Listening to this will make you think "Wow, 'House of the Rising Sun' was a loooong time ago." If you consider 2010 to be a long time ago (as of 2014 of course), then you'd be absolutely right. The wild history of musical transitions over the course of five years that is the basis of the Animals story is something you just don't see anymore in today's music scene. Looking back nearly fifty years, it is quite dramatic how much a band can change in such a short period of time.
Love Is, the final album by the Animals as a continuous recording entity, is the final chapter in a long history of changes. The Animals circa 1964 were just one of numerous bands jockeying for the #3 spot behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the British Invasion. Although they produced a lot of great music, they were mostly known (and still are) for making "House of the Rising Sun" a big hit. It was also the song that would drive Alan Price out of the band after he managed to secure sole credit for the song to the annoyance of the others (they didn't have a Nanker Phelge or McGannahan Skjellyfetti to consolidate group writing credits). Producer Mickie Most would soon follow and the band sound began to shift in a more aggressive direction, but still within the constraints of American R&B covers. Finally by the end of 1966 the band pretty much imploded, with Eric Burdon as the sole remaining original member. In full control, he took the band in a wild new direction with two guitarists (one who doubled on violin) and a lot of crazy psychedelic original compositions. After two albums of this, the novelty wore off (even faster than the first era) and the "new" Animals released a third and final recording, then underwent another lineup shuffle, creating a "new new" Animals, which would record Love Is, their third album of 1968.
Love Is returns to the cover material, but instead of Chuck Berry and Ray Charles, they take on Sly & the Family Stone, Johnny Cash, the Bee Gees, Traffic, and others. They also have a lot of fun with it, throwing in whispered adoration of Tina Turner during "River Deep Mountain High" and tossing in a ridiculously long guitar solo into "Colored Rain". They also turn in one of the most unusual versions of "Ring of Fire" you'll ever experience. The psychedelia of the previous albums is muted or gone for the most part. On many of the songs, keyboard man Zoot Money (aka George Bruno) duets with Eric and all guitar duties are handled by Andy Summers (yes, the same Andy Summers who would enjoy a career in law enforcement a few years down the road with Sting and Stewart Copeland).
The band quickly dissolved following the release of the album. Eric would move on to join War for a couple albums and guitarist-turned-bassist John Weider joined Family while the others (except Andy Summers) would largely drift off into relative obscurity for the 1970's and beyond. Speaking of obscurity, many of the Animals albums were impossible to find on CD during the time I was collecting them, which made for some rather expensive acquisitions. Since that time, pretty much all of their (legit) recordings have been released on CD or some kind of purchasable and re-mastered media (Animalisms, Winds of Change, The Twain Shall Meet, Every One of Us, Love Is), so they are all worth tracking down. If you are craving the Alan Price era stuff, The Complete Animals is a perfect compilation which includes the entire first two albums plus stray singles and oddballs from 1964 and 1965. For some reason the 1966 album Animalism (not plural) is stupid expensive via third party sellers, but there are some nice folks out there who managed to stuff every track from said album into a handy "Bonus Hits" compilation. Happy hunting!
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