Sometimes bands do their greatest work when they are pushed to the breaking point. The Zombies' Odessey and Oracle was recorded under the presumption the band would disintegrate immediately following its recording. The Pretty Things had already broken up prior to Parachute. In the case of Love, the band has finally shaken off its garage-rock roots, but was barely able to record anything cohesive. Just listen to the staggering number of takes being rattled off during a tracking session captured in the bonus tracks. Therefore, it wasn't all that surprising when primary songwriter/frontman Arthur Lee fired the entire band following this album, then recorded two more albums with a different "Love" to fulfill contractual obligations.
Forever Changes is definitely one of my favorite albums, a shoo-in for the "gallery of greats" and an album that demands to be listened to in one sitting, in track order. While it's a shame that the classic era of Love was extremely short-lived, they managed to put out three very different albums that chronicle the progression and maturation (and ultimately destruction) of a distinctly Los Angeles band.
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