Forever Changes

The string arrangements stand out, especially on the heels of the Eagles. Doors-y but not in a cheesy or cloned way. Not sure if it's actually underappreciated or just a victim of the "it's old and therefore underrated" curse, but I'm glad I discovered it either way.

So, there are a few "sophisticated" psychedelic albums on the 1001 list, but I feel that this is the only one that really, truly lives up to the sobriquet. Beautifully arranged and recorded (with occasionally support from Wrecking Crew session musicians), the song-writing is a little more folky than Love's previous efforts. This is definitely a 1967 album, but with a eye towards the inevitable come-down that was lurking around the corner. My favorite section, and probably most emblematic of the album's tone, is the coda of The Red Telephone, with the creep chanting of "they're locking them up today, the're throwing away the key, I wonder who it will be tomorrow, you or me?" The paranoia of the late 60s is perfectly encapsulated right there.

Candidate for my favorite non-Beatles album of the 60s. Stunning arrangements, dreamy melodies and nonsensical yet poetic lyrics that encapsulate you. Alongside Odessey and Oracle stands as the most complex and pleasant psychedelic / baroque pop album of its time. Half the tracks are masterpieces. I'm obsessed with Arthur Lee's vocal delivery and the people and settings he and MacLean describe. There's not much more to say beyond that, but I just want to stress how surreal yet clear these lyrics are. No fancy electronic affects, just classic arrangements used in creative, beautiful ways. I've been obsessed with this album since I first discovered it, and disappointed the closest (consistent) album like this is Odessey and Oracle. Favorite tracks: A House Is Not a Motel, The Red Telephone

Because it evokes the feeling of both sleeping and waking, this is at once pacific and troubling. Assuming Lee & co. are the sleepers, their dream is (surprise!) the 60's. But so too is their nightmare. Because (second surprise!) the 60's weren't all good. Not that they're making value judgements. They treat the scattered remains of the 60's with equal regard, only interested in reassembling them so that only the most intense moments remain. True to dream logic, not everything makes sense until it does: "The snot has caked against my pants / It has turned into crystal" only, well, crystallises when you consider it against "When you've given all you had / And everything still turns out bad" or "Sitting on a hillside / Watching all the people die / I'll feel much better on the other side". Musically, it's even more beguiling, following the grammar of dreams--which is to say, what grammar? Just as that slow-motion chase becomes that sex scene turns into this memory from childhood that never happened, here mellifluous melodies follow swelling strings follow puckish guitars follow rousing mariachi trumpets follow... with not a musical conjunction in sight.

Honestly, there's nothing really stand out here. Some of these songs are duds some are okay but nothing tips the scales either way. On balance, it's decidedly mediocre. I liked A House Is Not A Motel and Bummer In The Summer alright though. So it's saved from a failing mark on the weight of those two songs alone.

Very hippie music, psychadelic and acoustic. Really liked the guitar work in this, really interesting arrangements and even some flamenco in there. Lyrics were up and down, some songs were very dark and interesting, others very flaky and folksy. Kind of reminded me of Cream from a vocal perspective but the standout really was the instrumentals here. Great album.

Love this (get it?)!

4.2 + Some beautiful and quirky songwriting with lush orchestral arrangements. It resides in its own corner of popular music, as if the writer had never once listened to the radio and decided to write this album. I’ve come back to this one a lot over the years.

It was such a good album to listen to ngl I’ve enjoy the first song and the rest was good. I love the story telling within each song too

I absolutely loved the first track. I'm a sucker for a horns section. The rest of the album was some very pleasant psych/pop 60s rock stuff, which is the type of music I grew up with so I definitely dug it but wasn't blown away. Cool arrangements but non to exciting lyrics. Wanna go 3.5 but I enjoyed it more than I disliked it so going with a 4.

I am so conflicted on how I feel about this album. On one hand I like the style a lot and the music is pretty good, on the other hand I really don't vibe well with the sound of the vocals on most of the album. I think it is a pretty solid 3 for me. I do love that Carol Kaye played on this album, she is a legend of a session musician and bass player. Everybody should go watch the video Polyphonic on YouTube made about her.

