A budget-priced collection of some the Kinks' most essential early material that allows the listener to watch the Kinks graduate from the garage rock roar of "You Really Got...
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Originally intended as a more thematic rendering of the characters and themes of The Village Green Preservation Society, Preservation Act 1 fails to realize Ray Davies'...
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Kicking off with the rocking "Victoria," this examines the decline of the British Empire (and features loads of Davies romanticism) years before the...
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Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) extends the British-oriented themes of Village Green Preservation Society, telling the story of a London man's...
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"Lola" gave the Kinks an unexpected hit and its crisp, muscular sound, pitched halfway between acoustic folk and hard rock, provided a new style for the band. However, the...
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The Kinks became arena rockers with Sleepwalker, and its follow-up, Misfits, follows in the same vein, but it's a considerable improvement on its predecessor. Ray Davies has...
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Although it closely resembles the 1986 Arista collection (and even boasts the same cover and title), the 2000 release of Come Dancing With the Kinks is not quite that album...
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Everybody's in Showbiz is a double album with one record devoted to stories from the road and another devoted to songs from the road. It could be labeled "the drunkest album...
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The Kinks graduated from rock & roll band to serious rock group on Face to Face, their first fully developed album and a rival to the Beatles' Rubber Soul, the Stones'...
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A return to form, albeit a mighty cynical one after the lowest common denominator appeal of Low Budget. Perhaps their last great album. And the closer, "Better Things," is a...
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Riding high on the success of Low Budget, the Kinks turned out another collection of hard-driving, arena-ready rock & roll with Give the People What They Want -- in short,...
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Greatest Hits 3/28/1989, Yahoo! Music, Bill Holdship
Essential, as it gathers all the early hits together in one place, making the spotty earliest LPs somewhat less essential. And Rhino adds a few more hits than were available...
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Featuring a total of 18 highlights from the Kinks' early career, Rhino's Greatest Hits is the definitive compilation of the group's hit singles from the mid-'60s. Beginning...
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The Kinks' second album (which, like their debut, now has a running order and track selection restored to the original British version) found the band relying more on...
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The Kinks came into their own as album artists -- and Ray Davies fully matured as a songwriter -- with The Kink Kontroversy, which bridged their raw early British Invasion...
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In 1988, Rhino released Kinks-Size/Kinkdom, which contained the American versions of two Kinks albums (which were really just collections of singles), both dating to 1965....
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The first effort to include all originals, including "Well Respected Man," "Dedicated Follower Of Fashion," and the staple, "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" (recently covered...
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Kinkdom is the American version of the Kinks' third album, boasting an altered sequence, plus a few singles. The end result may be a little bit of a hodgepodge, but not...
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Kicking off with "David Watts" and Dave's one-shot classic, "Death Of A Clown," and concluding with the glorious "Waterloo Sunset" (one of the most beautiful rock songs ever...
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Face to Face was a remarkable record, but its follow-up, Something Else, expands its accomplishments, offering 13 classic British pop songs. As Ray Davies' songwriting...
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Perhaps the biggest album of their career; it put them into the big rock arenas, but--with the possible exception of "Superman" (their nod to disco)--it's terrible,...
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Low Budget doesn't have a narrative like Preservation or Soap Opera, but Ray Davies cleverly designed the album as a sly satire of the recession and oil crisis that gripped...
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A definite high point, coming after years of theatrical concepts, including the Preservation albums and stage show. This is a continuation of sorts of the Preservation Act...
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How did the Kinks respond to the fresh start afforded by Lola? By delivering a skewed, distinctly British, cabaret take on Americana, all pinned down by Davies' loose...
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The Kinks' scattershot U.S. career never fully flourished like that of their British Invasion peers. The most quintessentially British of British bands -- especially in the...
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Ray Davies continues to turn out three or four brilliant songs on albums that barely anyone will ever hear. For Kinks fans, that's enough to justify the purchase of any of...
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A total theatrical concept piece, which was originally spread over the course of two albums--the first a single; the second a double. Rhino combined the two as one for its...
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Another theatrical concept, this one had nothing to do with the Preservation Acts, and more to do with Ray's "Everybody's a Star" concepts. Has it...
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Although the best of the Kinks' early work is among the best British Invasion music, their initial pair of albums was far less consistent than those of the Beatles, Stones,...
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Strictly speaking, the double-album compilation The Kink Kronikles isn't a greatest-hits collection. Covering the years 1966 through 1970, The Kink Kronikles may not be...
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They were starting to lose momentum, but it included their final hit singles, "Come Dancing" and "Don't Forget To Dance." Ray was obviously in a dancin' mood! Neither songs...
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The Kinks' State of Confusion had its share of glossy hard rock in the vein of "Low Budget" and "Destroyer," but the record came to life on the quieter numbers, whether it's...
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Think Visual 1/1/1986, Yahoo! Music, Bill Holdship
The two studio albums for MCA weren't all bad--no Kinks album, other than Low Budget is--but for the legendary Kinks, this a band lacking direction and...
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Think Visual, the Kinks' first album for MCA Records, found Ray Davies continuing to crank out a series of competent hard rockers. Out of all the loud, riff-driven numbers,...
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Ray Davies' sentimental, nostalgic streak emerged on Something Else, but it developed into a manifesto on The Village Green Preservation Society, a concept album lamenting...
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State of Confusion gave the Kinks their biggest single in nearly 20 years, but they didn't try to replicate the music hall-tinged pop of "Come Dancing" on its follow-up,...
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Since the mid-'70s, The Kinks have not been able to stop themselves from attempting their own variations on pop music trends, taking stabs at everything from bombastic heavy...
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Ray Davies' sentimental, nostalgic streak emerged on Something Else, but it developed into a manifesto on The Village Green Preservation Society, a concept album lamenting...
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Ray Davies and company had already participated in one failed television musical when the movie Percy came along -- it wasn't as original as Arthur, nor did Davies have...
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Among the British Invasion bands of the early '60s, the Kinks displayed considerably less instrumental firepower than their competition; they were distinguished by the...
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Is it possible that the early Kinks could be even rawer and more exciting in BBC halls than on their known Pye Records recordings? Sometimes yes, otherwise very nearly. A...
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Originally released as a double-album set in 1986, just after the Kinks had their last run at chart success, Come Dancing With the Kinks (The Best of the Kinks 1977-1986)...
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Although generally not as highly regarded by the critics as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or the Who, the Kinks may well have influenced far more musicians. The...
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