A bit of a shout out for the Judybats cover of Animal Farm on Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow. It's pretty faithful. My wife asked who was covering the Judybats once when I played the Kinks album.

Johnny Thunder, Walter, Phenomenal Cat, and Starstruck are my favorite songs on this album although it really has to be listened as a whole. Picture Book and Pictures are pretty damned good. Oh hell, this is fruitless.

Holy shit, I just listened to the first three songs from Arthur and I may have to reconsider everything I said.

It's certainly an excellent album, but I don't think it deserves the level of praise it has received over the years. Especially given the company it keeps in the band's catalog. I certainly don't begrudge anyone their love of it, though.

Sgt. Pepper is the weakest Beatles album other than Beatles For Sale, but that just goes to show how amazingly good The Beatles were.

Pet Sounds is fantastic, but all three (Sgt. Pepper, Pet Sounds, VGPS) pale in comparison to Smile.

Am I the only person who is totally mystified by the adoration for Pet Sounds? To me it sounds like hookless, late 60s preppy make out music (except for Wouldn't it Be Nice and God Only Knows which are classics). Never could get into the Beach Boys despite the fact that I'm typing this less than half a mile away from the Wilson brother's high school (Hawthorne High).

^ I appreciate Pet Sounds as a technical achievement. It's groundbreaking as a production. As music, it's pretty limp (with a few exceptions). It does nothing for me whatsoever.

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You see this is what I'm talking aboout how come I don't have this show on DVD dammit!!

My attempt at creating a Kinks Album Rating Continuum, if you will. Won't you? As we evaluate further albums, this thing will probably change...


The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
Something Else


Face To Face


The Kink Controversy
Kinda Kinks


Kinks

A quick word about the Village Green Preservation Society BONUS TRACKS....

2004 Sanctuary Deluxe 3CD Edition Bonus Tracks

Stereo mixes from original 12-track editions released in France, Norway and Sweden
1. Mr. Songbird
2. Days
3. Do You Remember Walter?
4. People Take Pictures of Each Other

Original Mono Mix of Album

Mono Bonus Tracks
1. Days
2. Mr. Songbird
3. Polly
4. Wonderboy
5. Berkeley Mews
6. Village Green (no strings version)

Rarities
1. Village Green (orchestra overdub, previously unreleased)
2. Misty Water (stereo)
3. Berkeley Mews (stereo)
4. Easy Come, There You Went (stereo, previously unreleased)
5. Polly (stereo)
6. Animal Farm (alternate stereo mix, previously unreleased)
7. Phenomenal Cat (mono instrumental, previously unreleased)
8. Johnny Thunder (stereo remix from the original multi-track tapes, previously unreleased)
9. Did You See His Name (previously unreleased)
10. Mick Avory's Underpants (previously unreleased)
11. Lavender Hill
12. Rosemary Rose
13. Wonderboy (stereo mix with the vocals buried)
14. Spotty Grotty Anna
15. Where Did My Spring Go
16. Groovie Movies
17. Creeping Jean (Dave Davies) (previously unreleased longer stereo mix with some minor overdubbing missing)
18. King Kong
19. Misty Water (mono, previously unreleased)
20. Do You Remember Walter (BBC session remix, previously unreleased)
21. Animal Farm (BBC session remix, previously unreleased)
22. Days (BBC session remix, previously unreleased)

I gotta say, this 3-CD remastered set, assembled and supervised by Andrew Sandoval, is a beaut. If you love this album, you owe it to yourself to pick up this package. You get both the full stereo and mono tracks (I find the mono album preferable, only because the stereo mix seems a bit too disparate at times. It's still quite fine, mind you, but the mono is finer), the stereo tracks from the hastily issued Continental version of the album that Ray pooh-poohed, mono singles, alternate tracks, overdubs, unreleased material, BBC sessions... quite the treasure trove. Plus a fine booklet detailing the album's production. If you love this album -- and you should -- it's well worth your shekels, and then some.

OK anyway... rather than go into deep detail of every last nook and cranny of every last track, I'm just gonna cover songs that haven't been covered before in any capacity. With or without a vocal track, "Phenomenal Cat" is still a storybook happytime, and nothing could make "Wonderboy" more interesting unless we used Shakira as a butt bongo. For instance, we have Days and Mr. Songbird, both included on the Continental album. Days was also a summer of 1968 single, hitting #10 in the UK but unreleased in the US. It's a mature, sad but hopeful number about a dead or lost lover, thanking them for the time they shared. Mr. Songbird is a bouncy, sweet trifle of a song, upbeat and catchy. Both good tracks.