Mich erinnert dieses Album an "The Moody Blues": Symphonic Rock. Musik vom feinsten. Die Orchesterarrangements sind sehr gelungen gepaart mit melodischen Kompositionen. Ich bin voll auf begeistert. Das trifft voll meinen Geschmack. Melodisch, pompös mit Orchester und tollen Songs

Man I love this album so much, it’s essentially the 60’s album of my childhood!: The album starts with alone again or, a brilliant song ;There’s actually less to this song than I thought but that’s not any problem! It goes perfectly with a house is not a motel, I don’t like it as much as alone again or but it’s still really good, I especially love the guitars this one and I must have forgotten all the extra noises in the outro really makes it creepy. This has only just made me see how little lyrics there really are to andmoreagain it’s a good song though I especially love the chorus. The best part of the daily planet is definitely the instrumentation the song itself is good just not as memorable as the first three. Old man is the worst off the album, it’s really just a harmless song proving some sonic change and it’s really short, just so forgettable. But right after is the red the red telephone my favourite on the album, it’s so trippy and strange! The best bit is the songs outro “ they’re locking you up today they’re throwing away the key I wonder who it’ll be tomorrow you or me”. Starting side 2 is maybe people would be the times or between clark and Hilldale i’am surprised it’s not a single to be fair it has the same feel as the first two songs, it’s good not a favourite though. Live and let live has probably the most notorious line in “ the snot gas caked against my pants it has turned to crystal”; the song is entertaining and has a nice guitar solo just much longer than I thought. The good humour man he sees everything like this, is a good song especially with the orchestral bits thrown in, I never realised it was only 3 short verses though. Bummer in the summer is alright its only short and is probably the earliest example of rapping I could possibly find, honestly though that intro bit is by far the best part of the song. You set the scene is a great closer to the album the song itself isn’t too distinctive until the orchestra then it makes a perfect satisfying ending to an already great album. Yeah it’s a really good album well sequenced well done everything there is one dud but it’s not bad enough to stop it from getting a 5.

One of my favorite album of all time

Still my least favourite Love album but christ, that's just a testament to how fucking good those three albums were.

Surprised how much I ended up enjoying this album as a whole, read it was a favorite of Jim Morrison and I see why he took notes from his contemporaries here.

Despite the cover art, Forever Changes could not be further from psychedelia. Rather, it combines two of my least favorite genres, folk and garage (and the occasional fillip of mariachi), albeit with more aggressive and convoluted rhythms and song structures than is usual with folk influenced 60s music. Still, regardless of how I personally feel about this music, I must admit that the songwriting is startlingly original. Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean seem incapable of writing a cliched melody or chord sequence. The string and brass arrangements are also highly unusual for this kind of material and seem to be organic, not merely tacked on. One barrier to enjoying this album, at least for me, is how on a couple of the more full throttle tunes, singer Arthur Lee is perpetually a quarter tone off key. But on the more pastoral tunes, this isn't really a problem. A bigger problem for me is that none of the melodies really sticks to my brain. So, between the fact that I don't really enjoy the stylistic elements Love is using on this album, and that I don't find the melodies and hooks compelling or memorable, I'm left with admiring Arthur Lee's originality. And I have the nagging feeling that Love achieved whatever it is that they were going for. Forever Changes has the feeling of a fully realized work. It's just not for me.

Alone Again Or was a good lead track, you can clearly tell this album was structured around that song. Every other song blurred into each other, I genuinely couldn't tell when one song ends and another begins, in a bad way. There was one exception though - Old Man. That song sucked, and didn't even make any sense. My God is this album plain. It feels like every British band from the 1960's album offcuts blended into one boring ass album. The only times I got some modicum of entertainment was from whenever the trumpets started playing, which made songs like "Maybe The People ..." tolerable, and actually pretty good. It's not a bad album, per se, but it's just flavourless. Plain Greek Yoghurt. Dull. I'm tossed between a 2 and a 3 here, but the fact I just was waiting for the album to end leads me towards a 2.

