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Love Cry is a 1968 album by jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, released on Impulse! Records in 1968. It was originally reissued on CD by GRP with two previously unreleased alternate takes and one previously unreleased outtake. The cover claimed that "Universal Indians" is presented as a longer extended edit, but it is actually identical to the original LP. The later twofer CD edition (paired with "The Last Album") discards the bonus tracks.
Love Cry marked the last recorded appearance of Donald Ayler with his brother. Shortly after the recording session, he departed the band and returned to Cleveland.
Writing for All About Jazz, Tim Niland called Love Cry "one of Ayler's finest LPs", stating that it "features short themes and improvisations that are accessible, yet experimental and stick in the mind like an earworm long afterward. Ayler re-visits some of his well known themes like 'Ghosts' and 'Bells' re-arranged for lucid short blasts of music. Cobbs' harpsichord is a wildcard, but it works quite well, giving the music an unusual and unique sound. Graves and Silva are an inspired rhythmic team, giving free flow to a wealth of musical ideas and Ayler sounds simply magisterial throughout. 'Universal Indians' shows that they didn't leave their roots behind, it's a free-jazz blowout with a nice trumpet and tenor dialogue that is ripe and torrid, while Graves is simply extraordinary propelling everyone ever onward, it is also the album's one epic, clocking in at almost ten minutes."
Phil Freeman, in an article for Burning Ambulance, commented: " Love Cry... is in some ways an attempt by Impulse! to 're-introduce' Ayler. 'Ghosts' and 'Bells' had originally been cut in much more furious and lengthy versions for ESP-Disk; here, the band... focuses more on the melodies than the solos, and the two horns intertwine and converse in a way that's quite beautiful, while also bringing in strong elements of R&B and New Orleans polyphony. Cobbs' harpsichord is a strange and occasionally disquieting element; on 'Dancing Flowers,' he's playing trills that sound like music from the soundtrack to a silent horror movie, as Silva bows the bass portentously and Graves rattles around the kit."
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