"Wonderboy" and "Polly" were included as bonus tracks on "SOMETHING ELSE", so let's move on. The saloon-styled piano that opens up Berkeley Mews is quite appealing ("What's your poison, compadre?") but it quickly merges with a funky bass groove and rhythmic hand-clapping. It was recorded sometime in early 1968, during the album sessions. It's a winning little tune, no question, but an odd one. Misty Water, recorded May 3rd 1968, was a long "lost" session track, included on the briefly issued and hastily discontinued "THE GREAT LOST KINKS ALBUM". It makes its first CD appearance here, and the mono mix makes its first appearance ANYWHERE here as well! It's a nice little tune, but given it's legendary status... no great shakes either.

Easy Come, There You Went (March 29th 1968) is an unreleased instrumental, the first of three on this album, and it's agreeable but not exceptional. The splashes of Mellotron are nice though. The new mono mix makes Did You See His Name quite a find, as it had been released on two previous collections but only in its stereo mix. I like the song, especially the dueting between Ray's vocals and Dave's guitar riffing. Essential, not really, but a nice find. And at long last... Mick Avory's Underpants!! (March 29th 1968) The 2nd instrumental here, I like this one a lot. Check out Pete's wicked bass grooves. Funkmaster!

Lavender Hill (August 1967) sounds more "SOMETHING ELSE" than "VILLAGE GREEN", perhaps due to its summer '67 recording. I'm not too crazy about it. It feels too much like a toss-off for Ray. Meh. It was another "Great Lost Kinks Album" track that makes its CD debut here. On the other hand, the exquisite Rosemary Rose (March 1968) is a fine track, rich full of harpsichord sounds from the Mellotron, acoustic guitars, and an almost Latin flavor. Beautiful number, another "Long Lost Kinks" refugee.

Our third instrumental track makes its appearance with Spotty Grotty Anna (1968), named after one of London's most "notorious" groupies. It's a fine blues piece, putting Dave's often underrated guitar skills well on display. Very enjoyable. Where Did My Spring Go? (January 28th 1969). Not part of the Village Green sessions, it was recorded for the BBC TV show "Where Was Spring"? Ray's vocal delivery is strong, confident, and assured. It's kind of a strange song. I mistook "hormones" for "homos" at one point. Strange bird, really. It just ends all of the sudden. Groovy Movies (March 1969) is a Dave tune, intended for a solo album but ending up as another "Great Lost Album" track. It's pretty much entirely BLERG. Kind of generic sounding, with utterly banal lyrics. Feh. Ray has a talent for making banality fascinating, but Dave just doesn't have the same acumen. Creeping Jean (December 1968) is another Dave tune intended for the same abandoned album, and fares a little better, but not by a whole lot. Musically it's much more interesting, and the lyrics aren't anywhere near as dopey.

Finally, the last bonus track worth mentioning is King Kong (March 1969), a Ray tune and a strong rocker. Great hooks, powerful riffage, cool harmonies... I'm digging it. A lot. As the liner notes mentioned, the song helped proved the band hadn't totally forgotten how to RAWK!!!! after VGPS.

So anyway, there we have it. If you're a fan, I think the bonus material more than merits the purchase. Also, as it was remastered by Sandoval (who is also behind the latest batch of 2011 Kinks remastered CDs), a new version isn't coming out anytime soon (nor does one really need to). Pick this up ASAP.


OK! Decks are cleared, we got ARTHUR coming up next. Gonna grab a Diet Dr. Pepper and have some alone time thinking of Shakira as a butt bongo... in the meantime, everyone give the album a re-listen (or a first time listen) to get chubbed up for our discussion. Vaya con pollo!

Days is an amazing track. I love everything about it.

Now, about Arthur...

Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - The Kinks



Original Release Date: October 10, 1969

Original Track Listing
1. Victoria
2. Yes Sir, No Sir
3. Some Mother's Son
4. Drivin'
5. Brainwashed
6. Australia
7. Shangri-La
8. Mr. Churchill Says
9. She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina
10. Young and Innocent Days
11. Nothing to Say
12. Arthur

Well, VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY certainly didn't deliver on the commercial front, did it? Never mind that it would go on to become the most acclaimed and biggest selling non-compilation album of their careers! Still, that must have smarted a bit for the Ray and the band. Surely, now that their artistic statement, their self-indulgent art project, their bigtime themed album wasn't an immediate sales success, The Kinks would return to a formula that would tilt them more towards huge commercial success right? RIGHT?!!

Psshaw. The Kinks were just getting warmed up. In early 1969 there was approached by Granada TV to work them and develop a program that would feature songs by the band. They were keen on the project, although by this time Pete Quaife had left the band and was replaced by John Dalton. Still, they cut the album over the summer of 1969 and while the TV play/movie never ended up going into production -- much to the frustration of Ray Davies -- the album dropped that October anyhow. Loosely inspired by the emigration of elder sister Rose and her husband Arthur to Australia, the album retained something of an overall storyline but really felt more thematic then anything else. It echoes the traditions of the past but now in a more restrictive light; "knowing your place" and all that. There's also the loss of servicemen for King and Country, the resolve of the British character, but all for what really? A house, a car, maybe a TV set or a radio. The loss of children, to bullets, to distance, to a new world of changing social mores. What's the sum game? Sometimes the love you take is a shitload less than the love you make.

As detailed in the liner notes, Arthur was definitely not named after a Once and Future King, but of the third son of Queen Victoria, who was safe and married and traditional.

Well anyway... all of this is fine and dandy, but how is Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire) as an album? I'd say, pretty freakin' great. REALLY great, another classic album in a long line of classic albums. The album's production values are the finest to date, the songwriting and arrangements lush and assured, and a sense of driving purpose carried over from VGPS to create another lasting work of artistic vision. The result is one of the band's finest albums, and yet another top-notch work from a premiere band at the height of their prime.

The songs are eclectic enough, but united by theme. Victoria rocks right outta the gate, catchy as sin but a grounded rocker with layers of overlapping guitars and centralized driving riff. The proud brass lines that accentuate the bridge are a great touch, but first and foremost this is a strong guitar-driven rocker. Switching gears immediately, a military-styled snare opens up Yes Sir, No Sir, a more theatrical number loaded with strong horns, orchestrations, and Ray's affected, slightly (and purposefully) off-kilter delivery. The song switches gears halfway through, a strict authoratitive response to clamp down on any potential individuality that opens the song. "If he dies we'll send a medal to his wife..." It segues into the slower, sadder Some Mother's Son... the song is a really quite heavy-handed, but the descriptive moment of Arthur's son's (or brother's) death, and the image of the mothers waiting for news of their sons at war contrasted against that of mothers waiting for their children to come home from school -- pretty hardcore.

Drivin' is more of a VGPS throwback, indicative of Arthur's yearning to ignore (or deny) the troubles of world in favor of a simple family drive. It's a swingin', backbeat musical hall number that's catchy as all get out. We get back to the RAWK with Brainwashed, which indicts Arthur's acquiescence to a servile, know-your-place-and-shut-up mentality. Check out Dalton's funky bass playing, those strong R&B horns, and Dave's sweet distorted guitar tone. Great song, totally cooks.

Now we get to the album's two centerpiece songs: Australia and Shangri-La. One represents a newer world, one free of repressive traditions of Britain, whereas the other represents the comforts of home and quiet virtues of steadfast humility and servitude. But it's not as if the album decides one is better than the other. There's certainly a mocking attitude towards the starry-eyed optimism of Australia, which is unique so far in The Kinks output as it ends with a long, lenghty jam by the band. The "jam" element has been both criticized and praised. My reaction is to it is pretty muted but slightly off-center towards the positive side. I dig it, but it's not exactly mindblowing. But it doesn't really need to be.

Shangri-La is FUCKING EPIC. This is one of my favorite Kinks tunes, ever. It starts soft and acoustic, and builds into this total beast. The song pities Arthur's life and home situation, driving home that he's stuck in life and can't really go anywhere with himself. On the other hand, he owns his house (and "most of his car"), but he's locked in place for life. Which is preferable, the promise of Australia or the certainty of Shangri-La? With an song as amazing as this one, who really cares? This is TOP NOTCH KINKS.