While I am biased to this era, this album stands out among the rest. I really fuck with the psychedelic folk feel and the sound stage is just perfect. Has power where it needs it and soft beauty to fill the space. I knew Alone Again Or going into the listen, but did not expect it to blow me away like this. Going to be a must purchase on vinyl and one of those top albums I have heard so far. 9/10

Discazo. Este álbum de amor tiene, más que otros que he escuchado de ellos, canciones absolutamente únicas, que se sienten como nada que haya escuchado antes. Me encanta.

I’d known everything until this point. This was rad.

It's one of the best albums of the 1960s (that wasn't made by The Beatles) and also a personal favorite of mine. A psychedelic masterpiece which stood the test of time and it still sounds interesting and unique today. The lyrics, the beautiful music (particularly the string arrangements), the vocal delivery by Arthur Lee are all perfection. At the height of flower power this album anticipates the downfall of the counterculture. 'They're locking them up today They're throwing away the key I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, you or me?' are my favorite lines of the album which closes the A side. A 5* album without a doubt.

I had never heard of this band before and it was amazing.

Liked a lot

One of the best album of the 60s, amazing pop that doesn't have any of the trope of pop music that make it cliche. After hearing the Rolling Stones attempt at this genre, it's nice to hear an expert. Definetly influential in South American music. A+

Que belleza de disco es impresionante lo fresco que suena han pasado año y la música parece seguir sus pasos. Es maravilloso poder descubrir lo que es la música con lo que fue antes.

One of those classics i've listened to many times now over the years, and while I don't consider it a perfect 10, it's pretty fantastic and can still go toe to toe with all the other classic albums that also popped up in 1967. What an insane year for music it was. Love the variety on here, the opener especially jumps back and forth between sweet acoustic ballad and some kind of mexican party anthem with horns tooting. It's awesome.

This is a really cool album. It has a bit of a flower power sheen, but the lyrics are a bit stranger and even darker than you would expect. I couldn’t tell if I liked it at first, but after a couple of listens, I think this album is just full of ideas, excellent guitar playing, and deserves its status as a classic.

I have listened to this before maybe twice and it didn't click. This time... Something is there isn't it? It's gentleness is its key (that subtleness would have been lost on the younger me) and I can see that it has influenced so many of the other records I love be dearly. I'll come back to this one again!

Right off the bat, this record gets high marks based off of “A House is not a Motel”. Fantastic song that I was originally introduced to via Yo La Tengo’s cover on their first record, Ride the Tiger. Not a big fan of the drums and bass being panned hard left in the stereo field and one guitar panned hard right, but it was the 60’s and I guess that was either a limitation or purposeful artistic choice. It’s a pretty record; psychedelic and well produced, but all the instruments feel walled off from one another in a way. Once you become attuned to that (turning on Spatialize Stereo on your AirPods helps a bit), you’ll find a totally unique and somewhat overlooked 60’s psych album. In closing, I’ll leave with you with this truly disgusting lyric from “Live and Let Live”, which is an otherwise fantastic song: “Oh, the snot has caked against my pants. It has turned into crystal.”

Je voudrais profiter de l'espace review de cet album dont je me rappelle à peine pour rendre hommage à la personne sans qui nous ne serions pas là où nous sommes aujourd'hui, je veux bien sûr parler de Robert Dimery. On lui en a fait voir de toutes les couleurs, on l'a remis en cause, détesté, incendié, insulté, roulé dans la boue... et pourtant, celui-ci est en train de nous faire changer d'avis sur cette liste des 1001 qui s'avère être une réussite. À bientôt mon Robert (je le connais personnellement, pour rappel).

Groovy and pleasant, this is the music that I would call "hippy shit." I like it well enough, especially the first track "Alone Again Or."

