 10, 1968 of LA Free Express, wrote, "Soft, subtle. Forever changing in tonal color, rhythm patterns, vocal nuances, lyric substance. Exquisite nuances. 'Forever Changes' is melancholy iconoclasm and tasteful romanticism."

In 1978, “Forever Changes” was ranked as the 16th greatest rock album of all time in “Rock Critics’ Choice: The Top 200 Albums,” a book compiled by Paul Gambaccini. It was chosen as the top album by two of the voters, Bob Harris and Penny Valentine. “One of those very rare albums which does not have one bad track,” Harris said. “A classic recording …”

The 1979 edition of The Rolling Stone Record Guide gave "Forever Changes" a rating of five stars (out of five). "... the music has an exotic frothiness and the string settings are among the most gorgeous in rock history," wrote music critic Dave Marsh, who co-edited the book. "Even the lyrics, while occasionally demented, were usually too inchoate to be anything but curiously passionate love songs. Indescribably essential." The album also received five stars in the 1983 edition of the guide and in the fourth edition that was published in 2004.

Forever Changes was ranked No.34 in the Critic's Choice, The Top 100 Rock 'n' Roll Albums of All Time by Paul Gambaccini. The book, published in 1987, asked music critics and others associated with the music industry to list their all-time top 10 albums, from which the top 100 were then compiled into one list. Forever Changes was listed as the No.1 all-time album by two of the participants, Dave DiMartino and Bob Harris, who had cited it as his top album in Gambaccini's earlier book. Ken Barnes, then editor and vice president of Radio and Records, chose Forever Changes as his No.3 all-time album.

Writing in the New York Times in 1994, Neil Strauss referred to "Forever Changes" as "a cocktail of lush strings and innocent pop ballads, (it) remains one of the best pop albums of the 60's and has influenced many current bands."

In a special issue of Mojo magazine, "Forever Changes" was ranked the second greatest psychedelic album of all time, while in 1995 it made No.11 in Mojo's list of the 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made.

It ranked No.40 in the Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums book by Colin Larkin, published in 1998. The album was praised with the following: "For anybody not familiar with this record, it is unconditionally recommended as one greatest ever made."

"Music Hound, The Essential Album Guide," a book published in 1999 and edited by Gary Graff and Daniel Durchholz, gave "Forever Changes" a 4.5 (out of 5) rating. "The landmark 'Forever Changes' remains an absolute classic," wrote contributor Gary Pig Gold. "An instrinsically seamless, nearly flawless work."

Vit Wagner, writing for the Toronto Star in 2001 on the re-mastered edition of Forever Changes, said, "(It) might not rank with the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds' and the Beatles' 'Revolver' and 'Sgt. Pepper's' in terms of mainstream familiarity, but Love's 'Forever Changes' deserves a place alongside those mid-'60s masterpieces as a seminal work of its time. Led by the eccentric, reclusive and brilliant Arthur Lee, the Los Angeles quintet was not as optimistically Aquarian as its name suggests. 'Forever Changes,' originally released in 1967 and re-issued on a beautifully engineered disc that includes seven illuminating bonus tracks, freely mixes light and dark, with the melodic lyricism of 'Andmoreagain' and 'The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This,' matched by the apocalyptic sentiments of 'A House Is Not A Motel' and 'The Red Telephone.' Augmenting the Byrds-like combination of acoustic guitar, bass and drums are soaring brass and string arrangements that can give the music a deceptively upbeat veneer. Untarnished by time, this is essential listening."

In a 2001 retrospective review of "Forever Changes," Andrew Cowen of The Birmingham Post (UK) wrote, "This 1967 masterpiece ... is the nearest the Americans came to having their own 'Sgt Pepper' and, in true American style, it was largely overlooked by the mainstream audience which, at the time, was hanging on every note played by The Beatles. The album is a bittersweet song cycle of alienation, paranoia and lysergic hokum, but nothing else from the so-called summer of love sounded quite so ambitious. Jack Holzman's beautiful production and Lee's songs hark back to Brill Building craftsmanship. No other album catches the beauty and strangeness of those mythical hippy days and the lurking hangover round the corner."

Bruce Westbrook of Houston Chronicle, in reviewing the re-mastered Forever Changes in 2001, called it a "seamless masterpiece, from the fervent acoustic opener 'Alone Again Or' to the epic seven-minute finale 'You Set the Scene.' Richly flavored in melodies, sounds, styles and emotions, 'Forever Changes' is lasting testament to the creative fury of the '60s, when rock wasn't about marketing, image or career paths, and only the music really mattered. .. it's one of the great unsung albums in rock history. Grade: A+."

Steve Jones, writing in USA Today, gave the re-mastered edition of "Forever Changes" four stars out of four in a 2001 review. "Love's 'Forever Changes,' from 1967, is a lost classic of a period when The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Byrds and other top acts routinely stretched pop/rock's boundaries. 'Forever Changes' overflows with innovations that match any of the efforts of better-known contemporaries. .. the entire album, anchored by Latin-styled acoustic guitar trums and the velvety vocals of Lee and guitarist Bryan Maclean, is remarkably consistent at a lofty level. It's a contender not only for most-neglected album but for rock's best all-time album list."

