Love: Black Beauty (High Moon)
Black Beauty is a previously unreleased album from 1973 produced by Paul Rothchild (producer of the Doors, among others); the label went out of business before it could be issued. Given that the band's best songs were written by Bryan MacLean and Burt Bacharach, I wasn't expecting much from something from 1973, by which point MacLean was long gone and Arthur Lee was the only original member.
I suppose that while some fans could protest that Black Beauty is not really a Love album, that's fine with me. It's an all-black band led by Lee, in the context of which he frequently indulges his love of Jimi Hendrix ("Midnight Sun" makes this particularly obvious) and gets a little funky -- both for the better.
Surprise! I like it more than any of Love's other albums. I'm aware that that will be a minority opinion, but I've never agreed with the prevailing sentiment that Love was a great band. Its legacy rests on an album and a half: Forever Changes and side one of Da Capo. Somehow the former is considered a classic LP, but aside from "Alone Again Or" the songwriting isn't especially strong, though it all gets by on the wonders of its period production.
Aside from the excellent "Can't Find It," the songwriting on Black Beauty is still not especially memorable (occasionally skirting plagiarism and triviality), but the funky soulfulness that dominates is much more appealing than most of Love's post-Forever Changes output, and Lee's guitar skills are unleashed far more often. As a result, this is recommended far more widely than just to Love fans. In particular, if you're the sort of collector who enjoyed the reissues of Purple Image, Baby Huey, and other heavy psychedelic soul-funk-rock, Black Beauty is a must-have.
This deluxe High Moon issue has been long delayed, but at least the vinyl seems about to appear. Given the limited quantities, using the pre-order option on High Moon's website seems advisable.