Mr. Churchill Says is probably my least favorite track so far, although it's far from a weak song. Musically it's far more interesting than its lyrics. I love Dave's minor-key solo and band noodling that closes the song out, which definitely elevate the song from meh to decent. She's Bought A Hate Like Princess Marina is pure theatrical Kinks (and a harbinger of the upcoming RCA era if there ever was one). Good song for what it is, especially as a more caustic riff on the absurdities of life at Shangri-La. When it turns into pure ragtime, you're either loving it or you're moving on to the next track. I was loving it personally. I'm a big fan of this kind of swing. So eat it, Harvey.

The album's first portrayal of real unmasked emotion comes in the ballad Young And Innocent Days, a simple lament for the loss of innocent optimism. I'm particularly a big fan of the vocal harmonies between Ray and Dave on the verses and chorus. It's a lush, beautiful number. The acoustic licks at the song's end are quite lovely. Nothing To Say is the emotional flip side to Young and Innocent Days, in which Arthur's son basically lays it out to his Pop that "we can't do tomorrow what we did yesterday". It's probably the most "pop"-like song on the album: very musical, catchy chorus, solid and steady beat.

Finally we wrap everything up with Arthur, a satisfying ending to a great album. The tone of the song is guitar-driven and rockin', with an almost uplifting chorus that feels just about as upbeat as you can imagine. Too bad the song just totally DAMNS Arthur as an unsatisfied loser, even though it understands and loves him for it. The world is passing poor Arthur by, and he's lost to his traditional ways, ones that keep him kept down and trivialized. But at least someone out there loves him for it. Or whatever. It's a fine song and a great ending to a fantastic album.

It took me a very long time to warm up to Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) as an album. It's definitely one that didn't grab me from the get-go, like VGPS or Something Else. Looking back it's hard to say why, exactly, because I think the album is absolutely killer. If VGPS is still my favorite Kinks album, Arthur is right behind it. At least for now. I'm sounding like a broken record, but this is yet another ESSENTIAL Kinks album and a classic in its own right. The Kinks weren't just firing on all cylinders at this point; they were the ENTIRE melon!! No idea what that means...

Okay, so, remember how I said I was wrong about Something Else being the best Kinks album? That was because I had relistened to Arthur and I was totally blown away. Yes, I've heard it before, but something about this time just clicked and I went nuts for it. The production on it is perfect. Crisp, muscular, pristine. The songs are the absolute best the band ever put on tape, and the performances are brisk and energetic. While the concept could have become leaden, they manage to make the whole thing work, and the album is captivating from beginning to end. "Brainwashed" may be my all time favorite Kinks song. Anyway, this is the apex of their career right here, although they were still firing on all cylinders for a few years yet.

No more love for ARTHUR?

Incidentally, I received my 2011 editions of the first three albums from Amazon UK on Saturday. I'm not a fan of the slipcase being phased out in favor of the adhesive strip (that needs to be cut to open the package). But everything else is VERY impressive -- the reproduction of the album artwork, the extensive liner notes and thoroughly exhaustive booklet, and the remasters sound great to my ears (a bit louder, but not horrifically so).

I'll post further reviews of them somewhere down the line. Maybe when I'm close to hanging myself during the RCA era...

Shangri-La = fantastic.

A quick word about the Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) BONUS TRACKS

1998/2004 Special Edition Bonus Tracks
1. Plastic Man (Mono mix)
2. King Kong (Mono mix)
3. Drivin' (Mono mix)
4. Mindless Child of Motherhood (Mono mix)
5. This Man He Weeps Tonight (Mono mix)
6. Plastic Man (Alternate stereo version)
7. Mindless Child of Motherhood (Stereo mix)
8. This Man He Weeps Tonight (Stereo mix)
9. She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina (Mono mix)
10. Mr. Shoemaker's Daughter

Compared to the VGPS bonus tracks, this is a comparative walk in the park. Bear in mind, a brand new 2011 Special Edition of Arthur is coming out in 6/2011, allegedly with a host of new bonus material. Still, we got some nice content on the 1998 and 2004 releases.

