775 Love - Love (1966)

 775 Love - Love (1966)

Studio Album - Garage Rock



About the Act:

Love were an American band, actually still are. They were formed in 1965 when Arthur Lee, who had been roadying for The Byrds decided to form a band which blended the Folk Rock of the Byrds with the heavier rock he had previously played. And so Love was born. They had a "classic line-up" and some breaks and some reunions, and a significant number of changes of personnel. I believe that none of the original members remain. TO be honest they are probably getting on somewhat.

They released 7 studio albums between 1966 and 1974 and none since. What have they been doing? Presumably touring. 

About the Album:

This was the band's first album.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

So this album feels like the record label were desperate to get a hit single out of them, and the tactic for doing so was to emulate other successful bands of the time, and to spread that net wide in case something worked. It's what some people call the "Mud at the wall" technique - throw enough mud and some will stick. This is just speculation on my part, but I don't think without justification. The problem was, it didn't really work, in my opinion.

When they tried to be the Byrds, it didn't work as they didn't have the panache, the sophistication. This was the first one I noticed, and that was before I read up on them, and found out that emulating the Byrds was deliberate.

When they tried to be the Rolling Stones, it didn't work, as they didn't have the bite.

When they tried to be The Animals, it didn't quite work. There is a song which is strongly cloned on House of the Rising Sun - the problem is, I guess that it is too like it, but lacked conviction.

When they tried to be Simon and Garfunkel, it really didn't work, they lacked the pathos, and the harmonies, and the being in tune.

There is a version of "Hey Joe" on the album, but that is acceptable, because that had to be included at the time. A rock album wasn't a rock album without a version of Hey Joe.

So what does that leave? Well the tracks where they allowed themselves to be themselves, or at least what I assumed was themselves. I think that at the time it was generally known as "Garage Rock", and these are the songs with the most conviction, that seem to suit them best. Essentially, although it was about 10 years before Punk exploded, Garage was laying the foundations. Main features: simple, fast, energetic, direct and immediate, without pretention, low production values. Sometimes they are out of tune, and this seems almost forgivable on these tracks (but not on those with pretentions of being more sophisticated). Even the vocal delivery echoes forwards to punk - clipped and whatever the opposite of resonant it, with a tone and ornamentation that must have formed part of the inspiration for the idiosyncrasies of punk.

At the time, being copycat was par for the course. I'm not sure why this album has found its way into this listing. I'm hoping it is for the garage stuff, because the copycat stuff is frankly shoddy. 

5.7/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/36UBSvMuqK8r7WYialQrLV

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDDFA04790CA4AB87

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(Love_album)



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