Love Forever Changes, 180 Gram Vinyl 45RPM 2LP (Used, Ex)

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Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 461/500!

Love Anticipates Late 1960s Turbulence Via Prophetic Songs and Dark Themes

Mastered from the Original Master Tapes for Unsurpassed Analog Sound: Mobile  Fidelity's 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Opens Up Scale of Lush Orchestral Architecture and  Elegant Baroque Textures

Any discussion about the finest psychedelic rock record ever recorded is  incomplete if it doesn't grant consideration to Love's Forever Changes. Ranked  by Rolling Stone as the 461st greatest album ever made in 2012, (just above the  Beatles "Please Please Me" album) and named by Mojo the second-greatest  psychedelic set in history, the effort is an internationally recognized seminal  work of art. Transcending language and convention, its magnitude and  magnificence need to be heard again and again. For here is an effort whose  mind-boggling acoustic complexities and kaleidoscopic nuances are tailored for  high-fidelity playback.

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity's numbered  limited-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP set affords the masterpiece the white-gloves  treatment and golden-hued analog sonics it has always deserved. Nearly unlimited  headroom, vast instrumental separation, transparent clarity, artifact-free  atmospherics, and faithful balances appear out of jet-black backgrounds. The  music appears to float on clouds, with the woody tones emanated by the acoustic  guitars and brassy signatures of horns emerging with lifelike detail. Turn it up  as loud as you want; the sole limitation will be your system's potential.

Commercially ignored upon release in November 1967, Forever Changes confronts  the alienation, paranoia, violence, and strife that would soon plague the  countercultural movement and send the Summer of Love into a tailspin. Apart from  its lyrical themes and profetic malaise, the record's enduring nature equally  owes to intertwined arrangements sewn together with Latin guitar-picked lines,  finessed folk harmonies, mariachi-inspired horn charts, and subdued strings.

The seemingly opposing combination – ominous, dark reflections situated amidst  lush, light melodic beds – affords Forever Changes a distinguished tension of  claustrophobia and openness, dourness and ecstasy, ugliness and elegance enjoyed  by no other record in the rock canon. Much of the contrast owes to leader Arthur  Lee's mental state and pertinent observations. Lee, whose suppressed romanticism  often surfaces even amidst the blackest shadows and most cynical moments,  believed he would soon die, and hence channeled everything from lasting hopes to  acid-addled decay to the chilling testimony of a Vietnam veteran in his  narratives.

Alternatively sad and beautiful, the album-opening and flamenco-inspired "Alone  Again Or" establishes the mood for what follows. Vocals overlap and soar; tempos  rise and fall; surrealism trades places with reality. Forever Changes thrives  both because of and in spite of a surfeit of labyrinthine chords and difficult  notes that never repeat. Its ambitious construction almost forced the already  fractured band to cede responsibilities to session musicians, which appear on  two tracks. The quintet's resolve to not only complete the album, but to do so  with such poignancy and curiosity, further enhances Forever Changes' standing.

No wonder that, in the twilight of his troubled career, Lee performed the record  in its entirely during concerts met with overwhelming critical acclaim. It was,  and will always be, a personal manifesto of timeless relevance and appeal.

Features:
• Numbered, Limited Edition
• 45rpm Speed Edition
• Mastering by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
• Specially Plated and Pressed on 180 grams of High Definition Vinyl
• Special Static Free - Dust Free Inner Sleeve
• Gatefold Jacket
• Heavy Duty Protective Packaging
• Mastered from the Original Master Tapes

Selections:
Side 1:
1. Alone Again Or
2. A House Is Not A Motel
3. Andmoreagain
Side 2:
4. The Daily Planet
5. Old Man
6. The Red Telephone

Side 3:
1. Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale
2. Live And Let Live
3. The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This
Side 4:
4. Bummer In The Summer
5. You Set The Scene