ArchieLeach
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Post by ArchieLeach on Mar 5, 2019 7:59:12 GMT -5
I've got the fantastic run of Kinks albums starting with Face to Face going through to Arthur, with the Kronikles collection in there as well, as well as a tape with earlier singles, but I would usually list Face to Face as my favorite. In general, I love the scrappy immediacy of mid-60s recordings. Dave's "Party Line" has a great rush to open the album, "Little Miss Queen of Darkness" that super drum solo, and there are tons of lyrics that sink in over time, both serious and funny. This is where Ray's social observations, which had been sneaking out on previous songs, were being developed, as was his moodiness. "Sunday Afternoon" is the obvious highlight, but I love how the darkness of "Rainy Day in June" and "Too Much On My Mind" are wed to the tunefulness typical of mid-60s pop. "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home" is a slice of his own personal life - if I'm not mistaken, Rosie was his sister, the one who gave him his first guitar, but she ran off to Australia with Arthur, who will make his own appearance soon enough. The "Session Man" is keyboard wiz Nicky Hopkins, who was quickly making his name on English records of the era (that's his harpsichord splashed all over the song).
"Big Black Smoke" and "Dead End Street" are particular favorite singles of mine, slices of life. You can also hear Ray's essential conservatism in "This is Where I Belong" and "Autumn Almanac," the latter of which starts with him cleaning his little yard but evolves to him determined to stay in his modest neighborhood. That's the inner battle you're going to hear a lot about over the next few albums.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Mar 5, 2019 8:16:44 GMT -5
Nicky Hopkins' finest moment? Probably the keyboards on Sympathy For The Devil. Although he's all over Exile On Main Street, so maybe that as a whole. (Speaking of The Stones, the melody of Holiday In Waikiki sounds a little like 19th Nervous Breakdown. Hard to establish which was recorded first, though The Stones got theirs out a few months before.)
Yep, a good album, up there with the best of 1966 (if not quite reaching Revolver, Pet Sounds or Blonde On Blonde levels).
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ArchieLeach
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Post by ArchieLeach on Mar 5, 2019 9:54:37 GMT -5
Nicky Hopkins' finest moment? Probably the keyboards on Sympathy For The Devil. Although he's all over Exile On Main Street, so maybe that as a whole. (Speaking of The Stones, the melody of Holiday In Waikiki sounds a little like 19th Nervous Breakdown. Hard to establish which was recorded first, though The Stones got theirs out a few months before.) Yep, a good album, up there with the best of 1966 (if not quite reaching Revolver, Pet Sounds or Blonde On Blonde levels). The Beatles' "Revolution"? The Stones' "She's a Rainbow"? I would go with Lennon's "Jealous Guy," today. Is he on Who's Next? Then maybe "Song Is Over"?
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Post by Nudeviking on Mar 14, 2019 20:09:43 GMT -5
Something Else by the KinksThis albums is Something Else by The Kinks. I can't decide whether this is the greatest album title of all time or the absolute worst but it's one of those two extremes. I'm woefully unfamiliar with this album and am not prone to research facts about the production of any of the albums I review save for the year it was released so I've got nothing else really to write in this introductory thing other than I thought their previous album was pretty goddamn great and hope this one follows in that fashion. Preexisting Prejudices
I'm pretty sure that "Waterloo Sunset" is the only song off this album that I've actually heard before. I like that song a lot and hope that the remainder of the album lives up to the high watermark set by that particular tune. Songs"David Watts" - This is a solid album opener. A driving rocker with pounding drum clubbering and a rollicking piano part. I wonder if this is another one of those songs that's about a real person the Davies knew or just some archetype they decided to write a song about. "Death of a Clown" - Acoustic guitar strumfuckery and harpsichord. It's got a saloon feel to it. The "la la la" bit in the chorus is pretty good, but on whole I'm not that into this song. "Two Sisters" - More harpsichords while Ray Davies sings about a married sister being jealous of her single, globe-trotting sister before lying to herself to convince herself that doing dishes and having a washing machine is better than going to wild parties or something. It's a lie I think ever married person has to tells themselves once in awhile. Overall this is a decent song. I did not think I'd ever think such things, but more songs need harpsichord in them. "No Return" - A quasi-bossa nova song with whispered vocals. I'm not feeling this one that much. "Harry Rag" - Is this song about vaginas? The snare drum and hand claps are pretty great. The singalong choruses make this seem like a song that would have been fun to get drunk and bellow along to in a bar. "Tin Soldier Man" - Horns all up in this mug!This is kind of a dull song. "Situation Vacant" - Some schmuck named Johnny is married to a woman named Susie. Susie's mother constantly harangues Johnny because he's a character in a 1960s sitcom. After a sitting room piano intro we get a more straight ahead rocker with some sweet-ass rock organ licks. There's a good bullshit guitar solo here too. This is a pretty good song. The fake out ending is real good too. "Love Me Till The Sun Shines" - Another more straightforward rock song. It feels kind of like a throwback to the first two Kinks albums since the recording is really muddy. The rock organ that appears is decent enough I guess. "Lazy Old Sun" - This is a weird-ass song. It kind of brings to mind "Strawberry Fields" by the Beatles. It's kind of strange with a lot of weird stuff going on in the background of the track while Ray implores the sun to shine on him. The double-tracked call and response vocals are good, but the overall busyness of the track makes the track sloppy. "Afternoon Tea" - The chorus to this very good. Solid "Ba Ba Bamum Bam Bas!" I don't know if this song's a metaphor for something of it's literally just about how great afternoon tea is as a concept. "Funny Face" - I don't like how thin the drums sound on this. The Pet Sounds-esque "I see you through frosted windows," part of the song's pretty good but the rest is pretty unremarkable. "End of the Season" - Ray Davies wants to be a 1920s jazz crooner. "Waterloo Sunset" - I wonder how much of the praise that's been heaped on this album is solely because of this song. This is an absolute banger of a pop song that's at once beautiful and filled with melancholy. Bonus Songs"Act Nice and Gentle" - A country-western influenced little ditty. There's some decent guitar work here. I think this is a better song than a couple that ended up on the album proper. "Autumn Almanac" - This song spanks! The "Yes! Yes! Yes! It's my autumn almanac!" part such a good vocal melody. Musically it's pretty simple, but this is another song