Love Songs Ranked
Love is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965. Led by Arthur Lee, Love was one of the first racially-diverse American rock bands. Their music drew from an eclectic range of sources including folk-rock, hard rock, blues, jazz, flamenco, mariachi, and orchestral pop. While finding only modest success on the music charts, Love would come to be praised by critics as one of the most influential American rock groups of all time. Their third album, Forever Changes (1967), is generally regarded as their artistic masterpiece and was added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2011. Here are all of the Love songs ranked.
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10. Softly to Me (Love, 1966)
“Here, he takes the A-side with his sole solo-writing contribution to “Love” with the stunner “Softly to Me,” which with its title and the opening, descending guitar line, comes right out of the gate as a wholly unique track. What MacLean does on this song would generally come out as sappy AM radio pop, but here emerges simply as a gorgeous song lyrically and stylistically. Easily one of my favourite songs.”
9. The Castle (Da Capo, 1966)
“The Castle” is one of these, a bizarre song even by the standards of psychedelia’s heyday. It is basically a folk-tinged ballad but they put it through so many sudden changes of tempo that the effect is completely new and very strange.”
8. Andmoreagain (Love, 1966)
“The pacing of the song and the atmosphere generated by the interplay among different instruments (violins, acoustic guitars, some basic percussion) is already great, but I think it’s the songwriting itself what elevates it to another level.”
7. Your Mind and We Belong Together (Forever Changes, 1968)
“Your Mind and We Belong Together” is mid-fast, garage flavored rock with some folk influences and featuring elec. and acoustic guitar, fuzz, and a fairly heavy guitar break.
See more: Love Albums Ranked
6. My Little Red Book (Love, 1966)
“My Little Red Book” is probably their best known song. Released May 30, 1966, it peaked at number 52 during its 11 week stay on the chart. It probably ranks as one of the odder interpretations of a Bacharach-David composition in their large catalogue of material.”
5. Stephanie Knows Who (Da Capo, 1966)
“This is a nice mix of Psychedelic pop, and 60’s garage rock. Of course Love never had singles that were as good as the Doors, but they deserved the airplay that the Doors got. This one is an excellent dose of reality, as it is a rushing track that hits in very hard doses.”
4. 7 and 7 Is (Da Capo, 1966)
“7 and 7 Is” is defined by its breakneck pace and dramatic intensity. The “proper” song lasts less than two minutes – all skittering drums, plunging bass, and crashing chords, lying underneath Lee’s breathless vocals. It comes to a screeching halt with the sound of an atomic bomb – pulled from a studio sound effects archive – before a brief denouement, straight out of a fifties-era senior prom. It’s a wild, exhilarating track that stands with the best singles of rock’s “golden age.”
3. Laughing Stock (Forever Changes, 1967)
“Laughing Stock starts off slow and builds into fast, garage flavored folk-rock with guitar, tambourine, and mild psych effects. The solo here is uniquely eccentric, and it really makes the song what it is.”
2. Alone Again Or (Forever Changes, 1968)
“Flamenco psychedelic punk-soul pop! Timeless, in that it sounds completely out of time today and must have done so back in 1967 too. (Actually, the overwhelming impression one gets listening to “Alone Again Or” is sheer paranoia — the single sounds like it’s about to scuttle off the turntable and go hide under the bed.)”
1. A House Is Not a Motel (Forever Changes, 1968)
“A House Is Not A Motel is also beautiful, but is much nervier and has an element of paranoia to it, which sets you up for the unleashing of the double-tracked guitar solo in the last minute that sounds like a psych-folk James Williamson.”