Alone Again Or is such a great song. I love the Spanish guitar, the brass, the orchestral movements in it. What a great opener. The rest of the album feels reeeeally 60's hippy / psychedelia. There's a few standout tracks with some interesting things going on, but it's mostly quite soft and floaty.

Not a fan - sounds like shitty Beatles. I have tried to like psychedelia many times and I now accept that most of it is quite weird. I appreciate the Hendrix level of complexity much more than the actual genre. Favourite track: A House is Not a Motel. Like the folky feel.

9.5/10 I have heard this before, but forgot what a beast it is. Probably the best of the hippie era rock albums that I’ve heard. Folky, baroque, with amazing production and incredible use of brass Songwriting is excellent, really McCartney-esque in places Amazing vibe runs through this, sounds so fresh Jack White clearly liked this Best: Alone Again Or

Forever Changes Actual good 60s stereo mixing! I’ve never found this quite as good as its reputation suggests, but I do still like it, particularly giving it repeat listens now. It's definitely one of the better summer of love/psychedelic albums, its acoustic-folk underpinning makes it more interesting, enduring and listenable than many of their interminable blues-noodling acid rock peers. Alone Again Or is of course fantastic and the standout song - a great late 60s hippy lyric, a lovely guitar figure, an excellent string arrangement and brilliant mariachi horns, giving it all a warm, Hot LA sunshine feel. Aside from Alone Again Or, I do like A House Is Not a Motel, The Daily Planet, Old Man, The Red Telephone, Bummer in the Summer and You Set the Scene, but all the songs are at least decent, with no real stinkers. There’s some great bass playing and tone, I also like that when there is an electric guitar, it is much more of an embellishment, rather than the whole point. There’s no doubt the songs do share a similar feel though, with string and brass arrangements, but I do like that it sounds like the 60s LA of my imagination that never was - Mexican/hispanic horns, Laurel Canyon/folk guitars, UK influenced Baroque strings and an acid/hippy/love everyone ethos. Listening to this after listening to the Mothers of Invention albums is also interesting. How they are the opposite sides of the same thing improves them both for me. This is the most I’ve enjoyed this album after listening now and again over the years, so I’ll put it at a solid 4. 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨 Playlist submission: Alone Again Or

Some really interesting arrangements here. Many of the lyrics were thoughtful and meaningful, but there are some serious duds in here as well. Overall, I really liked it, but (I'm sorry for this) I didn't Love it. Best track: You Set the Scene

Hard to see why this is a standout album from a million others released late sixties but it's okay. It has its moments (few and far between) like "Maybe the people..." that bump this album up from 2 stars to 3 for me - the horns & guitar solo in this number are great.

Do all 60s psychedelic albums sound the same? Do I need to take drugs to get this? *sigh* Maybe I don’t love music as much as I thought I did.

Boring.

I can't remember who recommended that I listen to this: it was roughly 30 years ago but I'm glad they did. It's a fantastic record and remains so.

Ooh yeah. Easy five stars. This is one of my favorite albums. Easily personal top ten. Love’s brand of psychedelic rock is just perfect. Songs frolic around between emotions of confusion, fear of the future, melancholy and nostalgia. Lee’s vocals are beautiful and sometimes assisted by great vocal harmonies. The songs have cool dynamics and ideas, accentuated by tasteful string arrangements. This album is just one beautiful dream to drown in.

Truly a beauty. A lovely sound with the folk and orchestration, you'd almost not believe this band was on the verge of getting fired, then actually getting fired after its release. I can't believe how early in the mid 60s music explosion this is. It sounds like the bands in 1969 more than 1966-1967. They seem like the lost band that should have also been huge in the 60s and known by most everyone today, like their labelmates The Doors. I love this album. Plus UK Parliament made a motion that this is the best, so you have to agree there

Fantastisch, großartig abgemischt.

I liked it a lot, cool mystical vibe and nice to listen to.