among the bonus tracks that was better than a lot of the album cuts. "Susannah's Still Alive" - The piano part and the walking bassline are very good. The harmonica part is less good. Rightly relegated to a random-ass single. "Wonderboy" - This song sounds like a circus. It's all toy pianos and harpsichords and airy "La la las." There seem to be bongos or something going on in the background giving it a tropical feel. It's a decent enough song I guess. "Polly" - This is a weird song that kind of marries the older three chord garage band sound of the Kinks to the music-hall inspired stuff that followed. I really like the chorus to this song. The story told is a bit weird though since it seems to imply that the titular Polly's quest for independence is merely a phase she's going through and eventually she'll come crawling home to mom and dad. It kind of makes Ray Davies seem like an old man. "Lincoln County" - This is another weird ass song. It's a folky western influenced song about girls or some shit with fiddles and junk but there's also some good-ass rock organ riffs. This is not the sort of song I generally like though and I'm perfectly fine with it having been relegated to a non-album single. "There Is No Life Without Love" - More dull country-western inspired stuff. The guitar work is good, but the vocals seem bored and lifeless. I guess whichever Davies bro (Dave from the sound of it) is singing is without love. "Lazy Old Sun (Alternate Stereo Take)" - A stereo version of a song that appeared on the album proper! I liked the album version well enough and think that this is honestly a better mix than the mono version which was very very muddled sounding. Final ThoughtsWhile a perfectly fine collection of pretty good songs, this felt a bit less cohesive than the Face to Face. While there were hints of that on the last couple albums here it's become quite clear that they're moving in an entirely different direction from being the band that gave us "You Really Got Me." Lyrically the Kinks seem a lot more mature than their contemporaries. While the Beatles were still playing the part of eternal teenagers and the Rolling Stones were (are) immortal sex-lizards The Kinks were singing about middle aged shit: commuting too and from a shitty job, the stresses of married life, afternoon tea, et. al. I suppose this is one of the reasons I can relate to these songs better than songs by other bands of this era. But at the same time these songs are VERY British. I thus feel that by virtue of being neither a British citizen or an Anglophile I'm probably missing and/or misinterpreting a lot of the more Anglocentric references. I fear that going forward this lack of British knowledge is going to become a bigger issue for me as I continue down this Kinks rabbit hole, but that's a bridge we'll cross when we get there. Best Songs: "Waterloo Sunset" or "Autumn Almanac" Worst Song: "No Return"
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 15, 2019 4:41:16 GMT -5
Good greif, I just relaised I haven't heard this album in about twenty years! How peculiar. Anyway I mostly agree with Nudie here so don't have a vast amount to add. I kind of like the messiness of Lazy Old Sun - it's definitely no Strawberry Fields (a top three Beatles song for me anyway, and very nearly took the coveted Beatles spot on my Desert Island Discs list) but I find it appealingly ramshackle. Also happy to hear some love for Autumn Almanac, which is a great and underappreciated Kinks song. Oh and I'll stick up for Death Of A Clown, I like it's 20's faded Berlin cabaret vibe, though it took me about 20 listens to it to actually like it and not just hit "skip" (well, fast forward the tape given when I first had this album). So yeah - fine. Cromulant, even.
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Post by Nudeviking on Mar 15, 2019 6:34:55 GMT -5
Good greif, I just relaised I haven't heard this album in about twenty years! How peculiar. Anyway I mostly agree with Nudie here so don't have a vast amount to add. I kind of like the messiness of Lazy Old Sun - it's definitely no Strawberry Fields (a top three Beatles song for me anyway, and very nearly took the coveted Beatles spot on my Desert Island Discs list) but I find it appealingly ramshackle. Also happy to hear some love for Autumn Almanac, which is a great and underappreciated Kinks song. Oh and I'll stick up for Death Of A Clown, I like it's 20's faded Berlin cabaret vibe, though it took me about 20 listens to it to actually like it and not just hit "skip" (well, fast forward the tape given when I first had this album). So yeah - fine. Cromulant, even. "Strawberry Fields" is my number one Beatles song of all the times and you are quite correct that "Lazy Old Sun" is no "Strawberry Fields." I merely meant that there were some sonic similarities between the two (tape loops and such). And though it doesn't reach those same rarefied heights as "Strawberry Fields," "Lazy Old Sun" is a fine song in its own right. Though, as I mentioned in my half-assed review, I preferred the bonus Stereo Mix's higher fidelity to the audiomush of the mono mix.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Mar 15, 2019 6:49:30 GMT -5
I would say this album isn't as consistent as Face To Face, or what's coming next, but its highs are higher. No Return is always over before I realise it's on, and the psychedelia of Lazy Old Sun always feels forced to me. But David Watts, Death Of A Clown, and of course Waterloo Sunset (as good a single as was released in the 60s) are amazingly good.
'Harry Rag' is rhyming slang (or maybe Ray Davis-invented rhyming slang) for fag - ciggies. Ray himself explained this to me, and a few others, when I saw them live in the Albert Hall in the early 90s. It was a pretty good concert. I saw them again in Leeds the next year, and that wasn't quite so good.
Can't decide between their version of David Watts and The Jam's. I heard The Jam's first, and couldn't get enough of it, and The Kinks version seemed a little flimsy in comparison, or it did at first.
Supposedly Wonder Boy was John Lennon's favourite Kinks track. This is according to Ray again.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 15, 2019 7:01:50 GMT -5
I would say this album isn't as consistent as Face To Face, or what's coming next, but its highs are higher. No Return is always over before I realise it's on, and the psychedelia of Lazy Old Sun always feels forced to me. But David Watts, Death Of A Clown, and of course Waterloo Sunset (as good a single as was released in the 60s) are amazingly good. 'Harry Rag' is rhyming slang (or maybe Ray Davis-invented rhyming slang) for fag - ciggies. Ray himself explained this to me, and a few others, when I saw them live in the Albert Hall in the early 90s. It was a pretty good concert. I saw them again in Leeds the next year, and that wasn't quite so good. Can't decide between their version of David Watts and The Jam's. I heard The Jam's first, and couldn't get enough of it, and The Kinks version seemed a little flimsy in comparison, or it did at first. Supposedly Wonder Boy was John Lennon's favourite Kinks track. This is according to Ray again. I might do The Jam's discography after I finish up with the Stones!