We start out with Plastic Man, which includes both a mono and alt-stereo version. Having nothing to do with Eel O'Brien doomed the single to failure (may not be true), although some fault this due to the inclusion of the word "bum". BUM. Look how far we've come. Either way, the March 1969 single was banned from the BBC and only charted to #31 in the UK and was never released in the US until its inclusion on "The Great Lost Kinks Album" in 1973. How is it as a song? Middling. The lyrics are fine enough but the music and vocal delivery is trite and unmemorable.

More impressive is the B-side, King Kong. It's a great little pop-rocker with a propelling beat and some thick riffing. It sounds like an early 70s T-Rex/Sweet number, but with thin 60s production values. Definitely a winner. The mono version of Drivin' is a nice inclusion, but the stereo is the preferable mix for this tune.

To *ahem* sweeten the deal, we've got three (count 'em) tracks from Dave's unreleased solo album "A Hole in the Sock of Dave Davies", recorded by The Kinks after the Arthur sessions. The first, Mindless Child of Motherhood a strong number, very musical and power-poppish. Dave's vocals never quite work entirely for me, but this one is a good number (It was also released as the B-side to the mono "Drivin'" single). More jangly and chimey is This Man He Weeps Tonight, another agreeable track by Dave. It's a bit busy, and echoes of The Byrds more than a few times, but I like it. Both tracks are included in mono and stereo version.

Finally, we have a mono mix of She's Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina (good, but stereo sounds much stronger) and the final Dave Davies's solo tune Mr. Shoemaker's Daughter. Folksy and piano-driven, it's undermined by Dave's shaky vocals and some anemic lyrics. The production on it, however, is pretty tight. Too bad it wasn't in the service of a better song.

So yeah, not a whole lot of joyous excess here, but that shouldn't even start to give you pause as to whether or not to pick up Arthur, as the album proper is just greatness period. Although again, with the new 2-CD edition coming out in a month, you might as well wait until then.

Thus ends our look at Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)... for now, anyhow. Easily a great album, a classic album, a top-tier highlight of The Kinks's discography. So what could be next then? Would you believe Granny Tranny Porn?

Top 5 Kinks song for me.

The lyrics to this song capture such an amazing glimpse into the human condition it's almost uncomfortable to listen to. It's hard to believe Ray was only 25 when he wrote this song.

Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One - The Kinks



Original Release Date: November 27, 1970

Original Track Listing
1. Introduction
2. The Contenders
3. Strangers
4. Denmark Street
5. Get Back in Line
6. Lola
7. Top of the Pops
8. The Moneygoround
9. This Time Tomorrow
10. A Long Way From Home
11. Rats
12. Apeman
13. Powerman
14. Got to Be Free

Ray Davies was NOT happy with the music industry, and certainly let his feelings known on The Kinks's 1970 album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One -- which will hereby be shortened to Lola vs. Powerman for the purposes of this review, because even with cut-and-paste, it's still a bother to reproduce the entire official title. It's my thread and I get to make the rules. Anyway, so the new decade begins and The Kinks's commercial fortunes have been on the wane. Their last two albums received massive critical acclaim (and remain the two best albums of their discography, in this schmuck's opinion) but didn't sell worth a good goddamn. They were banned from performing in the US for a good four years, the majority of their career thus far, so US promotional efforts were miniscule at best. And then of course there were the usual music-biz complaints: greedy executives, lack of control over their publishing, fast-and-loose accounting practices, the pressure to write hit singles and sell zillions of albums... well by GUM Davies was gonna let the music industry have it! And by doing so, release their best-selling album in YEARS, with a HUGE-selling single that went Top 10 around the world. Chokin' on the rage is good for business, as it seems.

OK but so was the album any good? I'd say hell yeah. Lola vs. Powerman lacks the unifying character of VGPS or Arthur. Even if the album does have a loose overall "theme", the songs don't hang together as well. Which is fine; not every release has to be conceptual. As long as the songs are good, right? Sure, and there are plenty of good songs to be found here. A few great ones. But also some mixed, skippable tracks as well. Still, overall this is another fine release from the band, and in a lot of ways a foreshadowing of their later Arista / so-called "Arena Rock" era. While there are many acoustic, folksy, or introspective tunes on the album, and fine songwriting all around from Davies, there is a lot more ROCK!!! to be found here than on previous albums. The album seems like an anomaly sandwiched between Arthur and Muswell, which makes it stick out more as somehow being not emblematic of the late 60s Kinks sound. There's anger, some rawness and and a looser feel, but there's cheekyness as well. Plus a dip in the warm waters of he-she interactions. Yay! Lola vs. Powerman, while recognized as one of the band's "classic albums", isn't often held in quite the same high regard as its 1967 - 1971 brethren. Sure it lacks the groundbreaking ambition of the previous two albums, or the chimey pop craftsmanship of Something Else and Face To Face, but as a collection of songs it's also a satisfying and often exciting album. Definitely not a masterpiece, but a real good record nonetheless.

