Don Julio
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
Who is your least favorite and why?
Love had a few good songs, of course, but for the most part, I find their albums rather lame and their reputation completely overblown. Arthur's lyrics are utter nonsense about 95% of the time, I hate his song titles, and his vocal style on things like "Message to Pretty" are so overwrought and fake. The Rising Storm's cover of the latter is far superior to the original.
"My Little Red Book." A "rock" version of this Burt Bacharach pop/jazz tune is a weird way for one of LA's supposed premier rock bands to make their debut. Unfortunately, Arthur did not take a lesson from Bacharach here and teach himself how to write bridges for songs. It also demonstrates the group's love for jazz songs and chords was present from the start, not something that only developed during the second album.
First album: does Echols ever take a guitar solo? Once or twice, both forgettable. No surprise that Forssi plays "lead bass" for the entire album -- he's very good, but lead bass is not really a thing for 1966 music. "Hey Joe" is destroyed by all three Leaves versions. Echols claims that the Leaves learned the song from Love. The lead bass is the only thing that makes Love's version worth hearing.
Best song on the album by far is "My Flash on You," though it's just "Hey Joe" with different lyrics. No bridge again. Lead bass again.
The second album moves into jazz-rock. I guess it's OK if you're into jazz-rock. I'm not. "Revelation" is indisputably garbage -- not even the band's staunchest supporters can defend this -- but most of side one is also pretty forgettable, with "lead flute" and more forgettable lyrics. The words to "Orange Skies" sound like a 7-year-old wrote them, and Arthur's vocals on this are so absurd they MUST have been intended as a joke. The drumming is way better than the first album and Forssi is still good on bass. But can I get a guitar solo? Please? Side 1's only rocker is "7 and 7 Is" which was a single and anachronistic on this album. "The Castle" is melodically very interesting but Arthur's lyrics are, as usual, forgettable nonsense ("Goin' back to Mother / Leaving on the double / Think I'll go to Mexico"). The flute/sax overpowers everything, not in a good way.
The third album? They showed up so strung on heroin that they couldn't even carry a tune, so the label had to hire the Wrecking Crew until they could clean themselves up. More jazz-rock. Too much acoustic guitar, too much trumpet, too many violins. Forgettable lyrics. No more lead bass, which is too bad since Ken Forssi's musicianship is ultimately the only memorable aspect of this band.
Love had a few good songs, of course, but for the most part, I find their albums rather lame and their reputation completely overblown. Arthur's lyrics are utter nonsense about 95% of the time, I hate his song titles, and his vocal style on things like "Message to Pretty" are so overwrought and fake. The Rising Storm's cover of the latter is far superior to the original.
"My Little Red Book." A "rock" version of this Burt Bacharach pop/jazz tune is a weird way for one of LA's supposed premier rock bands to make their debut. Unfortunately, Arthur did not take a lesson from Bacharach here and teach himself how to write bridges for songs. It also demonstrates the group's love for jazz songs and chords was present from the start, not something that only developed during the second album.
First album: does Echols ever take a guitar solo? Once or twice, both forgettable. No surprise that Forssi plays "lead bass" for the entire album -- he's very good, but lead bass is not really a thing for 1966 music. "Hey Joe" is destroyed by all three Leaves versions. Echols claims that the Leaves learned the song from Love. The lead bass is the only thing that makes Love's version worth hearing.
Best song on the album by far is "My Flash on You," though it's just "Hey Joe" with different lyrics. No bridge again. Lead bass again.
The second album moves into jazz-rock. I guess it's OK if you're into jazz-rock. I'm not. "Revelation" is indisputably garbage -- not even the band's staunchest supporters can defend this -- but most of side one is also pretty forgettable, with "lead flute" and more forgettable lyrics. The words to "Orange Skies" sound like a 7-year-old wrote them, and Arthur's vocals on this are so absurd they MUST have been intended as a joke. The drumming is way better than the first album and Forssi is still good on bass. But can I get a guitar solo? Please? Side 1's only rocker is "7 and 7 Is" which was a single and anachronistic on this album. "The Castle" is melodically very interesting but Arthur's lyrics are, as usual, forgettable nonsense ("Goin' back to Mother / Leaving on the double / Think I'll go to Mexico"). The flute/sax overpowers everything, not in a good way.
The third album? They showed up so strung on heroin that they couldn't even carry a tune, so the label had to hire the Wrecking Crew until they could clean themselves up. More jazz-rock. Too much acoustic guitar, too much trumpet, too many violins. Forgettable lyrics. No more lead bass, which is too bad since Ken Forssi's musicianship is ultimately the only memorable aspect of this band.