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Post by Nudeviking on Mar 15, 2019 7:05:59 GMT -5
I would say this album isn't as consistent as Face To Face, or what's coming next, but its highs are higher. No Return is always over before I realise it's on, and the psychedelia of Lazy Old Sun always feels forced to me. But David Watts, Death Of A Clown, and of course Waterloo Sunset (as good a single as was released in the 60s) are amazingly good. 'Harry Rag' is rhyming slang (or maybe Ray Davis-invented rhyming slang) for fag - ciggies. Ray himself explained this to me, and a few others, when I saw them live in the Albert Hall in the early 90s. It was a pretty good concert. I saw them again in Leeds the next year, and that wasn't quite so good. Can't decide between their version of David Watts and The Jam's. I heard The Jam's first, and couldn't get enough of it, and The Kinks version seemed a little flimsy in comparison, or it did at first. Supposedly Wonder Boy was John Lennon's favourite Kinks track. This is according to Ray again. I could see "Wonder Boy" being a thing John Lennon was into since it kind of feels like the sort of song Lennon would write post-Beatles. I don't know how prone to self-aggrandizing Ray Davies is/was so I guess it's just as likely that Ray thought a lot of John Lennon solo stuff sounded like it and instead of being like, "He totally ripped us of!" saying "It was his favorite song," instead.
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ArchieLeach
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Post by ArchieLeach on Mar 16, 2019 7:58:13 GMT -5
For a long time, the consensus was that Something Else By the Kinks was the Kinks' best album. Was it because it came on the heels of their banishment from the U.S., or because of the White Album-esque collision of styles, or because it was where Ray Davies stopped being an angry young man and became an embittered old Englishman, or because one reviewer for The Rolling Stone Record Buying Guide decided to give it 5 stars at a time when other Kinks records were out-of-print? I've got a good friend who says he played it constantly for one summer.
It took me a few years to settle into the record. "Waterloo Sunset" is obviously the peak, but there are fans who are crazy about Dave's "Death of a Clown" and "Afternoon Tea." I like "Two Sisters," with Nicky Hopkins on harpsichord, again. The song that really cracks me up is "End of the Season." The intro announces something big, but when the main body of the song comes Ray just mumbles and coos like some lounge singer who has saved barely enough cash to stay drunk all winter. Nicky's piano plods behind one note at a time - there's no hurry because there's nowhere to go. On the right day, "Tin Soldier Man" makes me laugh, too, as Ray passes judgment on some poor office grind. "Wicky wack-wack, ooo...Keep his uniform tiiii-deee! Womp womp wahhhh..." "David Watts" is a fun football chant, "Nice and smooth...Hey!," but I definitely hear sneering homophobia on this and the bonus track "Wonderboy" (with "Lola" in mind, let's just say Ray is a conflicted human being). I like the domestic mobius strip of "Situation Vacant," and although Dave's "Funny Face" used to annoy me, I take pity on this poor working class-guy whose gal has been locked up, out of his control. "Funny Face is all right!," he keeps insisting, but no, Funny Face is not all right, mate. I like "Lazy Old Sun" better than most people, but I never really noticed the similarity to the second half of "Strawberry Fields Forever" until you brought it up. I believe you're going to encounter an even more blatant tribute to SFF on the next album's bonus tracks.
Unlike the Beatles, the Kinks' catalog has always been in disarray. Sound quality has been very variable - my stereo CD of this album dates from the beginning of the digital era and sounds terrible, although "Situation Vacant" is extended. The album steaming on Spotify sounds much better. By comparison, my copy of Face to Face is mono and a bit too bright, but with less echoey muddiness than the copy I have in vinyl. The inclusion of bonus tracks is almost random - I've got "Wonder Boy" and "Autumn Almanac" on Village Green Preservation Society - count me among the many Kinks fans who love"Almanac." Here's another plug for The Kinks Kronikles, which includes a bunch of these bonus tracks in one package. The good news is Something Else was the last Kinks album produced by Shel Talmy - the sonic quality is going to be much better from here on out.
Something Else By the Kinks catches the band pounding out its product in miniature. It's the rock music equivalent of the British version of Antiques Roadshow. What gives the album poignancy is that Ray Davies is describing the walls of a prison, the prison of British life and its limits, and he locks himself in that prison. On "Waterloo Sunset" he says he's content just looking out the window at the young lovers, and the river. The battle between retreat and attack is on. Will the smallest of English pleasures be enough to keep Ray Davies home, if not necessarily happy?
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Post by Nudeviking on Apr 4, 2019 3:50:20 GMT -5
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)Time for another record by those lovable rapscallions, The Kinks. Today we're looking at The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society which is kind of a mouthful as far as album titles go but that's neither here nor there. This is an album I know little about save for the following: - It is apparently a concept album.
- Though it was critically acclaimed even at the time it was release it was not particularly commercially initially.
- In the years since its initially release it became something of a cult classic and in one of Rolling Stones' bimonthly Best 500 Albums of All The Times That Ever Timed lists it ranked #255, which might not seem that great but is actually pretty good when one considers all the music that has ever been produced in human history.
