What the World Needs Now
Forever Changes - Love (Blast from the Past Sunday)
Almost 59 years after its release, Jackie DeShannon’s “What the World Needs Now” has a chorus that still rings true. What the world needs now is Love, sweet Love, in the form of their stellar 1967 album Forever Changes! Okay, maybe that’s not exactly what Jackie was singing about. But still, I think Forever Changes stands solidly as an album that everyone should hear at least once, one that captures the psychedelic sixties in a way that can’t get more genuine.
The album begins with the sweet, acoustic guitar lead-in of “Alone Again Or”. I feel like while the guitar alone is a nice way to open the album, it’s almost like a red herring for what comes next. “Alone Again Or” is a song filled with layers that will pique your interest, and I’m not just saying that. It has fervent strings and a chorus of horns, bouncing bass and shredding drums! What more could you want? While it’s a relatively gentle song, I’ve always had a feeling that it would be great for a chase scene in a campy, vintage-style movie.
The song that follows, “A House is Not a Motel”, is the perfect example of a song that goes deeper than it may seem on first listen. The tune sounds light and fun, and yet has moments that feel uneasy, the type that leaves space for someone to raise their eyebrow and say “hmm….” The song breaks its own rules at a point, as a Van Morrison-esque scream gives way to a sudden electronic guitar jam. “A House is Not a Motel” is a song that takes its listener on a ride, one that you’ll want to go on again and again!
“The Red Telephone” was the very first song I heard from this album, and from Love in general. I can’t fully remember what I thought of it at first, since it was a few years ago, but I certainly have evidence that it piqued my interest enough for me to call this album one of my favorites ever since then! It’s a strange yet addicting song, one that almost seems like it could hypnotize you. “The Red Telephone” is a conversational song with a twist, one that makes you wonder whether the protagonist is actually speaking to someone else, and if so, if that person is real or a figment of their imagination.
Track seven is called “Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale”. My favorite part of the song is the rh— what’s that? Oh, you didn’t quite catch that name? Let me repeat it then. It’s “Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale”. Anyways, my favor— you still don’t have it? Come on now! It’s “Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale”! You STILL don’t have it all? Just look it up at this point, buddy. Despite its heavy name, this song is a great one, contrasting well with “The Red Telephone”. While I love all aspects of it, I gotta hand it to the bass and the drums for absolutely CRUSHING it in this song!! The lyrics have a trail-off style that I personally really enjoy, as it has you guess the word that’ll start the next verse in a fun sort of game. Speaking of games, I also admire the vocal/horn duet around the middle of the song, because they’re both at the top of their game!
Finally, we come to a more recent favorite of mine, which is track nine’s “The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This”. (While I would say it’s a mouthful, I think track 7 has it beat significantly!) The lyrics are disconnected, as if they took two sentences and smashed them together to be sung in a melody that doesn’t quite account for all the syllables. I find this charming, as it feels like a first-draft kinda song, one that captures the thoughts one would actually have when driving around a new environment and pointing out all the beauty within it. It has the vocal style of an EKG, with notes that flow up and down faster than you can even track them! With the muted horns and string plucks, it would fit right in on a Burt Bacharach compilation too. The only thing I dislike about this song is the end, as the skipping of the melody always made me think my CD was scratched when I listened to it!
Forever Changes is an album that I feel is criminally underrated. It’s funny, because I know that people love it. In fact, when I searched it up on Google to find the release date, the first question was “Is Forever Changes the best album ever?” I had to pause to think about this, and after much thought, I’d have to say the answer is no. Before you send in the pitchforks, I just have to say that I really don’t think there IS a best album ever. Music is subjective, made for the listener to enjoy, and chances are, there’s someone out there advocating for every album to be the best album ever. However, Forever Changes is a hauntingly beautiful time machine, one that can take you back to the summer of love and show you both the light and the dark of that era. I think that while I wouldn’t categorize it as the best album ever, I do firmly consider it to be one of the best in my book.
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