After a tumultuous period of near-success and personal excess as kings of the L.A. scene, the original incarnation of Love finally fell apart following the release of their masterwork, Forever Changes.
Frontman Arthur Lee kept the name going for the next few years; first the underrated Four Sail crept out on Elektra, fulfilling their contract. Lee's original plan for that album was for it to be a double LP, and he followed through a few months later with the remaining material appearing as Out Here for Blue Thumb -- spread across two discs and including 10 minutes or so of drum break filler. False Start, from 1970, was more concise but in the same willfully eclectic, though mostly hard rock, vein.
In 1972, Lee re-emerged with Vindicator, the first album to be released under his own name. While the players (credited in small print on the front cover as "Band Aid") are largely new, the album today sounds like a natural progression from the second era of Love. The Hendrixisms are still here, as are weird short bits of convoluted poetry. Vindicator holds together better, though, helped by a careful sense of sequencing and its peppering with the mysterious vibe and paranoia of the Forever Changes era.
The careful sequencing is also dangerous because this album flows by without much really grabbing the listener. That being said, it's all played and sung with conviction, and some of Lee's weird sidways storytelling ability occasionally peeks through. The two tracks that get caught in my brain each open a side: "Sad Song," released as a single at the time, and the original appearance of "Everybody's Gotta Live," resurrected as a concert staple in the '00s. The latter song also appeared again when Lee reclaimed the Love moniker for 1974's Reel to Real.
It's unfair but difficult for many listeners (myself included) not to compare Lee's subsequent work to Forever Changes, an album that would be nearly impossible to top. But Vindicator is probably Lee's most consistent work from after the original Love's dissolution, whether the intermittent high points elsewhere are matched or not. I'm guessing that like much of his work, it will continue to grow more interesting with repeated spins. (A&M 1972, reissued on CD by BGO, UK)
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