Let's get the 800-pound garbonzo out of the way first: the rock classic Lola. Three things to say about this one: (1) Classic rock radio has overplayed this sucker to holy hell and beyond, (2) My first exposure to the song was in 1980, via Weird Al's "Yoda" parody, and (3) I'm sick to DEATH of whenever I sing this song at karaoke, and some drunken redneck saunters up to me, belches his Coors light right in my face, and then says to me, he says, "Ya realize this song is about a GUY, right?!?!" Thanks Aristotle. It's only been around for 41 years, I'm sure *someone* might have picked up on its Where's Waldo-esque complexity of subject matter. So anyway, bla bla bla, huge hit, big seller, top 10 single. Probably the most well-known Kinks song of alltime. Have at you. Also, as singles go, I always loved Apeman quite a bit. I wish the vocals in the opening verse were mixed higher, but you can't have everything. Ray always maintained this talent to take a novelty song and make it work as a song, first and foremost, and he does this quite well here.

The album opener (aside from the intro which will be revisited later) is The Contenders... which is a solid rocker, a good tune and something of a barnburner to open the album. The lyrics are a bit quizzical and it's entirely a surface-level conceit, but if you're in the mood for some agreeable rock it works. Also notable is Dave's Strangers, a beautiful little number that represents one of his best songs to date. I still cringe a bit at his straining vocals, but either you accept that as part of his shtick or you don't. The song is good enough to overlook such transgressions.

I'm kinda meh about Denmark Street, Ray's indictment of music publishing houses. The vaudevillian feel is enjoyable, but the song doesn't amount to anything much, and then it's over in about two minutes. Wha? Well things improve considerably with the solid Get Back In Line, an anti-union lament with a strong melody and fine lyricism from Ray.

Top Of The Pops is another hard rocker (with a musical nod to "Land of a Thousand Dances"), this time skewering the constant pressure to keep on pumping out those bigtime hits, and it's an OK tune as well, but nothing memorable. On the other hand, the music hall Moneygoround is exquisitely awesome. I think of all the tunes on the album attacking the biz, this one works best. The lyrics are sharper, the music more enjoyable, the overall feel and imagination of it putting it a head above most of the competition.

Another superlative tune, This Time Tomorrow, attacks the drudgery of the exhaustive touring schedule. This is one of the best songs on the album, perhaps THE best song, and one of the band's overall highlights. The harmonies between Ray and Dave are pitch perfect, I love the interaction between piano and acoustic guitar during the solo. Wonderful tune. The winning streak continues with A Long Way From Home, Ray's self-assessment set to a mellow but driving acoustic accompaniment. This is a beautiful number, pretty powerful stuff.

That song's vibe is blown up by Dave's hard rockin' Rats, another solid tune from Dave which, while not a standout, delivers the goods with a fast driving beat and plenty of distorted punch. But when it comes to this kinda material, I prefer the superior Powerman, a proto-metal tune that just cooks. Pure hard rock catharsis. Is it Ray's final word on the brutal inequities of the music biz? Probably not, but it caps the album's themes off well before we get a taste of their next album with Got To Be Free, a good closer. The first verse actually opens the album before it segues into The Contenders, but here we get the whole song. It has a nice country/western feel, a down-home flavor that really makes this yearning to escape the idiocies and inanities of life a sweet little tune. Sure it's not epic, but it's a darn tootin' good way to close the album.

Lola and Apeman were the album's big singles, a concerted effort to create the type of airplay-inviting singles that had eluded the band over the past few albums. Both a great tunes, but you also have really strong material with Strangers, Moneygoround, This Time Tomorrow, A Long Way From Home, and Powerman. Got To Be Free, The Contenders, Get Back In Line, and Rats are all reasonable as well. Denmark Street and Top Of The Pops, I can basically live without.

