Love

The 22 songs from Love’s fertile peak (1966-69) that make up The Best of Love make the case that this L.A. band belongs in rock’s pantheon. The first racially integrated rock group, Love was led by Arthur Lee, an African-American from Memphis who synthesized the era’s folk, pop (the group vigorously pumped up Burt Bacharach’s “My Little Red Book”), garage rock and psychedelic modes into a unique pastiche that has aged well. What’s more, the band penned one of the most potent punk songs ever: 1966’s “Seven & Seven Is,” the apocalyptic fury of which has never waned. But Love reached its zenith on its LSD-fueled 1967 masterpiece, Forever Changes, which rightly ranks near the top of most critics’ polls for best albums of all time. Five songs from that baroque psych-rock opus appear here, but you ought to score the full album or splurge on Love Story, Rhino’s beautiful 1995 boxed set, which encompasses this new CD and much more. From frilly ballads to scorched-earth punk to jangly covers of “Hey Joe” to sky-melting psychedelia with strings, Love’s rare, subtle beauty never goes out of style.