Click here for my review of Preservation: Act I. It goes deeper into the history of the project, its origins, production, release, and reception. You know, the worst thing you can say about Preservation: Act II (PA2 for the rest of this review) is that it really stinks, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.…
By 1973 Ray Davies seemed ready to wash his hands entirely of The Kinks; that is to say, The Kinks of the late 60s through early 70s. Or maybe just popular rock music as a whole. The band’s 1970 album Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part One was a monster seller for the band and gave them some…
The First Great Kinks Album! OK well obviously that’s entirely up to debate and purely a matter of opinion, but wow if this album doesn’t deliver one fine listening experience. Everything — the songwriting, vocals, musicianship, album production — is elevated to an entirely new level with Face To Face. 1966 was a good year…
So it’s 1967. The so-called “Summer Of Love” is in full swing. Bands are taking advantage of new-found artistic freedom to explore their musical boundaries, and the shift from singles-oriented bands to album-based music is already in full bloom. Psychedelia is the order of the day, or so it seems anyhow. So what were The Kinks…
I know many of you are shocked…SHOCKED!!!…that I would include a Kinks song in a list of my favorite musical anything. If I were rattling down my list of Top Swahili Yodeling Rodeo Songs, I’m fairly certain I’d find a way to squeeze Ray Davies & Co. in there somehow. Mea maxima culpa. Still though,…
Ray Davies was NOT particularly 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 Kinks’s previous album, the exquisite The Kinks are The 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…
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 their previous album 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.…
“For me, Village Green Preservation Society is Ray’s masterwork. It’s his Sgt Pepper, it’s what makes him the definitive pop poet laureate.” — Pete Townshend, 2004 The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society (referred to as VGPS from here on) is the musical equivalent of the perfect trip to Disneyland. Warm and sunny weather with…