Very fun. 5/5

Solid hippie rock

this was new to me, classic sound, loved it

Has the potential to feel overly busy, but Love makes it work and there is some really cool stuff happening on these songs.

I played this album constantly for a few years so my relationship with it is a little irrational. I love the sound, the vocals, the writing, even when the writing isn't very good....

The older I get the greater this album sounds. Among the very, very best of the decade's records, and essential listening almost 60 years later. 10/10

this album aged insanely well

9.7/10

Never heard of the band but this is great

I'd only heard the Alone Again Or on account of The Damned doing a cover of it in the past and me chasing up the original. A very pleasant album with some nonsense rhymes and some more serious. Added to my playlist.

Another well-known classics. Always inspiring.

Super Dope

Danny Brown's favorite album of all time, revered by Robert Plant and The Stone Roses, Forever Changes is a cult classic and yet more than that. I don't know how you can listen to it w/o converting immediately to its wit, its warmth, its realism, its inventive-never-indulgent instrumentation, and the chaotic tensions it promulgates. Is there another release from the 60s that so masterfully negotiates starry-eyedness and dark absurdism? 'Sitting on a hillside / Watching all the people die'; 'Oh the snot has caked against my pants / It has turned into crystal'; 'And that's all that lives is gonna die.' It isn't 60s protest music or even psychedelia - it's heartfelt, desperate, and utterly gorgeous 70s disillusionment foreshadowed in '67 LA. None like it.

Wait this is heat

A truly stunning album. I went in not knowing what to expect, having never heard anything from it before, and was blown away by how good it sounds. The acoustic guitar work is excellent, layered beautifully with orchestral arrangements that create a near-flawless wall of sound. I’m genuinely thankful for this project for introducing me to such an incredible record.

Excellent psych-rock album. Really quit enjoyed this. I was familiar with some tracks but never listened to the whole album. 5/5

Turns out i love psych

I'v got a week of 4's which is very good. This one's making me lean more towards 5. Beautiful voice, great instrumentation and the songwriting is superb.

Loved this album from the first time I came across it in the 1980s. Was also lucky enough to see Arthur Lee perform the whole album live in early 2000s. Had a tear in my eye hearing him sing the masterpiece, 'You set the scene'. "This is the time and life that I am living And I'll face each day with a smile."

The Stone Roses probably love this album. I do, too.

One of the best from psychodelic rock era. Took me a lot of time to get into it in my youth, but it was rewarding

Great album all the way through

Both a template for socially driven psychedelic rock album-ry, and an idiosyncratic and personal look into the drug fuelled mind of a black man living in LA in the sixties. All through the lens of a rare multi racial band.

спочатку видався сумним, але насправді дуже класний. easygoing вайб 70-х, гарний початок

I must admit, I wasn’t looking for to listening to this album. I’m not a huge fan of 60s psychedelic with the sitars, harpsichords & just nonsense fueled by LSD. However, I loved this album. First off, it’s mostly acoustic folk music with orchestral highlights. There's very little electric guitar on the album. There are great horn parts, though. It’s kind of a cross between the 60’s psychedelic and folk music mixed with Burt Bacharach. The music is very soft, which I generally don’t care for, but this album is kind of like ASMR. It’s soothing, but the lyrics are about death, freedom, and how the counterculture at the time was not all flowers and peace. If you’re a fan of the music coming out in the '60s, this is the album for you. I’ll be putting it in my rotation.

Incredible album

Somehow, this one's gotten intertwined in my head with Odessey and Oracle, which is weird because they're not all that similar as far as psychedelic rock albums go? This one's a lot folkier than most, and certainly one of the prettiest psych albums you'll ever hear, in spite of the infamous "the snot has caked against my pants" line. I'm a sucker for any rock that has strings and horns and all that good stuff, so it's one of my personal favorites!

Somehow I had no knowledge of this album, but even on first listen w zero background, it was easy to recognize it’s a masterpiece. Sophisticated, prescient, sometimes dark, sometimes light, it captures its era so completely.

