faviorte kinks album

[Lonely Summer]

I go all the way to the end with this band. Love the albums everyone else loves, the often cited Face to Face, Arthur, VGPS, Something Else, Lola, but also love Misfits, State of Confusion, Word of Mouth, even their finale, Phobia.

Yeh Misfits is excellent, unfortunately by Word of Mouth and State of Confusion Ray's production had become of it's time and renders those albums difficult listening, mind you the songs on WoM are great. If they had trimmed Phobia down to 10-12 songs it would have been brilliant. The 2 new songs on To the Bone were better produced and Animal in particular is a favourite of mine.

I don't have any problem with the production on those albums. I do think UK Jive and Think Visual were just a tad overproduced in spots, but for the most part, I really like the Kinks 80's work. I can't think of any act with similar longevity who were still producing high quality work right to the end. Certainly not the Beach Boys 

[Outtasight!]

I go all the way to the end with this band. Love the albums everyone else loves, the often cited Face to Face, Arthur, VGPS, Something Else, Lola, but also love Misfits, State of Confusion, Word of Mouth, even their finale, Phobia.

Yeh Misfits is excellent, unfortunately by Word of Mouth and State of Confusion Ray's production had become of it's time and renders those albums difficult listening, mind you the songs on WoM are great. If they had trimmed Phobia down to 10-12 songs it would have been brilliant. The 2 new songs on To the Bone were better produced and Animal in particular is a favourite of mine.

I don't have any problem with the production on those albums. I do think UK Jive and Think Visual were just a tad overproduced in spots, but for the most part, I really like the Kinks 80's work. I can't think of any act with similar longevity who were still producing high quality work right to the end. Certainly not the Beach Boys 

What do you think of Ray's solo albums, there's a couple of classic Davies songs on them, Thanksgiving Day and Imaginary Man spring to mind.

[Lonely Summer]

Yeah, some good songs on Ray's albums - Vietnam Cowboys, The Getaway (Lonesome Train), Next Door Neighbor, Over My Head. Really enjoyed seeing him back in 2006 at the Moore Theater, he did about half of the Other People's Lives album plus of course some of the back catalog. Had a really good band that knew how to play the stuff, enjoyed the girl singer Karin that joined him on some numbers. Kind of thought of Karin as the Taylor Mills of the show

[Outtasight!]

Yeh, I've seen Ray several times and the 2006 band was brilliant, saw them in Glasgow. Played Word of Mouth this afternoon, now got UK Jive on, which I bought the same day as I got the Pet Sounds cd back in 1990. Summers Gone is a brilliant song the bridge lyrics always choke me up "Dad looked at us then he looked at his wife, he must've wondered where we all came from. Then mum said Dad, you know it won't last long, before you know it summers gone" I love that reminicense of childhood family life, very Ray.
UK Jive sounds better than I remember, oh well I feel a Kinks phase coming on.

[Lonely Summer]

Yeh, I've seen Ray several times and the 2006 band was brilliant, saw them in Glasgow. Played Word of Mouth this afternoon, now got UK Jive on, which I bought the same day as I got the Pet Sounds cd back in 1990. Summers Gone is a brilliant song the bridge lyrics always choke me up "Dad looked at us then he looked at his wife, he must've wondered where we all came from. Then mum said Dad, you know it won't last long, before you know it summers gone" I love that reminicense of childhood family life, very Ray.
UK Jive sounds better than I remember, oh well I feel a Kinks phase coming on.

That line you quoted from Summer's Gone always gives me an image of Ray, Dave, and their sisters in the car with mom and dad...sweet Word of Mouth is one of my favorite Kinks albums, it's got a good variety on it - some hard rockers, some acoustic ballads, a couple songs from Dave. I was playing Guilty on the guitar a couple weeks ago, love the chord changes and the lyrics. Good Day is one of those songs that only Ray could write.."hey, baby, if you'd come back home it would be a good day today....they could drop a small atom bomb on this city today, but if you'd walk through that door it'd be a good day". I've felt that way a few times.

[donald]

Love the Kinks.  I like the older material as well as anyone but the later stuff has some really great moments.
The Come Dancing comp gets a lot of play here.  Low Budget, Superman etc.

What studio lp contained Wilsden Green?

[nickdunning]

Love the Kinks.  I like the older material as well as anyone but the later stuff has some really great moments.
The Come Dancing comp gets a lot of play here.  Low Budget, Superman etc.