So without further ado let's get this show on the road! Preexisting PrejudicesBefore deciding to dig into the discography of The Kinks I was uncertain if I wanted to do a deep dive into their back catalogue or that of the Buzzcocks and so I decided to go the family restaurant route and order the sampler platter as my appetizer. I randomly listened to the first three songs from each artist that appeared when I searched for them on YouTube, eliminating any songs I was already familiar with. "Village Green" was one of the Kinks songs that I ended up listening to and it was good enough that I ultimately elected to review the Kinks rather than the Buzzcocks. Other than that I've got no idea what's in store for me here. Songs
"The Village Green Preservation Society" - There's some good-ass organ here but I listened to this on headphones and really didn't like the way it was mixed. The vocals would be panned to one side during parts of the song in such a way that they overpowered everything else that was in that channel which kind of sucked. This is one of the rare instances when I wish there was an "Alternate Mono Mix" included as a bonus track, but alas... "Do You Remember Walter?" - This song is very relatable. Ray Davies sings about a friend he grew up with who he's no longer close to. I like the guitar stuff in the intro and the vocal hook during the choruses. Another really great pop songs. "Picture Book" - The guitar riff here is so good that Green Day pretty much stole it wholesale for their song "Warning." Outside of the stupid "scooby doobie doo" vocal bullshit towards the end this is a fantastic song. "Johnny Thunder" - A song about a guy named Johnny Thunder who passed the Test of the Small Town and escapes. There are a few too many "bah babada bah bah bahs," for my tastes but it's not a terrible song by any stretch of the imagination. "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" - Some bluesy sleazy. Harmonics all up in this mug. Reminiscent of the Rolling Stones. The rave up before the ending is real good. "Big Sky" - Aw fuck yeah some talky sixties rock vocals! Not enough songs have this sort of "Big Sky looked down on all the people looking up at the Big Sky. Everybody's pushing one another around. Big Sky feels sad when he sees the children scream and cry but the Big Sky's too big to let it get him down," bullshit vocal delivery. This is a pretty good-ass song. "Sitting by the Riverside" - This starts off like a dull Paul McCartney loves old timey music ditty, but gets progressively weirder and more manic during the choruses with menacing harpsichords and fucked up sounding keyboards and shit. It's a pretty good take on 1960s guys doing old timey pop music. "Animal Farm" - Ray Davies wants to live on a farm with pigs and goats because that's somehow better than living in the city where creeps scare little girls. There's some mellotron in the mix which brings me much joy. This one's another winner. "Village Green" - All harpsichord and swinets here. Ray Davies' laments the fact that his beloved village green has become a tourist attraction for American tourists. I'm offended by the terrible "American" accent he affects when talking about them but this is otherwise a very good song. "Starstruck" - I'm not about this at all. It's too busy cramming in bongos and strings and pianos and "bah bah bah bahs" while simultaneously feeling dull and lifeless. It honestly feels kind of out of place on this album not only musically, but thematically since it's about some random woman chugging champagne and dancing the night away which doesn't seem to fit when the rest of the songs are screaming, "Look how great small town life is!" "Phenomenal Cat" - First of all, "Phenomenal Cat," is an amazing title for a song. The beginning sounds like something out of a cartoon from the 1940s. There's a "la la la" part that sounds weird as fuck. The titular phenomenal cat apparently went to Hong Kong once and learned the secret of life. I have no idea what's going on here or how it fits in with the overall concept of this album. Maybe it's commenting on the tendencies of small towns to mythologize certain people, places, or things in their orbit or maybe there really was a cat that the Davies Bros. knew of that hung out in a tree after traveling to Hong Kong to learn the secret of life. "All of My Friends Were There" - Ray Davies sings about the embarrassment of performing in front of his friends and his friends friends. The verses are vaguely polka-ish. As someone who has played his fair share of shows where every single person in the crowd was someone I knew personally this is a very relatable song and listening to it has caused me second-hand embarrassment. "Wicked Annabella" - This song kind of rules. The riffs own and Dave Davies' vocals are processed to sound like a goddamn snakeman as he sings about a witch named Annabella enslaving children and/or little demons out in the woods. "In a dark and misty house/ Where no Christian man has been," is such a great lyric. "Monica" - Vaguely Latin inspired music while Ray Davies sings about a girl named Monica that everyone in town is horny for. This is not as good as the song that preceded it. "People Take Pictures of Each Other" - This seems like it's covering a lot of the same lyrical ground as "Picture Book," albeit with less superb riffage. It's another song about how people take pictures of stuff so they don't forget that it happened or something like that. I don't know or care. It's not that good and kind of a bum note to end an otherwise boss album on. Final ThoughtsThis might not have my favorite Kinks song on it but it is at present the best Kinks album overall that I've listened to. Even the lesser songs are tight, well produced pop songs and with 14 of the 15 tracks coming in under three minutes nothing is given enough time to wear out its welcome. In past Kink album reviews I've talked about how Ray Davies talking shit about actual people is my favorite form of Ray Davies and on this album that's pretty much all he does, singing songs that praise or mock the various people in Small Town, UK. As someone who also grew up in a small town (in America and some 20 or so years after this album was released) a lot of this album correlates with how I now look back upon my hometown. I might remember how much fun my friends and I had getting wrecked on cheap beer and goldschlager in the woods near the elementary school, but those woods are now an upscale shopping center for the upper middle class development that sprang up where the corn fields used to be and the cul de sac where we used to play kickball is more or less empty now saved for parked cars since kids would rather stay inside and play Minecraft or whatever. I guess you truly never can go home again. Best Song: "Picture Book" Worst Song: "Monica"
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ayatollahcm
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Post by ayatollahcm on Apr 4, 2019 4:13:37 GMT -5
If you're feeling particularly saucy, the 3-disc reissue of Village Green features a second disc of all mono recordings, alternate stereo mixes of "People Take Pictures" and "Do You Remember Walter?", hidden tracks "Mr. Songbird" and "Days" (which you should listen to regardless, as it's one of their strongest singles), and a third disc of alternate takes and aborted songs for the album (some of which, I believe, would be reissued themselves on a sort of lost-tracks album later in the 70s).
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Apr 4, 2019 9:27:53 GMT -5
Animal Farm is my favourite Kinks song. This would also be my favourite album by them. And with that, I'm pretty much out of things to say about it.
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Post by Nudeviking on Apr 4, 2019 20:55:10 GMT -5
If you're feeling particularly saucy, the 3-disc reissue of Village Green features a second disc of all mono recordings, alternate stereo mixes of "People Take Pictures" and "Do You Remember Walter?", hidden tracks "Mr. Songbird" and "Days" (which you should listen to regardless, as it's one of their strongest singles), and a third disc of alternate takes and aborted songs for the album (some of which, I believe, would be reissued themselves on a sort of lost-tracks album later in the 70s). The opening track was really the only song on the album that I thought the stereo version wasn't that great so I don't think I need an entire mono version of the record, though I'll definitely check out "The Village Green Preservation Society (Mono Mix)" to see if that version's better. I'll also look into the previously unreleased tracks or b-sides or whatever that you recommended at some point in the near future, though I don't if I'm going to extend the scope of this deep dive which would result in my covering the odd & sods compilation you mentioned.
