The Kinks’s 1979 album Low Budget remains their highest-charting US non-compilation album, and a validation of sorts for the band. It continues the mainstream AOR vein that began with Sleepwalker and Misfits, their first two Arista albums — aka the band’s so-called “Arena Rock” period. The album was a big commercial success for the band,…
In a dark and misty house Where no Christian man has been Wicked Annabella mixes a brew That no one’s ever seen… From the magnificent The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society album comes this spooky little number written by Ray Davies and sung by brother Dave. Between the thunder of Mick Avory’s percussive…
Misfits was another commercial success for The Kinks, following the same trajectory as their previous album, but this time they even managed to score a Top 40 single (and sometime AOR-radio staple) A Rock & Roll Fantasy. Their label Arista was probably moderately pleased with the results; RCA, their previous label, must have been FUMING! I…
Attention Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, and Dan Fogelberg: lock up your slick mid/late ’70s production values, because The Kinks are gonna ape the hell outta them. Well by 1976, RCA had just about had it with The Kinks: six albums of diminishing returns, both commercially and critically, and several outright flops. Once the contract was…
So their previous album The Kinks Present: A Soap Opera represented The Kinks at their absolute lousiest. Crappy album, crappy critical reception, crappy sales. If the previous two albums — the ambitious, sometimes entertaining but ultimately unsatisfactory Preservation Act I and Preservation Act II — didn’t drive away most of their 60s fans, Soap Opera…
Well, the Preservation project failed. A noble effort, maybe, but a total freakin’ mess by any commercial, critic, or artistic standards. At least Ray got all that “theatrical presentation” stuff out of his system, right? Well, Ray’s not here right now. In his place is some whackadoo Starmaker dope who conceived and wrote the worst Kinks…
So here we are in late 1965, and The Kinks have effectively been banned from performing the US, reportedly due to onstage fights and antics and what-not. But ever since the release of their previous LP Kinda Kinks, the band had remained quite active. Aside from constant touring and recording, they managed to release the…
Kinda Kinks followed the band’s debut album and the Kinksize Session EP, with The Kinks rolling off some serious heat and momentum. As it were, the band was forced to rush the recording sessions to hit a quick release date, and between late 1964 and early 65, recording the album before, during, and after a whirlwind…
The Kinks’s debut album is pretty remarkable in the fact that its not all that remarkable. Which is not to say it’s a bad album… as a representative of the British Invasion’s first wave, it’s a hardy mix of blues rock, rockabilly, and that overall Merseybeat flavor that mixes R&B, skiffle, rock, and the like.…
Call it Muswell Hangover… You know, the first time I listened to Everybody’s In Show-Biz, I was right in the middle of my Kinks “discovery phase”, a time during which I made it a habit to dive deep into the, shall we say, “less than classic” albums in the band’s catalog. Upon first listen, in an…