Top Artists – Love

Love – Love

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A superb sounding stereo original of Love’s first album, with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout – reasonably quiet vinyl too
A classic from 1966, a combination of proto-punk and psychedelia featuring My Little Red Book, Hey Joe and more
The first Love album is without a doubt the punchiest, liveliest, most POWERFUL recording in the Love catalog
Engineered by none other than Bruce Botnick, here is the kind of massive bottom end weight and energy that we like to call WHOMP
4 1/2 stars: “Love’s debut is both their hardest-rocking early album and their most Byrds-influenced…”

Some of you may not know this music, but it’s a true Must Own Psychedelic Gem from the ’60s, a record no rock collection should be without, along with other groundbreaking albums from the ’60s such as Surrealistic Pillow, The Doors’ debut, the first Spirit album and too many others to list.

If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good 1966 All Tube Analog sound can be, this killer copy will do the trick. This Gold Label pressing is spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience. Talk about Tubey Magic, the liquidity of the sound here is positively uncanny. This is vintage analog at its best, so full-bodied and relaxed you’ll wonder how it ever came to be that anyone seriously contemplated trying to improve it.

This IS the sound of Tubey Magic. No recordings will ever be made like this again, and no CD will ever capture what is in the grooves of this record. Of course there’s a CD of this album, but those of us in possession of a working turntable and a good collection of vintage vinyl have no need of it. (more…)

Love – Da Capo

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Insanely good Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) stereo sound or close to it from start to finish and one of the few White Hot copies to ever make it to the site
The recording quality here is big, rich and Tubey Magical, with lovely breathy vocals and a massive bottom end – thanks Bruce Botnick!
“… a truly classic body of work, highlighted by the atomic blast of pre-punk rock “7 and 7 Is” (their only hit single), the manic jazz tempos of “Stephanie Knows Who,” and the enchanting “She Comes in Colors,” perhaps Lee’s best composition (and reportedly the inspiration for the Rolling Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow”).”

If you’re looking to demonstrate just how good 1967 All Tube Analog sound can be, this killer copy will do the trick. This Gold Label pressing is spacious, sweet and positively dripping with ambience. Talk about Tubey Magic, the liquidity of the sound here is positively uncanny. This is vintage analog at its best, so full-bodied and relaxed you’ll wonder how it ever came to be that anyone seriously contemplated trying to improve it. (more…)

Love – Forever Changes

The first copy to hit the site in many years and boy was it worth the wait — Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it throughout
Both of these sides are super clean, clear, smooth, dynamic and musical with a lovely bottom end and lots of space around the musicians
It’s incredibly tough to find copies of this title that aren’t trashed; this one is as quiet as they come — Mint Minus Minus on both sides
“Forever Changes is inarguably Love’s masterpiece and an album of enduring beauty…” – All Music

Two incredible sides! We had a chance to shootout a handful of copies recently and didn’t hear any other copies that could compete with this Elektra Gold Label Original Pressing. We are HUGE fans of Love and this copy will show you why. Both sides are lively and full-bodied and the bottom end is KILLER throughout. In short, it’s EXACTLY the sound you want for this music. Give it a chance and you’ll hear for yourself!

Compared to some other copies, this one had more impact, more power and more energy. The vocals are full-bodied and rich with excellent presence. Most copies we heard were pretty blurry down low, but you can actually make sense of the bass on this one. (more…)

Love – Da Capo – Our Shootout Winner from 2010

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A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.

ONE OF THE BEST SIDE ONES WE’VE EVER HEARD on unusually quiet vinyl! Since side two is just one long track that we just can’t get too worked up about, this is EXACTLY the kind of copy we’d want to own. We had a chance to shootout a handful of copies recently and didn’t hear anything that could compete with side one of thie Elektra Gold Label Original Pressing. We are HUGE fans of Love and side one has three of our favorite songs by the band: Stephanie Knows Who, Orange Skies and Seven & Seven Is. Get ready to rock out with this one! (more…)

Love and Forever Changes – Dreck from Sundazed

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Sonic Grade: F

Two Hall of Shame titles, and another two Sundazed records debunked.

We got hold of a minty original pressing of the first Love album back around 2007, so in preparation for the commentary I pulled one of the Sundazed pressings off the shelf, (Forever Changes, the only one we ever bothered to sell), cracked it open and threw it on the turntable.

Gag, what a piece of crap. When I had auditioned them all those years ago (2002) it was — I’m not kidding — the best of the bunch. (more…)

Love – Revisited

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A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.

Two incredible Triple Plus (A+++) sides! We had a chance to shootout a handful of copies recently and didn’t hear any other copies that could compete with this Elektra Original Pressing. We are HUGE fans of Love and this copy will show you why. Both sides are lively and full-bodied and the bottom end is KILLER throughout. In short, it’s EXACTLY the sound you want for this music. Give it a chance and you’ll hear for yourself!

Love – Love – Our Shootout Winner from 2008

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A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.

You’d never know it from those dull Sundazed reissues, but the right pressings of Love’s albums are full of Tubey Magic! With Bruce Botnick at the controls you can expect a meaty bottom end and BIG rock sound, and this recording really delivers on both counts, and this copy captures all of the magic. Big speaker guys (like yours truly) are going to get a LOT out of this copy.

he sound is excellent throughout — surprisingly transparent, with lots of texture to the voices and guitars. The clarity is nothing less than STUNNING. Overall, the sound is warm, sweet, rich, and full-bodied with super low distortion. The bottom end is about As Good As It Gets for hard rock –if your front end is up to the task this record is going to give you WHOMP like you wouldn’t believe!

My Little Red Book sounds PHENOMENAL here — you just can’t rock much harder than that! My notes say “PERFECTION” and that pretty much sums it up! The power of rock n’ roll is alive and well on this copy. It’s doing EVERYTHING right.

Both sides play between Mint Minus and Mint Minus Minus overall, which still makes this a relatively quiet original pressing. This is raw ’60s hard rock, not polite classical music, and a few ticks and pops shouldn’t scare you away.

Love – Love

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A distinguished member of the Better Records Rock and Pop Hall of Fame.

A classic from 1966, a combination of proto-punk and psychedelia featuring My Little Red Book, Hey Joe and more. The first Love album is without a doubt the punchiest, liveliest, most POWERFUL recording in the Love catalog. Engineered by none other than Bruce Botnick, here is the kind of massive bottom end weight and energy that we like to call WHOMP.