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ayatollahcm
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Post by ayatollahcm on Apr 4, 2019 21:07:26 GMT -5
If you're feeling particularly saucy, the 3-disc reissue of Village Green features a second disc of all mono recordings, alternate stereo mixes of "People Take Pictures" and "Do You Remember Walter?", hidden tracks "Mr. Songbird" and "Days" (which you should listen to regardless, as it's one of their strongest singles), and a third disc of alternate takes and aborted songs for the album (some of which, I believe, would be reissued themselves on a sort of lost-tracks album later in the 70s). The opening track was really the only song on the album that I thought the stereo version wasn't that great so I don't think I need an entire mono version of the record, though I'll definitely check out "The Village Green Preservation Society (Mono Mix)" to see if that version's better. I'll also look into the previously unreleased tracks or b-sides or whatever that you recommended at some point in the near future, though I don't if I'm going to extend the scope of this deep dive which would result in my covering the odd & sods compilation you mentioned. The only things I'd argue are essential listening, other than the aforementioned mono mix, are "Mr. Songbird" and "Days", two b-sides that are pretty solid. The aforementioned third disc of unreleased stuff is a real mixed bag. If you do opt down the line to dive deeper into the Kinks in the 1970s, the odds-and-sods comp does a good job of curating the worthwhile and shedding the truly half-baked.
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Post by Nudeviking on Apr 4, 2019 21:16:21 GMT -5
The opening track was really the only song on the album that I thought the stereo version wasn't that great so I don't think I need an entire mono version of the record, though I'll definitely check out "The Village Green Preservation Society (Mono Mix)" to see if that version's better. I'll also look into the previously unreleased tracks or b-sides or whatever that you recommended at some point in the near future, though I don't if I'm going to extend the scope of this deep dive which would result in my covering the odd & sods compilation you mentioned. The only things I'd argue are essential listening, other than the aforementioned mono mix, are "Mr. Songbird" and "Days", two b-sides that are pretty solid. The aforementioned third disc of unreleased stuff is a real mixed bag. If you do opt down the line to dive deeper into the Kinks in the 1970s, the odds-and-sods comp does a good job of curating the worthwhile and shedding the truly half-baked. I wonder how much of the b-sides comp I've already encountered via the deluxe reissues I've been listening to.
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ArchieLeach
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Post by ArchieLeach on Apr 5, 2019 7:22:25 GMT -5
"Nostalgia is a seductive liar." - George Ball
People usually write about The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society as if Ray Davies is giving small town English life a big unquestioning embrace, but I don't hear it that way. On Something Else Davies took the voice of a character pulling back from public life on "Waterloo Sunset," and other songs celebrated humble pleasures and ways of living ("Afternoon Tea," "Two Sisters") or mocked pretentious go-getters ("David Watts," "Tin Soldier Man").
On Village Green the dive into provincial life is intense, but the feelings this dive brings are ambiguous. It all begins on the opening track, with the Kinks listing the fetishistically specific interests of various nostalgia groups, preserving the old ways because, like the Stones' street fighting man, "What more can we do?" One song in and they've already hit a dead end. "Do You Remember Walter?" extends the helplessness of trying to go back in time - "People often change, but memories of people can remain."
As the album proceeds, we hear more about the people who strain against the bondage of small town life. If you're lucky you can enjoy a holiday in the Southend, or at least a drink by the riverside. Get too drunk and mouthy, and you'll be scorned by the world until all your friends take you back in. Maybe it's best to live in a dirty old shack on a farm beneath a big sky which cannot offer comfort. Women like Annabella and Monica mess with men's minds, leading them astray with their mysterious and dismissive ways. The Kinks, of course, didn't stay in their small towns. They leave friend Walter and girlfriend Daisy. They warn the girl in "Starstruck" not to follow them into the insane outside world. Like Johnny Thunder, they broke out.
I wrote that the songs on Something Else were like the keepsakes on the British version of the Antiques Roadshow. Village Green is those songs examined closely with a jeweller's loupe - even if you love what you're examining, you must notice the wear, the tear, and the flaws. The two "Picture" songs are the keys to the album. "Picture Book" is the upside, reliving the happy times long ago when you are just a baby. But "People Take Pictures of Each Other" ends the album with a final bitter verdict. Pictures can immortalize our gestures of love, but pictures don't show the pain you felt inside. The pictures don't show what happens when you're rejected in the small town. Annabella may be the promise of dark secret pleasure, and Monica is that pleasure denied and luring. Do you settle for the denial, or do you pursue the promise? The Kinks made their choices.
There's a bit of repetition on the album. "Big Sky" and "Animal Farm" are each enjoyable, but their similar expansive folk sounds are sequenced near each other, and the effect is monotonous. Songs like "Johnny Thunder" and "Starstruck" sound somewhat unfinished, padded with la-la's and bah-bah's. Most of all, there are lyrics which keep telling us how wonderful these small towns are, but the most exciting moments are the break-outs.
The best parts are pretty great, though. "Wicked Annabella" has this heavy slurred guitar sound like two of my other favorites, Big Star's "She's a Mover" and Tommy James's "Hanky Panky." "Picture Book" is a great groove. I particularly love the mysterious tale of the Buddha-like creature who traveled far and returned to live out his life getting fat, the "Phenomenal Cat." "The Village Green Preservation Society" bubbles along enjoyably with nice harmonies. "Monica" brings a Latin lightness and is a blast to sing in the car. Once you learn Ray Davies was impersonating Burt Lancaster on "Big Sky," it will always bring a smile. Ray is having fun singing throughout, from the way he says "insane" on "Animal Farm" to the "scooby-dooby do" on "Picture Book." All in all, the music just sounds great as Shel Talmy leaves and Ray does the producing himself.
It's another unique Kinks album with much to think about and enjoy. It's worthy of any collection.
Bonus tracks: The Kinks were highly prolific in those early years, with oodles of singles and B-sides. The Village Green album itself was briefly released with a different set of songs, and Dave Davies was encouraged to put together a solo album after the success of "Death of a Clown." Although Dave's album didn't materialize as such, the 3-CD Deluxe package of Village Green is filled with interesting sketches, ideas, notions, and occasional finished tracks, many of which ended up on the vinyl The Great Lost Kinks Album.
