The Blue Thumb Recordings by Love @ ARTISTdirect.com

Love's stay on the Blue Thumb label for a couple of albums in the late '60s and early '70s wouldn't be rated by anyone as the high point in the band's career. Still, for those who want that material, this three-CD set includes both of the albums they released with the company, Out Here and False Start, as well as -- in what will be the big draw for collectors -- nearly an hour of previously unreleased recordings, all taped live in England in 1970. Though the two studio albums have their admirers, many Love fans find them frustrating listening, as they stack up poorly against the superior LPs they cut in the '60s, particularly their first three. Much of leader and principal singer/songwriter Arthur Lee's gift for melodic, idiosyncratic folk-rock with touches of flamenco, jazz, punky R&B and show tunes is still in evidence, but the songs simply aren't as strong or fully developed. As for his composing skills (though not his singing ones), it almost feels as though you're listening to a recuperating stroke victim -- some of the skillful thoughts and ideas are coming through, but only between cracks and in bits and pieces. There's also a disturbing bent toward hard rock that doesn't suit Lee's strengths (especially on False Start), and while the rest of Love are competent players, they don't push or complement Lee in the same way the original version of the band did in the mid-'60s. The live recordings that conclude the set aren't bad , and the sound quality's OK (though not perfect). In this concert segment, Lee and the band sing and play pretty well on songs spanning their entire career to that point, including a few ("My Little Red Book," "Orange Skies," "Andmoreagain," "Signed D.C.," and "Bummer in the Summer") from the earliest and most celebrated phase of their career. Those numbers are performed pretty credibly, albeit with a slight strange lisp on some of Lee's vocals. But as a whole the live arrangements are more likely to fly into pedestrian hard rock riffing than the early Love would, though more often than not those tendencies are kept in check. It all adds up to an anthology that will appeal to some hardcore Love fans, but isn't one of the first places to start to appreciate the band's legacy. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

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Red Tunic Troll

posted on Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:12:44

Second-generation Love doesn't live up to their earlier peak

As a West Coast rock band, Love provided Elektra Records a stepping stone out of the New York folk world, and served as the prototype for the label's breakthrough with The Doors. Love's first three albums for Elektra combined British Invasion, folk-rock, garage punk, blues, psych, pop, jazz and more, reaching a crescendo with 1968's "Forever Changes." Love's founder and mainstay, Arthur Lee, disbanded the group shortly after finishing that milestone. A fourth album for Elektra ("Four Sail") was released under the Love name, but it was recorded by Lee and hired hands, and failed to capture the magic of the original lineup.

The "Four Sail" sessions produced enough material for another album, which was released by Blue Thumb as "Out Here." Lee continued to fashion new editions of Love around himself, and released a second Blue Thumb album in 1970 titled "False Start." Hip-O's 3-CD set pulls together both of the LPs and adds eleven live tracks from 1970 UK live performances. Lee's reconstituted versions of Love recorded some fine sides for Blue Thumb, expanding upon their leader's eclecticism if not recapturing the earlier lineup's heart and soul. Highlights of the Blue Thumb albums include a pained, crawling blues arrangement of "Signed D.C." that greatly elongates the 1966 original with a wailing Eric Burdon-styled vocal, and the CS&N-styled harmonies of "I Still Wonder." The jug band country-folk of "Car Lights on in the Daytime Blues" sounds like the Fugs crossed with Frank Zappa, and bubblegum "You Are Something" features a guitar solo that's either played on especially short strings (or a ukulele) or sped up in the studio.

Lee's range remained impressive through the "False Start," album, taking in the heavy psychedelic guitar rock of the Hendrix co-write "The Everlasting First" (with Hendrix himself playing lead guitar), the Badfinger-esque "Gimi a Little Break," the funky "Stand Out," the sunny blues of "Keep on Shining," and the country chord changes of "Slick Dick." The albums are augmented by a previously unreleased 1970 concert recordings that reach back to some of the original band's song highlights. The recording and playing are both adequate, but the stretching out on stage doesn't favor the compact early compositions. In the end Love's tenure at Blue Thumb failed to match the brilliance of their first three album for Elektra, and though Lee's genius can still be heard, it wasn't kept sufficiently focused to render truly great albums. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2007 redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]

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