What studio lp contained Wilsden Green?

The 'Percy' soundtrack. Sung by John 'Nobby' Dalton...

[nickdunning]

Preservation 1 is my personal fave!

C'mon: Sweet Lady Genevieve, One Of The Survivors, Where Are They All Now, Sitting In The Midday Sun, Daylight!

Those are all fantastic songs/performances.

Indeed - I did say I lose interest after this album. 

'Sweet Lady Genevieve' is almost certainly about Ray's first wife Rasa, who had left him at this point, so it's poignant as well.

'Sitting In The Mid-Day Sun' is just so effortlessly tuneful and cheery. Seeing as Ray was going through hell at that point, that was quite a feat.

[Ovi]

To me, 'Village Green Preservation Society', 'Arthur' and 'Muswell Hillbillies' are their three masterpieces. Though very different, they are all incredible pieces of music that I could listen forever to.

'Face To Face', 'Something Else' and 'Lola' are very good, too, but, IMO, not in the same league as the three mentioned above.

I'm still working on their other albums. Is anyone familiar with their post 'Sleepwalker' work? Is there something worth checking?

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

To me, 'Village Green Preservation Society', 'Arthur' and 'Muswell Hillbillies' are their three masterpieces. Though very different, they are all incredible pieces of music that I could listen forever to.

'Face To Face', 'Something Else' and 'Lola' are very good, too, but, IMO, not in the same league as the three mentioned above.

I'm still working on their other albums. Is anyone familiar with their post 'Sleepwalker' work? Is there something worth checking?

I love Misfits and all their 80's stuff (though I struggle with Think Visual)!

Their initial 80's run is awesome, to my ears, and there are so many serious gems (Art Lover, National Health etc etc) to be found!

[GreatUrduPoet]

Best = Something Else (UK mono mix)
Sentimental favourite = Face To Face (US stereo mix)

[Outtasight!]

To me, 'Village Green Preservation Society', 'Arthur' and 'Muswell Hillbillies' are their three masterpieces. Though very different, they are all incredible pieces of music that I could listen forever to.

'Face To Face', 'Something Else' and 'Lola' are very good, too, but, IMO, not in the same league as the three mentioned above.

I'm still working on their other albums. Is anyone familiar with their post 'Sleepwalker' work? Is there something worth checking?

I love Misfits and all their 80's stuff (though I struggle with Think Visual)!

Their initial 80's run is awesome, to my ears, and there are so many serious gems (Art Lover, National Health etc etc) to be found!

Yup Misfits is even better than Sleepwalker. Give the People What they want is a great rock record.

[Aum Bop Diddit]

The Kinks Katalogue (sorry) is phenomenal.  Reading these posts you see many LPs listed as favorites or "best", and different eras cited -- a testament to their continued inspiration and productivity.  I tend to go with the general trend of their greatest work being roughly "Face to Face"/"Something Else" through "Lola"/"Muswell Hillbillies".  I am a lover of "Village Green" and "Arthur", but the quality of work in this period as amazing -- see the singles and outtakes included on "Kinks Kronikles" or the reissues.

Having said that, you can make a case for "Kronikles"; though it is not an LP proper it holds up as a great piece of work in and of itself -- revealing the brilliance of the Kinks' "lost" period (parallel to the Beach Boys roughly "Pet Sounds through "Sunflower").  Also the first Kinks' "Greatest Hits" was a watermark record for me -- the first non-Beach Boy album to connect with me as a young listener.

Finally, a good word for the later Kinks' years -- "Schoolboys in Disgrace" I consider a lost masterpiece and probably the Kinks album I have listed to most (that or "Village Green").  "Preservation Act One" is half brilliant, and "Sleepwalker" is consistently good.  Thing is that there is music of high quality on every record through "UK Jive" (and probably "Phobia" if I listened to it -- "To the Bone" has some great rearrangement of "Klassics" -- again sorry).  I'd argue that the Kinks were producing at least a few songs on par with their greatest work all through the 80s, something I could not say for the other "major" 60s bands including the BBs (other than BW '88).

[Lonely Summer]

To me, 'Village Green Preservation Society', 'Arthur' and 'Muswell Hillbillies' are their three masterpieces. Though very different, they are all incredible pieces of music that I could listen forever to.