Among hard-core Kinks fans, "Days" is one of the great favorites, frequently mentioned in "to be played at my funeral" lists, because that's what Kinks fans do: www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2svmUcsKeg
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Post by Nudeviking on Apr 11, 2019 3:00:48 GMT -5
Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire)Released in October of 1969, Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (hereinafter just Arthur) was conceived as the soundtrack to a teleplay that ended up never being produced. The play was supposed to about the life a carpet layer named Arthur Morgan, a character that was apparently based in part on the Davies' brother-in-law (a dude named Arthur Anning). Much like The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society the album was critically lauded in both Britain and the United States but wasn't particularly successful commercially (though in America at least the single "Victoria" managed to crack the Billboard charts where it peaked at 62). I have never heard this album before. Preexisting Prejudices"Victoria" was one of the three songs I picked at random from YouTube to determine if I wanted to do a deep dive into The Kinks' discography or not. It was a good enough song that at that moment I elected to check The Kinks out instead of The Buzzcocks but honestly I can't remember what it actually sounded like since I haven't listened to it since that night some two(?) months back when I started this stupid exploration. I don't think I've heard anything else off this record before. Songs"Victoria" - Queen Victoria was fucking awesome apparently. This song feels like a song that I've heard a bajillion times but I don't know if that's true. Lyrically it doesn't seem like the sort of song that would be featured in a lot of ads in America for Volvos and online companies in the 1990s but that's what the songs has the feel of to me. "Yes Sir, No Sir" - The drums have kind of a march vibe going on. There's a lot of horns horning it up all over the place. Davies' vocals sound bored as fuck until the "Doesn't matter who you are," part. The horns briefly take on a Latin feel here. It doesn't last long though as the song switches it up moments later with Davies' singing about shooting deserters and sending their wives medals. They manage to cram a lot of stuff into a song that's not even four minutes long. "Some Mother's Son" - Another song about how shitty war is. This one's a lot mellower than "Yes Sir, No Sir," with "wooooooooo oooooo ooooo" choruses and harpsichords and shit. "Drivin'" - A happy-go-lucky pop song about driving and picnicking while the world burns. The narrator whats to eat darts and laugh at sheep in the countryside while the Chinese and Russians and Spanish all kill each other. "Brainwashed" - Some decent riffage on this one. Like "Wicked Annabella" off the last album this one's a bit heavier. I'm probably alone in this but I kind of wish The Kinks did more of this proto-metal stuff. "Australia" - This is a weird ass song. At times it seems like something the Australian Tourism Board might have commission with lyrics about how the people of Australia "surf like they do in the USA," but there's also stuff about there's no drug addiction in Australia and no one "beats around the bush in Australia," that lead me to believe it's more than a little tongue in cheek. Musically it's kind of all over the place. There are Beach Boys-esque vocal harmonies, twinkly jazz pianos before the song devolves into extended blues vamping complete with some skronky sexophone bleating. "Shangri-La" - The beginning of this is folksy as fuck. It's all acoustic guitar strumfuckery and Ren-Faire horns before the band and harpsichord show up to rock the fuck out. I'm not too keen on the verses about people wearing slippers and sitting in rocking chairs and middle class complacency but the chorus might be one of the best the Kinks have ever done. Great drum clubbering during the bridge as well. This song's pretty great. "Mr. Churchill Says" - Blues rock number about World War II. About a minute and a half in there's an air raid siren and the mood of the song changes. Some get dual guitar riffs in the bridge but there's some cringey group talk singing about blacking out windows that kind of mars an otherwise decent song. "She's Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina" - A harpsichord lead ditty about people of modest means buying hats similar to various nobles and wearing them all over the place but not actually be able to afford to take care of their families. It's not bad, but the manic madcap Looney Tunes style music at the end of this song SUUUUUUCKS. "Young and Innocent Days" - This is an extremely well crafted song that does absolutely nothing for me. The harpsichord work's superb as are the vocal harmonies between the Davies Bros. but it's too slow and mellow for me. If you have a higher tolerance for down tempo ballads than I do this is probably a very great song. "Nothing to Say" - This is a pretty good song about kids who grow up and have nothing to talk to their parents about I guess. The lyrics aren't the most inspired but the music is great. "Arthur" - Southern rock riffs with a very childish vocal melody. This song just goes on forever without doing anything interesting. Since entire album was supposed to be the soundtrack to a movie to teleplay or something that never got made I guess this song kind of works as something that would play over the end credits as people were filing out of a theater but as stand alone song it'd be way better if it was two minutes shorter. Final ThoughtsThis was a lot more of a mixed bag than the last couple albums were. There's still a lot of good stuff here but a lot of the songs feel unnecessarily padded to increase the length. One of the things I've liked best about The Kinks is that up until this point they've been so good and keeping things short and sweet in a way that leaves listeners wanting more but here more than a few songs that would be absolute bangers if they were two and a half minutes long are stretched out to five plus minutes. I suppose that if this album was really supposed to serve as the soundtrack to some film or play or whatever, having songs with lengthy, repetitive segments of primarily instrumental music would be fine for incidental music while people on screen are dialoguing, but devoid of that context it gets boring. Best Song: "Shangri-La" Worst Song: "Arthur"
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Post by Nudeviking on Apr 19, 2019 1:39:50 GMT -5
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970)For the better part of the 1960s The Kinks were banned from performing in the United States for rampant assholery. In 1969 this ban was lifted and toured the United States. The following year they released their album, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. It was an album that was both critically and commercial successful and seen, at least in the United States, as something of a comeback. This is the album we're going to be examining today. Preexisting Prejudices
I've heard this album in its entirety multiple times as a child as it was something my mother would occasionally play. I remember liking the song "Apeman" when I was seven or eight years old and being confused by the lyrics of "Lola," but other than that there's not a ton I remember specifics of, though I'm sure there will be multiple instances of me being like, "Oh yeah, this song!" to myself as I listen to the album. Let's get it on! Songs