Overall, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One works as a really good slab of late 60s/early 70s album rock. It doesn't reach the artistic majesty of their previous two albums, but it still packs a strong punch. I think where one ranks the album kind of depends on how or why you listen to The Kinks in the first place. If you're more a fan of their harder rock tunes, you'll have a stronger response to it than, say, someone who adores Muswell Hillbillies or Village Green as the pinnacle of their recording careers. I think it's a really good album, often a great one, certainly a top Kinks album, but missing some of that essential magic that elevated the previous four records.

My Kinks Album Rating Continuum, if you will. Won't you? As we evaluate further albums, this thing will probably change...

Albums are in order of preference.


The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
Something Else By The Kinks


Face To Face
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One


The Kink Controversy
Kinda Kinks


Kinks

Lola is more uneven than Arthur or Something Else, but it's still a great album. Strangers in particular is a gorgeous, haunting tune.

MUSWELL HILLBILLIES coming up later tonight or first thing tomorrow. I have to sell a car tonight and if the buyer doesn't show up in the next 45 minutes the price increases exponentially. I'm still down to continue afterward as well. I've never given the RCA era a fair shake, other than Muswell and Everybody's In Show Biz. I figure this will force me to, although I'm tempted to go straight into the "arena rock" period.

It's been months since I've had dessert.

Muswell Hillbillies - The Kinks



Original Release Date: November 24, 1971

Original Track Listing

1. 20th Century Man
2. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues
3. Holiday
4. Skin and Bone
5. Alcohol
6. Complicated Life
7. Here Come the People in Grey
8. Have a Cuppa Tea
9. Holloway Jail
10. Oklahoma U.S.A.
11. Uncle Son
12. Muswell Hillbilly


Muswell Hillbillies was the start of a new era for The Kinks, as they left longtime label Pye and signed with RCA. Emboldened by the commercial success of LOLA V. POWERMAN..., they would release six albums with RCA that would go on to be commercially disappointing and critically quizzical, to say the least. As their first RCA album, Muswell Hillbillies is not only the highest regarded of the bunch, it's also hailed as one of The Kinks's best albums, period.

Sales-wise it fizzled, only charting as high as #48 in the US and not even charting at all in the UK. Critics were much kinder, of course, and I agree with the assessment that it's a classic Kinks album, and in fact one of their absolute best. To be fair, though, it's the LEAST "Kinks-like" album released thus far. In a way, you can look at it as cynical, bitter, angry VILLAGE GREEN with better production values and taking a stylistic cue from American Southern music: country, folk, Dixieland jazz, and acoustic swing setting a tonal backdrop for an album reflecting bitterness, isolation, working class struggle, or just being fed up with modern life as a whole.

However you wanna slice it, the album works beautifully. But it's a pretty radical stylistic departure for The Kinks, even if Ray's lyrics are as razor-sharp and entertaining as ever. The album opener 20th Century Man is probably the only "classic rocker" on the album, and it's one hell of a barnstormer to kick off the album. It opens steady and acoustic and catchy as hell, and ends up as a strong electric rocker by the end (with some nice slide work by Dave). Ray's statement of feeling entirely out of place in modern times is an amazing tune, one of their best. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues takes its musical cue from Dixieland jazz, a slower but steady brass-laden ode to the joys of contemporary paranoia, with a bit of saloon-styled piano thrown in for good measure. Maybe the song's musical approach might turn off anyone looking for the style of Lola Part Deux, but I love the happy sloppy drunken feel of it.

Ray's vocal affectations might turn some people off from the acoustic swing of Holiday, a toe-tapper celebrating that there really isn't any worthwhile respite from mental breakdown. You wouldn't know it from a first listen, as there's an appealing feel of clueless happiness throughout the number. After that slower diversion, the basic country rock of Skin and Bone is an uptempo welcome, detailing (or lamenting) a former a BBW who lost entirely too much chub. What's remarkable about this song is how is exmplifies how effortlessly Ray and the band adapted new sounds, styles, and genres of music. It's a good little tune, catchy as all hell.