'Face To Face', 'Something Else' and 'Lola' are very good, too, but, IMO, not in the same league as the three mentioned above.

I'm still working on their other albums. Is anyone familiar with their post 'Sleepwalker' work? Is there something worth checking?

I love Misfits and all their 80's stuff (though I struggle with Think Visual)!

Their initial 80's run is awesome, to my ears, and there are so many serious gems (Art Lover, National Health etc etc) to be found!

Yup Misfits is even better than Sleepwalker. Give the People What they want is a great rock record.

I see many fans list Sleepwalker as a favorite (for some, the last Kinks album they liked), but I have always preferred Misfits. Give the People What They Want took me a few spins to warm up to - it was just so freakin' LOUD! But I quickly came to love it. These guys really need to follow the Beach Boys lead and get back together. Ray keeps touring, playing the old songs, not doing anything new; a group of former band members tour as the Kast Off Kinks; Dave hasn't toured since his stroke back in 2004, don't know if he could do it now.

[lance]

Arthur for me, but I love most of their stuff.

[Roger Ryan]

For the past couple of weeks, I've gone through and listened to all the Kinks albums in order. Nothing beats the stretch from FACE TO FACE through LOLA VS. POWERMAN AND THE MONEY-GO-ROUND, but agree that there are strong cuts throughout their career.

SCHOOLBOYS IN DISGRACE is fantastic and probably the best of the conceptual albums. I'm also of the opinion that MISFITS is better than SLEEPWALKER. I find STATE OF CONFUSION and THINK VISUAL to be very strong throughout, almost on par with SCHOOLBOYS.

UK JIVE is a real disappointment, however. Ray is not only recycling his own material (with poor results), but his "lifts" from other performers' songs are especially blatant (the opening track "Aggravation" is obviously based on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" with a bit of Blondie's "Rapture" thrown in). "Now and Then" and the title track are the only decent songs on there.

PHOBIA is three-fourths of a strong album and a decent finale to the Kinks, I suppose. I like Ray's OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES better than WORKINGMAN'S CAFE, but I have no interest in his current fixation with continually re-recording his older songs.

[Lonely Summer]

For the past couple of weeks, I've gone through and listened to all the Kinks albums in order. Nothing beats the stretch from FACE TO FACE through LOLA VS. POWERMAN AND THE MONEY-GO-ROUND, but agree that there are strong cuts throughout their career.

SCHOOLBOYS IN DISGRACE is fantastic and probably the best of the conceptual albums. I'm also of the opinion that MISFITS is better than SLEEPWALKER. I find STATE OF CONFUSION and THINK VISUAL to be very strong throughout, almost on par with SCHOOLBOYS.

UK JIVE is a real disappointment, however. Ray is not only recycling his own material (with poor results), but his "lifts" from other performers' songs are especially blatant (the opening track "Aggravation" is obviously based on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" with a bit of Blondie's "Rapture" thrown in). "Now and Then" and the title track are the only decent songs on there.

PHOBIA is three-fourths of a strong album and a decent finale to the Kinks, I suppose. I like Ray's OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES better than WORKINGMAN'S CAFE, but I have no interest in his current fixation with continually re-recording his older songs.

OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES is a strong album. I got to see Ray in concert just after the album was released, he did 6-8 of the songs that night. His band played great, really brought the new songs and old songs to life. WORKINGMAN'S CAFE is alright, but just never grew on me the way OPL did. I think he needs his brother to push him creatively, but Dave has no interest in working with Ray at this stage. Sad.

[Newguy562]

their music is english and sophisticated

[Aum Bop Diddit]

Basically with the Kinks, like the Beach Boys, Macca, Townshend, Stones -- the best you are going to get on a new release is a "that's pretty good," a la a "TLOS" or "That's Why God Created Radio."  Good, well crafted music to be certain, but still pales alongside the masterpieces.  And that's no crime.  The only one who seems to avoid this is Dylan, but musicality is not at the forefront.

[lee]

Face to Face is my favorite.

[Mike's Beard]

Thought I'd bump this thread after getting Arthur today after stupidly giving it away years ago. What a fantastic album!! Even the daft overlong jam at the end of Australia can't dull this masterpiece. A strong case could be made that, at his peak, Ray Davies was the best songwriter England has ever produced.

[Gertie J.]

Loved, love and will always love The Kinks. It's hard to cherry-pick one album tho if forced to choose I'd say Kontroversy.