Customer Reviews

Love Is

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

(Please note: Same review as below, with minor changes, but I wanted to get it under my name)
This double LP set (originally, that is, "back in the day"--it is a single CD) was the last album by an Animals configuration until the original band did the obligatory reunion album some years later. An album filled with excess, bombast and extended tunes, and I love every second of it. A great example of how the British invasion morphed into psychedelia and ultimately self-destructed. Highlights include their version of River Deep, Mountain High, which is a great companion to Tina Turner's, and their loving Bee Gees tribute, To Love Somebody. I just read a book named Animal Tracks which gives a great straightforward history of the Animals and useful background on this and all of their albums, and I recommend it for true fans of the group.

This double LP set was the last album by an Animals configuration until the origianl band did the obligatory reunion album some years later. An album filled with excess, bombast and extended tunes, and I love every second of it. A great example of how the British invasion morphed into psychedelia and ultimately self-destructed. Highlights include their version of River Deep, Mountain High, which is a great companion to Tina Turner's, and their loving Bee Gees tribute, To Love Somebody.

The Repertoire label has just released a remastered version of this album, currently available on Amazon UK, and the sound quality is truly amazing - makes the One Way and Japanese Polydor CD's sound thin and weak in comparison.
A cursory glance through other reviews will show the potential buyer that this was an album you either loved or hated. No question that there are some filler tracks here - my advice is to program out "I'm Dying, Or Am I?", "Gemini" & "The Madman". What you're left with is one of the great unsung and underappreciated albums of the psychedelic era. Andy Summers' solo on Traffic's "Coloured Rain" is a revelation - this alone is worth the price of admission. Add in a fantastic take on the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" and a unique interpretation of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire", among others, and you've got an indispensible relic of the late 60's.
4 out of 5 stars for the aforementioned filler.

By the way, Repertoire also issued Eric & the Animals' penultimate album, "Every One of Us", at the same time.

I see this CD has gotten some bad reviews. I am sure this CD will now get the due it didn't in its own day. It's a sleeper classic. Sure some people have a hard time understanding the CD. I would not attempt to get someone to appreciate this. You have to be of a particular mindset and understand Eric as a mystical visionary, in this case looking to the future of music. This is their strongest LP since Winds OF Change (which I would call a neglected masterpice, as strong as Pepper and Sunshine Superman). Love Is was a few years ahead it's time, looking forward to other progresive excesses of the early 70s, to the likes of Hawkwind, Yes, and, the worst, sorry ELP. You have to like anything Eric does to appreciate the CD, if not, it will totally go over your head. They did not take the easy route with this LP. It keeps you on your toes with unpredictable changes, and never for the sake of them. The tunes make no claims to be perfect pop songs,(although River Deep is) yet it somehow manages to avoid just about every cliche in pop music as they use those excesses and cliches to their own ends in their attempt to move music forward. The band didn't burn out. Once again Eric did his thing and moved on just at the right moment. He never sold out. One of my favorites right now.

Why is this cd so expensive???
I have this album on vinyl, and although not the best record by Eric Burdon it does have it's moments....
Cannot believe the price that is being asked...
ok who wants to buy a copy of the original double LP??
I'm going to make LOTS of money and put my copy on e-bay!!!!
I'ts about time people got real out there!

Eric Burdon and the New Animals stumbled into the latter half of 1968 dogged by internal ruptures, fading sales and way too much studio time on their hands. So what does Burdon do? He decides to record a double album dominated by hoary psychedelic covers with an under-rehearsed band. I loaned this to a friend of mine to see how far he could get through it. He raised the white flag somewhere during "Colored Rain." The band's clumsiness forces Burdon to do what he does worst, and that is fill gaps with hysterically longwinded vocal improvisations. Exhibit A: "River Deep Mountain High." Instead of sticking with the listenable 3:52 45 version, LOVE IS expands the cut to well over 7:00 so we can listen to Eric pant riotously over Tina Turner. And that's one of the shorter tracks. Zoot Money contributes the sublimely ridiculous "Gemini (The Madman)," a 19-minute remake of a Dantalian's Chariot curio complete with spoken word section. It's guaranteed to clear the house of unwanted visitors or your money back. It's so awful it transcends unlistenable, it transcends camp, it transcends stupidity to arrive in an eden of delirium that's not all that different from the territory Arthur Lee charted, except Love marched triumphantly through the front door whereas these guys stumbled in from the rear end. BTW, Andy Summers was a New Animal at this point, but anyone seeking examples of the idiosyncratic guitar work he brought to the Police will hear here what he learned not to do musically. After striking out on cut after cut, Burdon finally manages a double with a good, soulful cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" that acts as reminder of what a great vocalist he is when he's not singing hungover hippie gunk or ruining good songs with listless, hammy arrangements. I suspect the only reason Burdon got away with releasing this was because he was one of the few legitmate rock stars on MGM's talent roster at that time (You were thinking perhaps, the Osmonds?). Fortunately, our faith in Eric was restored when he rebounded from this fiasco to work with War. But if you must know why the Animals finally crumbled, buy this CD. Listen to the whole thing if you dare. Then, dare your friends! Hold wagers on how long one can hold out before demanding asprin. (No offense Eric, but this album is rotten.) To be fair, a truly pure spirit could treasure this record the way a real searcher may overcome innate artistic prejudice and common sense to find something true and meaningful in the music of Michael Bolton. Of course, that searcher isn't me.