Four Sail – LOVE****

August/Your Friend & Mine – Neil’s Song/I’m With You/Good Times/Singing Cowboy/Dream/Robert Montgomery/ Nothing/Talking In My Sleep/Always See Your Face

For their fourth album, the more heavy rocking Four Sail, Love underwent major personnel changes, with only songwriter Arthur Lee still remaining to steer the vessel. (US:102)

“Four Sail is an essential for any Love fan, or any fan of late 60s acid rock. Lee still proves that he is more than just another psychedelic rock band, putting his newlyformed band on the top of the rock pedestal of 1969. This album has been unfairly forgotten.”

“By no means is it a masterpiece, but it displays a talented, often hard rocking aggregation. The lyrics aren't as awesome as Forever Changes, but this stuff is still quite good.”

“It is different from its predecessors in that it rocks much harder from beginning to end. However, as their early singles made perfectly clear, Love were always a band that had the ability to rock hard. On Four Sail, Lee explores the electric side of psychedelic folk rather than the acoustic.”

“By 1969 Lee was the only constant from the original line-up. It starts out with the rather nice jazz-rock song August, the longest track on the album. There is also Your Friend & Mine which hints at some country rock. This can be a wonderful album to listen to.”

“Arthur Lee stopped using an orchestra and scrapped the Morricone-ish arrangements and went back to his blues roots, both musically and lyrically, on here with his new band members. Lee's songs still retain their strong Byrds-influenced melodies, and the wah-wah guitar is so raw and stripped down.”

“If you're coming off Forever Changes expecting something as existentially profound you're going to be disappointed. If you're content to listen to some good 60s psychedelic pop without all the lyrically heavy material, you'll love this record.”

“The best thing about Four Sail is that it sounds like a new band, completely lacking the orchestral textures that were woven into its classic predecessor's fabric.”