Love – Now Playing (Rhino)

While there have been other “best of’s” that have summed up Love’s career, Now Playing attempts to create a great listening experience by concentrating on their magnum opus, Forever Changes, and fill in from there.  

The set opens with the strange reading of Burt Bachrach & Hal David’s “My Little Red Book” (originally done by Manfred Mann in the movie What’s New Pussycat?).  In Love’s hands, it becomes an exercise in psychotic longing.  That’s followed by the ferocious “7 &7 Is,” a garage rock staple.  Then comes the gorgeous “Orange Skies,” with its jazz chords, flute, and light mood, it resembles much of the music being made by their San Francisco counterparts, like Jefferson Airplane.  

The next six tracks all come from Forever Changes, an album made while the band was falling apart.  “Alone Again Or” is steeped with paranoia, yet the trumpet gives it a wacked, mariachi feel – it’s the music you hear right before you are trampled by a bull in the ring.  The 12-string and shuffling drums fuel “A House is Not a Motel,” while “Andmoreagain” is heartfelt.

“The Red Telephone” has lush orchestration which contrast the dark lyrics.  “Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale,” despite its strange title, is one of the strongest tracks, with both electric and acoustic guitar, and horns, with a juiced up tempo.  I love the way “You Set the Scene” slices the beat in half near the end.  After Forever Changes, leader Arthur Lee dismissed the entire band.  An entirely new Love recorded the decent “Always See Your Face.” 

This record is pressed on red transparent vinyl. Smartly leaning on Forever Changes, Now Playing is a great listen throughout. —Tony Peters