Love: Da Capo (transparent orange vinyl) [ELEKTRA]

Why you'll love it

This Rhino Rocktober pressing puts Da Capo on transparent orange vinyl, a fitting colour for an album with "Orange Skies" on it. "7 and 7 Is" became Love's biggest single, reaching No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album sits in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

This edition

• Transparent orange vinyl
• Stereo mix

About the album

Da capo is Italian for "from the beginning," which is a cheeky title for a record that started Love over almost from scratch. After their garage and folk rock debut, Arthur Lee grew the band to seven, moving drummer Snoopy Pfisterer to organ and harpsichord, hiring Michael Stuart on drums and adding jazz saxophonist and flautist Tjay Cantrelli. Paul A. Rothchild produced at RCA Studios in Hollywood in the autumn of 1966.

The first side races through baroque pop, Latin swing, jazz and proto-punk. "Stephanie Knows Who" lurches along in waltz time, Bryan MacLean's "Orange Skies" is pure sunshine, "¡Que Vida!" and "She Comes in Colors" glide, and "7 and 7 Is" explodes like garage punk a decade early. Lee and guitarist Johnny Echols named Miles Davis and John Coltrane as influences, and critics count it among the first jazz rock records.

Side two hands the whole thing over to "Revelation," a long blues jam that gives every player room to roam. Many hear Da Capo as the bridge to Forever Changes a year later, which makes this the record where Lee found his smoother voice. It also has a whole side to itself for one song, which in 1966 counted as remarkably bold and in our shop counts as a decent excuse not to get up.

Also at Kops: more Love on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Elektra / Rhino (cat# RCV1 74005), a reissue of the 1966 album.