"Forever Changes" was praised by a group of Members of the British Parliament in 2002 as being one of the greatest albums of all time.

In a 2002 story for the Chicago Daily Record, Mark Guarino, the newspaper's music critic, wrote that "'Forever Changes' is a touchstone for serious pop fanatics ..." He added that, "... the band's first three albums were since rediscovered as visionary classics, all three culminating in 'Forever Changes,' the band's 1967 masterpiece of ornate pop. It combined intricate horn and string arrangements, a variety of styles (punk, flamenco, Broadway, psychedelic rock) with Lee's metaphysical and often ironic lyrics."

In another story from 2002, the Star Tribune stated that " ... Love is one of the overlooked bands of the 1960s. Their 1967 album 'Forever Changes' is a classic of psychedelia-meets-ambitious pop, one of the most underrated albums of its time."

Writing in the New Statesman in 2003, Ted Kessler called it, "... one of the Sixties' most magical, enigmatic albums. The sound of 'Forever Changes' is both claustrophobic and warm; the mood malevolent and joyous. It weaves bittersweet pop melodies and heavy folk-rock into gentle Latin and R&B flavours, painting a picture of LA low-life enjoying high times, just as the whole scene was exploding. Although (the original lineup of) Love never played 'Forever Changes' live, this didn't stop it influencing future generations of musicians."

In a 2003 story in the Sydney Morning Herald, Bernard Zuel made the following comments while discussing the remastered edition of Forever Changes." "(It) regularly sits alongside contemporaries such as 'Pet Sounds,' 'Revolver' and 'Blonde on Blonde' on critics' lists of the greatest albums of all time. Why should you care? 'Forever Changes' is like a horizontal slice of Los Angeles in 1967, when LA rivalled London as the centre of pop music.On this album, you can hear Tim Buckley's folk-meets-jazz, the Doors' brooding rock with its arty leanings, Buffalo Springfield's folk/pop, early signs of LA's less mannered psychedelia and even a smidgin of the sheer pop prettiness of the likes of the Turtles and the Monkees. It's all here, still bursting with surprises and songwriting smarts. While this album's diversity was seen then as perversity, now it seems like a rich smorgasbord. Once you get past the wrappings, there's another story here, a gimlet-eyed view of the underside of LA's dreamworld of sun, freedom and new starts. 'Forever Changes' is a great album for a lot of reasons. Here's another: it sounds as potent now as it did in 1967."

Chris Hollow, writing for the Sunday Age in 2003, said, "The music on 'Forever Changes' is powerful, exotic, surreal, occasionally demented and suffused with the unmistakable and heady scent of 1967 California. Yet it is surprisingly timeless, in part because of the way our times have come weirdly to echo those in which it was conceived. ... one of the greatest rock albums of all time."

The album was included in the third edition of "The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion" that was edited by Jim Irvin and Colin McLear and published in the United States in 2003. "An unclassifiable trove of bittersweet pop. A psychedelic masterpiece with neither lengthy jams nor studio wizardry ... 'Forever Changes' is an enigma wrapped in a web of contradictions ..."

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Forever Changes 40th in its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in the December 11, 2003 issue. "The third record by his biracial L.A. band is wild and funny and totally pioneering: folk rock turned into elegant Armageddon with the symphonic sweep and mariachi-brass drama of 'Alone Again Or' and 'You Set the Scene.'"

Another notable retrospective praise came in 2003 from the British magazine, NME, which rated Forever Changes #6 on their list of greatest albums of all time. In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Forever Changes the 82nd greatest album of all time.

"Forever Changes" was ranked 83rd in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time.

"Forever Changes" was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die that was published in 2005. Edited by Robert Dimery, the book includes the top 1001 albums as selected by dozens of critics from around the world. Of "Forever Changes," contributor David Hutcheon wrote, "Acid rock could never be played by acoustic guitars and a symphony orchestra - could it? ... reminiscent of the playful, folky moods of The Beatles, Small Faces, and Donovan (though closer listening would reveal the turmoil within the band and L.A. during the Summer of Love) ..."

In addition, "Forever Changes" was included in "100 Albums That Changed Music," a book edited by Sean Egan that was published in 2006. "It's the ultimate example of a record that might not find its listenership right away, but eventually comes to be appreciated as a timeless masterwork ...," wrote contributor Richie Unterberger.

