‘Forever Changes.’ Mono. $375.

Forever fated, it seems, to be recycled, exploited and enhanced, the third and final album from the original Love returns in audiophile mono — and with a price tag of $375.

“Forever Changes” has been in heavy play as a reissue since the 1980s, when it came out of relative obscurity to become a rock critic favorite as best album of all time. (At one point it was Rolling Stone’s GOAT.)

You can acquire the album on heavyweight vinyl, at 45 rpm, in a lavish box set, on SACD, in mono, on colored vinyl, on Japanese SHM-CD, as an “alternative mix” … Discogs lists at least 130 versions.

Some of the industry’s top audio restorers have taken a crack at the LP, recorded in 1967, trying to address the middling sound quality of the original stereo album.

Now comes the Electric Recording Company, a London outfit devoted to ultra-high-end reissues. At ultra-high-end price points. ERC moves into rock with “Forever Changes.” Its catalog includes jazz gems such as Sonny Rollins’ “Way Out West” and Thelonious Monk’s “Brilliant Corners.” There are blues (John Lee Hooker) and of course lots of classical (the Beethoven Nine, Debussy, Chopin Noctures).

The vinyl titles are priced at 300 pounds (about $375 to you Americans) and are limited to 300 copies (at most). Neat. They sell out almost immediately, and the label promises to never repeat a run on a title. Read about all we missed on the ERC shop page.

“The reissues, all fully sanctioned by the original copyright owners, are to be divided evenly between mono and stereo recordings (as was the original catalogue),” ERC says.

For “Forever Changes,” at least for now, it’s mono.

(Update: ERC set a late November release for the stereo version. “Mastered in stereo from the original master tapes (identified by the abrupt edit at the end of ‘A House Is Not a Motel’) via our 1965 all valve Lyrec / Ortofon analogue cutting chain. No equalisation or compression was used during the mastering process.”)

There appears to be no original dedicated mono mix, however, so this rerelease seems to be what’s known as a foldown. Stereo source reprocessed to mono. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — necessarily.

ERC again: “Mastered in True Mono from the original first-generation master tapes (identified by the abrupt edit at the end of ‘A House Is Not a Motel’) via our 1965 all valve Lyrec / Ortofon analogue cutting chain. No equalization or compression was used during the mastering process.”

Audio engineer Steven Hoffman, who remastered the alternative mix of the album, weighed in on the mono issue June 12. “There is no mono mix,” he told readers of his forum. “The stereo tape was used to cut any mono LP version.” Yet, he wants to hear it: ERC’s “fantastic cutting system can make magic.”

A lot of fuss over an album that almost didn’t get made. Arthur Lee found his band in decline when they entered the studio for their third LP, trying to follow up the brilliant but uneven “Da Capo.” Drug use and inactivity had taken their toll. Band members were scared sort-of straight when they found studio musicians taking their places, and sobered up long enough to record one of rock’s statement works.

“Forever Changes” was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame and is included on the Library of Congress’ list of preservation recordings.

“Forever” would prove a last hurrah for Love, though, as Lee went on to form a new group under the same name for 1969’s guitar-driven “Four Sail.”

Update: The mono version of “Forever Changes” was up for preorders on the ERC web site, but quickly joined the list of the company’s “sold out” titles. A flipper already is asking about $1,000 for the disc on eBay.