"The Contenders" - Some hillbilly hoedown acoustic guitar strumfuckery/finger picking nonsense to start before a piano driven blues-rock number kicks in. Decently deployed harmonica but this is otherwise pretty generic blues-rock nonsense. "Strangers" - More strumfuckery and pianos. After awhile the drums kick in and Christ alive do they sound like shit. There's some very good rock organ drone in the back half of the song. Shitty drums not withstanding this is a pretty good song. The vocal performance (maybe from Dave?) is particularly good. "Denmark Street" - This is not very good. It's got some generic 60s rock riffs and talk singing about a band going a publisher to try to get a record deal from a guy who hates their music but signs them anyway because he "hates to be wrong." There's then a stupid ragtime part for no goddamn reason. This entire thing seems very half formed. "Get Back in Line" - As far as ballads go, this one is not that bad. There's some very good organ work here. "Lola" - I have no idea if this is the Kinks' biggest hit or not but I feel like it's probably their best known song at least in the US. The guitar sound in the beginning is great and overall this is a fantastic pop-rock song, but to be completely honest, in 2019, I can't tell if this is woke or problematic. "It can be two things!" "Top of the Pops" - "Louie, Louie" knock-off riffage gives way to Deep Purple-esque metal with wild organs and shit. The lyrics are pretty cliche shit about being a rock star but this song kind of rules. There's a great terrible guitar solo. It's the kind of song that makes me want to pick up a guitar and be in a terrible garage band again. "The Moneygoround" - A terrible music hall ditty about publishing rights and musicians getting fucked over by agents and record companies and shit. This is not something I can relate to at all. "This Time Tomorrow" - Airplane noises kick things off before we get strumfuckery and finger picking.There's some good-ass rock n' roll organ while the Davies sing about in-flight movies and life on the road shit. This is a pretty good song. "A Long Way from Home" - This is a very pretty song. I think it goes on a bit too long, but it's not awful. "Rats" - Dave Davies doesn't care about contracts or royalties. He just wants to rock the fuck out. He wants wailing guitar solos and rock organ shit and distorted buzz saw guitar riffs. I am Dave Davies. "Apeman" - Nice cultural appropriation guy. This song fucking sucks, though I can see why a small child would like it (because small children have bad taste). The melody in the chorus isn't bad but goddamn these lyrics! This goofy accent! Fuck this song. "Powerman" - This song has a decent guitar riff but it goes fucking nowhere. Lyrically it's another goddamn song about some evil middle management guy getting too much of Ray Davies' money for Ray Davies' liking. A record producer gets compared to Mussolini and Genghis Khan which is fucking hilarious. FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS! "Got to Be Free" - This is a decent upbeat pop song, but lyrically it seems like more whining on an already very whiney album. "Got to be free to say what I want / Make what I want and play what I want," sings Ray Davies. Has he ever not been able to sing or say what he wanted? Has he, prior to this album, not made exactly the sort of music he wanted to make? Mock whoever pissed him off the day he wrote a particular song? I wasn't alive at the time but I'm pretty sure few record companies in the 1960s wanted albums filled with old timey music hall numbers and yet that's what the Kinks were doing. Dude, you've been free this entire time and what did you do with that freedom? Fucking wrote "Apeman..." Bonus Tracks
"Lola (Mono Single Mix)" - "Coca Cola" gets replaced with "cherry cola" so the song could get played on the radio in Britain (I don't think America gave a shit about name dropping name brand stuff in pop music). Otherwise it's pretty similar to the album version if the album version was also mono. "Apeman (Demo)" - The album version sucked. The demo version also sucks. "Powerman (Demo)" - This is just a less expertly recorded version of the song that appears on the album proper. There's no discernible differences in the lyrics or the musical arrangement here making this completely inessential for all but the most devout Kinksters. Final Thoughts
As a non-rockstar one of my absolute least favorite rock album tropes is the album complaining about how much being a rockstar sucks. As the central theme of Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One is how much being a rockstar sucks I have to confess that I wasn't really all about it. There are some good songs here; generally the ones that are thematically the furthest away from the "my royalties aren't high enough!" complaining that made up the bulk of the album. though even some of the "Wah! My record deal is making me rich enough!" songs are decent enough pop songs though I'd probably like them more if they covered more universal themes. To be totally honest I probably should have stopped reviewing The Kinks after Arthur because after listening to this I think I hate Ray Davies. I liked him when he was occasionally a grumpy old man, but here he's gone whole hog into "GET OFF MY LAWN!" territory and the music he's making sucks so much more for it. Best Song: "Lola" or "Top of the Pops" Worst Song: "Apeman" or "The Moneygoround"
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ayatollahcm
TI Pariah
The Bringer of Peacatollah
Posts: 1,689
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Post by ayatollahcm on Apr 19, 2019 1:54:07 GMT -5
I'll still recommend listening to Muswell Hillbillies to cap off your adventure, since it gets away from showbiz whining, but I'll absolutely warn you that beyond that album, Davies really leans hard into his grumpy old man self, and you're either on board with it (I am, for one), or not.
It's been absolutely golden to see the songs through your lens, though.
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Post by Prole Hole on Apr 19, 2019 3:49:31 GMT -5
I've been lax in commenting here, so let me catch up: The Village Green Preservation Society: Fucking excellent. I am not about concept albums as a rule, but there's no denying just how outstanding this is. It's an album that manages to completely strike the balance between appreciating the past and the lure of nostalga, but balancing that with a gentle mockery and an understanding of how small-scale that can be - petty, even ("God bless strawberry jam / and all the different varieties"). And yet there's undeniable love there too. There's a real sense of perspective and understanding and it's a very subtle, difficult line to walk bout VGPS does it so well. "Big Sky" and "Animal Farm" are astoundingly good songs and I really don't understand why this album doesn't get mentioned more when it comes to "Best 60's album lists". Love it to bits. Arthur: Eh. Its Ok. This is pretty much where my interest in the Kinks runs out. There's a couple of decent songs here but not a lot to get worked up about really. "Victoria" has never really done it for me (though I like the "land of our Victoria" break and the way it feeds back into the main song - some nice musicianship there) and a lot of this just sounds a bit... worn out maybe? Also there's a much better song called Shangri-La, but it's by The Rutles (I like that it quietly lifts a riff from Oasis's "Whatever", thus completing the "Oasis nicked from The Beatles, so fake-Beatles are nicking from Oasis" circle, but I'm getting off topic here - this Shangri-La is still pretty godsdamned fantastic). Not sure about that faux-Monty Python cover either... Money-go-Round: Despite the fact that Lola is one of my Desert Island Discs - seriously one of the best piece of music ever recorded, in my far-from-humble opinion - there's just no there there. There are few things less edifying that rock stars bemoaning what a difficult life it is being a rock star (there's the odd exception), and far too much of this album is "woe is me" which is just a big turn-off. I can't speak to Muswell Hillbillies - this is as far through the Kinks discography as I've managed to go.
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ArchieLeach
AV Clubber
I talk too much, I worry me to death
Posts: 289
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Post by ArchieLeach on Apr 19, 2019 6:56:25 GMT -5
... there's a much better song called Shangri-La, but it's by The Rutles (I like that it quietly lifts a riff from Oasis's "Whatever", thus completing the "Oasis nicked from The Beatles, so fake-Beatles are nicking from Oasis" circle, but I'm getting off topic here - this Shangri-La is still pretty godsdamned fantastic). Not sure about that faux-Monty Python cover either... Since Mr. H brought it up -- many of The Rutles's songs were Neil Innes songs "Rutle-ized" for the project. "Shangri-La" was one of those. Enjoy!