Alcohol apes the conventions of early 20th-century vaudeville, a harbinger of the band's upcoming "theatrical" kick that would last for four frustrating albums (let's not get ahead of ourselves). While this kind of music isn't generally my cuppa chowder, I absolutely love it on this album as it fits the tone of Muswell Hillbillies so perfectly. Complicated Life is the slow, thick Southern-styled rock of The Band, or Little Feat, or even CCR, but with that patented Kinks dismal cheekiness. Kind of like "Holiday", it's all about disengaging from the drudgery of everyday life, to the point of being of a broke-ass deadbeat. Good times! It's an interesting tune, but it's my least favorite of the album so far.

Here Come The People In Grey is pure blues, a rage against gentrification and relocation, the faceless government usurping the sovereignity of the individual, or somesuch nonsense. I love the song, but if I have one complaint, it's that I don't like Ray's dalliances with vocal vibrato. Dave is doing more funky slide work, and the album has some uptempo rock that's been missing since the album opener. Have A Cuppa Tea is pure cheeky fun, English traditional meets American jugband. I'd love the Country Bears to tackle this one! Listen to that fantastic piano run underneath the intro to the chorus! Love this song, a pure slice of upbeat country perfection.

The dark, sad, sinister Holloway Jail is part delta folk, part show number, part blues, and wow is it a great song, recounting the tale of a promising but easily-manipulated young girl led into a life of crime, depravity, and eventually incarceration. Powerful stuff. Oklahoma USA is a soft, beautiful acoustic number about the power of daydreams. She might work in industrial town UK, but in her mind she's living in a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical. Just a hint of zydeco here, and a fantastic, touching song.

Finishing up the album, we start with the simple blues of Uncle Son, an ode to the simple, hardworking man who doesn't concern himself with the uppity concerns of talking heads and armchair political quarterbacks and the useless aggravations of the self-righteous... he just does what he does. "Liberals dream of equal rights, Conservatives live in a world gone by, Socialists preach of a promised land, But old Uncle Son was an ordinary man..." It's probably one of the lesser songs on the album, but a simple, effective one. Finally we have the title track of sorts, Muswell Hillbilly, a sort of "Gather everyone into the room and sum up the entire album in one big final sing-a-long send-off." This is a fine capper, reasserting the sense of working class identity, striking out against uniformity, modernization, destruction of tradition, that sorta thing. The Muswell Hill neighborhood (where the Davies brothers grew up) might be more upscale and proper, but the characters that populate this album will always be Hillbillies at heart.

I love this album. I'd easily rank it third in the Kinks catalog; it's so entirely different from what they had done before, but yet still so much a product of Ray's unparalleled songwriting and the band's strong musicality. Definitely not an album to "start" with if you're just discovering the band, but one you must have in your collection at some point or another. Some balk at the country/blues/Dixie vibe that permeate the songs -- I'm sure in 1971, after LOLA, it must have been something of a shock -- but it only proves how talented this bunch really was.

Fantastic album.

I'm curious about your reviews after this, since this is the last Kinks album I have; I'm almost completely unfamiliar with them after this point.

This is the last truly great Kinks album. It's got the muscle of Arthur and Lola, with a set of songs that rivals the former for sheer quality. This felt like a true musical progression, and it's a shame Davies went all over the place afterwards, because if the Kinks had made a few more albums like this, they'd have dominated in the 70's.

^The next group of albums are going to be tricky, as there is some really fine material hidden in some really strange albums. Say what you want about their Theatrical Era, but at least they were trying something different. Usually to REALLY strange, offputting results, but not without producing some great songs here and there.

I mean, ostensibly the Arista albums are "better" records in that they're more consistent and feature stronger material as a whole, but they're nowhere NEAR as interesting as the bizarre clusterfuck that is Preservation Acts I & II...

Much of this is going to be new for me too, which is halfway why I'm looking forward to really digging into albums I've never bothered with, like Soap Opera, Schoolboys In Disgrace, etc. How much actual discussion this is going to engender is another story!

My Kinks Album Rating Continuum, if you will. Won't you? As we evaluate further albums, this thing will probably change...

Albums are in order of preference.


The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)


Something Else By The Kinks
Muswell Hillbillies


Face To Face
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One


The Kink Controversy
Kinda Kinks


Kinks

HEY! This was my 10,000th post!!

I am just here to say, I too was interested in the song Picture Book due to the HP commercial, but am very surprised that it is not available on iTunes (at least in the album form).