ERC Release True Mono of Love’s Forever Changes

While I picked up the excellent 2012 Rhino 180g re-issue of this album when it came out (R1-74013, engineer– Bruce Botnick, mixing– Arthur Lee and Bruce Botnick, mastering– Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering) I can't help but be intrigued by the Electric Recording Company's true mono mastering of this 1967 masterpiece. Having heard their Music for Viola & Cello (ERC028), I know firsthand what it means to hear a recording brought to pressing by this outstanding, boutique UK mastering house. Forever Changes is a seminal album in my collection and if you're one of the lucky 300 people able to snag a copy by ERC, then I applaud your good taste and fortune. –Rafe Arnott

Forever Changes is the third studio album by the American psychedelic rock band Love. Failing to achieve commercial success when it was first released by Elektra Records in November 1967, it has since been widely accepted as one of the greatest albums ever made, ranking 40th on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

The band, formed around the twin talents of Hollywood brat Bryan MacLean and folk beat rebel Arthur Lee, were seen as moody outsiders to the LA peace ’n love community due to their insularity and edgy image. With two albums released in relatively rapid succession, by ’67 the band were holed up in Bela Lugosi’s mansion in the grip of acid-fueled egotism and early heroin addiction. Recorded in June of that year, Forever Changes is anything but a reflection of those times. This is the truer sound of late ’60s Los Angeles, which was neither a trippy paradise nor a Lizard Kingdom, but a purgatory characterized by paranoia and grievance.