An album that took me a while to warm up to… but now I reckon it’s an absolute masterpiece!!

Grandísimo disco de un grupo muy original.

p109. 1967. 5 stars. The only hippies you can trust. Arguably the greatest album of the Summer of Love.

I love this album so much! Severely underrated/undermentioned band.

Excellent music! Another incredible find that I never heard before.

A timeless masterpiece

A friend made a painting for me based on the cover of Forever Changes, which is one reason why I have a soft spot for this album. It’s also just a gorgeously off-kilter psychedelic banger.

Perfect

Великий альбом без скипов. Одновременно и душераздирающий, и счастливый. Эталонный сайкаделик поп. Лучшая песня - Alone Again Or.

frábær yfirkeyrð. með þeim allra bestu.

I feel like Dad might like this (positive). I know these people loved to walk One of the first ones where I have gone, "huh this is nice 👌"

Not my usual taste but I appreciate the artistry!

I love this!

Unbedingt mehrmals hören! Die wahre Schönheit des Albums entdeckt man erst dann.

Arthur Lee is the Riddler of Rock. In an era that heralded Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, he was a black genius who got lost in the shuffle. This album is a beautiful 60s Southern Californian marriage of the wunderkind pop orchestration of Pet Sounds and the dark psychedelic tones of the Doors. It’s assuredly a product of its time and yet it’s a super original and rewarding entry in the Summer of Love West Coast rock movement. The unpredictable stops and starts to melodies and lyrics and whimsical arrangements make it a work worth returning to over and over again. I heard it first 20 years ago, but was even more blown away by it on this listen.

Unexpected gem Loved it

Quite simply one of the finest albums ever recorded. If you don't agree give Forever Changes several more listens before giving up on it. Then listen again.

Actually loved this album. Never heard of these guys before and was really impressed. Great sound, great songs, will likely give this many more listens

When it comes to mellotron use and orchestral arrangements, Forever Changes is undoubtedly up there with the best, standing alongside albums like Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues. The 60s were an incredibly creative period, especially in psychedelic and baroque pop, and this album is one of the standout examples from that time. The orchestration here is exceptional, and the production, given the era, is impressive. There’s a reason why this album continues to be highlighted as one of the best from that period. Even though I don’t usually go with the popular picks, this one would definitely make it onto my personal list of top albums.

Such a fantastic album, and one I’ve loved for a long time, but Arthur Lee must have had some properly dark shit going around his head when he wrote this.

Always cool when a band puts extra focus on listening in stereo. This is so well arranged. It has the warmth of that period but there's a fair amount of musical complexity going on. Something I found myself having an easy time focusing on or zoning out to. I'm buying this album.

Nice album art. Sounded fine on the car stereo, but headphones let the stereo mixing shine. The sound of the strings is expertly captured. Ooo Trumpets. Such a soundscape. This just helps me understand that something bad happened to a lot of music production in the 2000s Yeah, that's a 5

Cracking album. Probably more of a 4.5 than a 5. A House is Not a Motel, Andmoreagain, The Red Telephone, and The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything are great. I really, really like the arrangements of the songs in general, and the eclectic nature of some of the drumming and the lyrics. Cleanly evokes the era.

I came to this album late...I guess it was the 2000s when it was de rigeur to recognize Forever Changes and Odyssey and Oracle as unappreciated classics. I think Forever Changes because this album didn't have even a classic song Season of the Witch. But my word is this an incredible, dare I say even a masterpiece. As someone who grew up on the folk rock of artists like Shawn Phillips and Cat Stevens this album came as revelation. Even things like the string arrangements which I am not normally a fan of are tasteful and suit the songs near perfectly. And the songs, accessible but complex are all satisfying and bear up to close scrutiny. The themes are typical of the time but don't seem cloying and overwrought. A no-brainer 5 star album

Wow, I'd never heard of this band before but I loved the album. Great find!

I thought it was gonna be really generic 60s psych but i really enjoyed it, very varied and fun.

Great