I didn't know about the Oasis connection. If you (us) Beatle freaks want to argue about whether this proves that "Hey Jude" could lose a few minutes, that's incidental.
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Post by Prole Hole on Apr 19, 2019 7:08:08 GMT -5
Awww, Frankie Howard's in that second clip. What an absolute star, adore the man.
The Oasis thing is just a few bars at the start of the studio version - nothing major but it's subtle and just made me grin from ear to ear the first time I heard it. Neil Isses is an absolute God among men.
I don't want to start a Hey Jude argument on a Kinks thread, because I know it's a marmite song and it will all end in a Mexican stand-off.
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Post by Nudeviking on Apr 19, 2019 10:20:04 GMT -5
Awww, Frankie Howard's in that second clip. What an absolute star, adore the man. The Oasis thing is just a few bars at the start of the studio version - nothing major but it's subtle and just made me grin from ear to ear the first time I heard it. Neil Isses is an absolute God among men. I don't want to start a Hey Jude argument on a Kinks thread, because I know it's a marmite song and it will all end in a Mexican stand-off. Since this thread bears my name I'll allow any and all shit-talking directed at "Hey Jude." Heck, I'll start! "Hey Jude" is one of my least favorite Beatles songs of all the Beatles songs. The beginning part of it is too schmaltzy. That "better. Better. BETter. BETTER!" part with a weird key change on the final "better" frays my nerves. The "nah nah nah na na na nah!" crowd participation part bugs me in the same way a rapper imploring me to "put (my) hands in the air and wave 'em like (I) just don't care," and high school pep rallies did. The Paul McCartney scatting at the end is also offensive to my sensibilities.
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Dellarigg
AV Clubber
This is a public service announcement - with guitars
Posts: 7,499
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Post by Dellarigg on Apr 19, 2019 14:19:52 GMT -5
I would add two minutes to Hey Jude if I could. Make it three.
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Crash Test Dumbass
AV Clubber
ffc what now
Posts: 7,058
Gender (additional): mostly snacks
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Apr 22, 2019 10:14:03 GMT -5
The appeal of "Hey Jude" is that everyone in the world knows the words to more than half of the song (by duration).
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ArchieLeach
AV Clubber
I talk too much, I worry me to death
Posts: 289
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Post by ArchieLeach on Apr 27, 2019 8:40:43 GMT -5
Arthur (Or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire)I suppose that if this album was really supposed to serve as the soundtrack to some film or play or whatever, having songs with lengthy, repetitive segments of primarily instrumental music would be fine for incidental music while people on screen are dialoguing, but devoid of that context it gets boring. Arthur is the last of the sequence of Kinks albums I have, and it’s my most recent Kinks purchase. There are some terrific moments on the album, both in the music and in the lyrics, and its subject matter plays to my interests in European culture, thoughts on war, and thoughts on the opposing urges of nostalgia and change. I love chunks of it. The opener, “Victoria,” does that thing that great rock and roll doesn’t do often enough. It succeeds as pure music, with its chugging Chuck Berry-via-Ron Wood guitar work augmented by Salvation Army horns and a loud, easy-to-sing chorus. But it also succeeds independently as a lyric, a character sketch of a man of modest means who is loyal to a country which isn’t all that loyal back. The other highlight is “Shangri-La,” a big statement which mostly succeeds. Much of the the song's melody is memorable, and some of the lyrical ideas cut. Mick Avory’s drumming has never sounded better than on this album, and on this song the acoustic-guitar/drum break is powerful and exciting. I like the idea of the multi-part construction of many of the songs – the air-raid siren going in the urgent second half of “Mr. Churchill Says” really works. But the album also lays bare Ray Davies’ weakness, the lack of follow-through. Once a young rocker of energy and ambition, several years of being on the sidelines for both voluntary and involuntary reasons had made him unmanageable. The recordings sounded unfinished and were mixed poorly. “Some Mother’s Son” is one of his best melodies and constructions, and its implied indictment of society and parents for turning a blind eye to the waste of war is strong. As a singer, Davies is not up to it. The bridge is pathetic, as Davies’ voice simpers and the backing vocals coo off-key. It all sounds like a parody, which is a damn shame for what could be a moving track. He needed another take or twenty, but the last thing Davies is is a perfectionist. “Brainwashed” starts off with a hard-swinging pair of verses, then drops to a crunchy bridge, but at that point the unintelligible lyrics lose all melody, and it sounds a bit like a band trying to copy the Monkees’ “Pleasant Valley Sunday” – that’s a step down in ambition. I like the idea of the title song – a football chant which starts off telling Arthur he has wasted his life but morphs into the thought that maybe he had it right – but the execution is repetitive and tedious. Speaking of tedious, you can repeat a title endlessly in harmony, but that doesn’t mean “Driving” has a melody. “Australia” is a funny concept, and the Beach Boys section is impeccable (I love it when Brits make fun of us Americans). I want the jam at the end to work, with its anti-virtuoso solos and ramshackle arrangement, but again the track peters out. The lack of follow through shows up in the lyrics as well. “Young and Innocent Days” is pretty as music – I especially like the way the instrumental section contrasts with the sung parts – but it sells straight nostalgia unlike the more ambivalent feelings of the previous album. In the end, I like the album a lot for what it takes on and what it does right. I’m just disappointed that it’s not as fully realized as the previous three albums. I feel like I spent more time editing this essay than Davies did finishing the songs. Worst of all, despite a last-minute shift in the lyrics of the final song, Arthur the character comes off as a clueless drone. The empathy of "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home," "Two Sisters," and "Waterloo Sunset" is MIA. Buy an expanded version of the album and you’ll find more half-assedry by Ray, but you’ll also find a great, great track by brother Dave. “Mindless Child of Motherhood” has all the urgency of great rock and roll with passionate performances by all on board. Its tricky timing and rhythms are unlike anything else the band had attempted, forcing the band to focus. All while Dave brays at the top of his voice like Marty Balin at his dramatic best. It’s a knock-out. If you’re investigating further, you’ll also find it on Kink Kronikles.
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