Editing Forever Changes (section)

===Initial release===
Upon its release in late 1967, ''Forever Changes'' was only moderately successful commercially. It peaked at No.&nbsp;154 in 1968, which was the lowest showing of Love's first three albums.<ref name="Joel Whitburn 1985"/> ''Forever Changes'' had a much stronger showing in Great Britain, where it reached No.&nbsp;24 on the UK album chart in 1968.<ref>{{cite book |first=Martin |last=Roach |title=The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums |publisher=Virgin Books |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7535-1700-0 |page=168}}</ref>

Initial reviews were positive. Writing for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' in 1968, Jim Bickhart regarded ''Forever Changes'' as Love's "most sophisticated album yet", applauding the orchestral arrangements and recording quality.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/forever-changes-19680210 |title=Love: Forever Changes |first=Jim |last=Bickhart |date=February 10, 1968 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |issn=0035-791X |access-date=September 26, 2011}}</ref> In ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'', [[Robert Christgau]] called it an elaboration on Love's original musical style and "a vast improvement" over their previous recordings, because "Lee has stopped trying to imitate [[Mick Jagger]] with his soft voice, and the lyrics, while still obscure, now have an interesting surface as well."<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Christgau|first=Robert|date=June 1968|url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/column4.php|title=Columns|magazine=[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]|access-date=December 3, 2018}}</ref> [[Pete Johnson (rock critic)|Pete Johnson]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' believed the album could "survive endless listening with no diminishing either of power or of freshness", adding that "parts of the album are beautiful; others are disturbingly ugly, reflections of the pop movement towards realism". Gene Youngblood of ''LA Free Express'' also praised the album, calling it "melancholy iconoclasm and tasteful romanticism."<ref name="Einarson, John 2010"/>