I think one of the keys to appreciating 1960s psychedelic albums is to focus on the singles mentality of the era. The 45 RPM single that is. The short form track with bursts of fuzz guitar. While there are certainly very interesting long form albums from the era, from the likes of Pink Floyd, Group 1850, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Iron Butterfly, even the Beatles - most of the genre still has their mind on hard hitting and impactful short songs meant for fast recognition - and a quick high. Once you grasp that concept, then some of these 60s psychedelic classics begin to make sense. The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Blue Cheer, The Rolling Stones, and multiple others are essentially compiling a group of singles for your approval. As someone who grew up appreciating the side long progressive epic or the Krautrock atmospheric jam, much of this mindset was lost on me. But taking an album of individual components versus a macro concept can be just as interesting. Certainly as the 70s and 80s rolled on, this perspective is required and expected. It's not like 70s AOR and 80s heavy metal albums were mostly conceptual. But they tend to be more focused for certain. 1960s bands were writing the rules, even if they had no idea what the boundaries were. And with that, Love and Poetry remains an inconsistent listen, but the good stuff is exceptional.
Ownership: CD: 2018 Sunbeam. Digipak. Nice reissue with full liner notes and historical memorabilia from group leader David Lewis. Contains eight bonus tracks. Four of these are non-LP singles. Mostly subpar to the album with the exception of the excellent instrumental 'Michael FitzHenry' (1970), which catches the band in transition to renaming themselves Andwella. Otherwise, two tracks are alternate takes (nothing revelatory) and two modern live songs from 2008, which have little to do with the music of Love and Poetry. This version replaces the Japanese papersleeve edition that does not contain any of these extras. Since original LPs are typically in the four figure range, I'm more than content with this CD.
3/5/07; 12/13/13; 6/7/18; 8/21/23 (new entry)
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