Critic Billy Altman, whose work has appeared in many publications including Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times, wrote the following for Amazon.com: "One of rock's most overlooked masterpieces, this third album by the L.A. folk-rock outfit led by inscrutable singer-songwriter Arthur Lee sounds as fresh and innovative today as it did upon its original release in 1968. With David Angel's atmospheric string and horn arrangements giving the work a conceptual underpinning, Lee explores mainstream America's penchant for paranoia ('The Red Telephone') and violence ('A House Is Not a Motel') with songs that are as sonically subtle and lilting as they are lyrically blunt and harrowing. Add two gems by Love's secret weapon, second guitarist Bryan MacLean ('Alone Again Or' and 'Old Man'), and you've got one of the truly perfect albums in rock history."

In an obituary of Arthur Lee in early 2007, Kandia Crazy Horse of Vibe Magazine wrote that Forever Changes(was) his psychedelic masterpiece ... an exhilarating mash-up of West Side freak folk with East Side mariachi and blues. Lee out-jangles his heroes the Byrds on the immortal 'Alone Again Or' and aims his symphonic trigger dead at the Beatles on his greatest work, 'You Set the Scene.' In total, a glorious song cycle exploring the dark side of hippiedom."

In a 2008 story from the Daily Telegraph, writer David Gritten offered the following observation on "Forever Changes" while discussing a documentary on Love. "It remains one of the strangest aberrations in the past 50 years of popular music ... On its release in 1967, it came and went quietly without troubling the charts. It was promoted in cursory fashion: the group, while well liked, had a reputation for being wayward and ill-disciplined, and no one expected much of them or their album. Yet time has told a different story. Far from being a long-forgotten obscurity, 'Forever Changes' is regarded as a masterpiece ..." He added that "'Forever Changes' is an astonishingly rigorous work. On first hearing, it sounds conservative for those psychedelic times: Lee and (arranger David) Angel used strings, brass, even mariachi-style trumpets, to embellish tricky but sweetly-sung melodies. Only on close listening are Lee's lyrics revealed as angry, fragmented rants against troubled times - locating the dark underbelly of the 'peace and love' generation."

A story in the Sunday Telegraph from 2008 listed the "120 essential pop albums" in history, a list that included "Forever Changes." "If you missed the Summer of Love, don't worry. Drug-crazed firearms freak, poet and visionary Arthur Lee and his band captured its spirit on this absolute classic just perfectly: the peace and love; the harmony; the silliness, the incipient paranoia ..."

Tom Moon, former music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, included "Forever Changes" in his 2008 book 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die. Of "Forever Changes," Moon wrote, "Inside these songs are ideas about guitar soloing that Lee's friend Jimi Hendrix rode into the stratosphere; hints of the mysticism and transcendence that became the calling card of the Doors; and the seeds of goth, orchestral pop, and other subgenres. Few records of the era cast such a wide (and still lengthening) shadow."

Vincent Rodriguez, former pop music critic at the Dallas Morning News, lists Forever Changes as his No.1 all-time album. "The Beatles remain the most influential pop act in history, but even their best work - the trilogy of 'Rubber Soul,' 'Revolver' and 'Sgt. Pepper's' - falls short of 'Forever Changes.' An innovative, melancholy masterpiece whose sum is greater than its parts, which is extraordinary for an album that includes the epochal track 'You Set The Scene.' It squashed the utopianism ideals of the '60s - if they ever really existed - three years before the decade's end. It was also significant for being the first song cycle by an African-American pop musician (group leader Arthur Lee was African American as was lead guitarist John Echols). Rather than being a loose collection of individual, insular songs, the record is an expansive, interlocking work unified by lush strings, acoustic guitars and lyrical content often based on the group's name and album title (when the words 'Love Forever Changes' are connected in that order). 'Forever Changes' unlocked a new musical palette for African American musicians to utilize, which paved the way for future song cycles like Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On' and Sly Stone's 'There's a Riot Going On,' classics by other African Americans that also chronicled the increasingly despondent state of the American dream."

On a personal level, Rodriguez says, "Forever Changes" influenced his decision to become a music critic. "As a Hispanic, I related to Lee. He was an African American pursuing rock, which by the late '60s had few minorities because they were increasingly pigeonholed in pre-determined, segregated genre roles based on their racial and ethnic backgrounds (with Santana and Jimi Hendrix two notable exceptions). Unfortunately, that had worsened by the time I became a music critic in the late '80s, aside from acts like Bad Brains, Living Colour and Los Lobos. Sadly, pop/rock music criticism reflected this situation; for a while, I was the only pop critic of Hispanic descent at a top 10 newspaper. A surprising number of people, including some journalists, viewed my Hispanic heritage as an obstacle to covering pop music because they believed ethnicity dictated musical preferences. For instance, only whites, and not Hispanics, could cover rock music credibly, objectively and authoritatively. Remember, Lee predated Hendrix in the late ‘60s rock milieu that had bypassed black pioneers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard (the Bo Diddley Beat of 'Bummer in the Summer' is an oblique reminder). That’s another reason ‘Forever Changes’ resonates with me, and why I’m grateful to Lee for producing a timeless song cycle of possibilities."

According to the New Musical Express, The Stone Roses' relationship with their future producer John Leckie was settled when they all agreed that "Forever Changes" was the "best record ever".

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