Artist Rating: 91%
Peak Album Score: 24
Average Album Score: 24
Development Score: 10
- The group's massive development was twofold - their songwriting abilities rose from Berry knock-offs to "Waterloo Sunset", and their lyrical abilities rose from "You Really Got Me" to "She's Got a Hat like Princess Marina".
Originality Score: 7
- While it's easy to see The Kinks as 'another 60's band', a real hard look would reveal that they're actually a rather unique cross between early 20th century music hall stylings and then-unborn punk music.
Personal Bias Score: 26
Kinks (1964) - 57%
This album reveals The Kinks to have started out as just another Beatles wannabe band with absolutely no distinguishing factors. Actually, there's one distinguishing factor - "You Really Got Me". I'm sure you've heard it; this song is often claimed to be the first hard rock song, and that isn't too far of a stretch. It's got a heavy, repeating, simplistic riff and a really thick guitar tone. The rest of the album consists of awful blues and early rock 'n' roll covers and originals that might as well be awful blues and early rock 'n' roll covers. Thankfully, the band was to grow really quickly into something better.
- Highlights: "You Really Got Me"
Kinda Kinks (1965) - 70%
Both the absurd brevity of this album (27 minutes? What is this, Pink Moon?) and the absurd badness of its predecessor beg the question as to why both were made in the same year, as opposed to a consolidation. I suppose in the early 60's it was all about padding out singles with crap to sell albums (on that note, the group's early singles are marvelous, but mostly absent from the albums... of course). Well, this one is nonetheless quite an improvement. It's still amateurish, but at least all but two of the songs are originals. Most of the originals are still reasonably bluesy and derivative, but the two singles, buried in the album ("Tired of Waiting for You" and "Something Better Beginning") are utterly fantastic. A step up, but a maddening one, because it's not reflective of their capacity (as usual, the concurrent singles are).
- Highlights: "Tired of Waiting for You", "Something Better Beginning"
The Kink Kontroversy (1965) - 75%
This one's a good deal better! The opening "Milk Cow Blues" is practically the group's only successful hard blues song (and a cover, no less), with raging vocals and guitars and a genuinely raw sound foreshadowing The Stooges. "Ring the Bell" hits the opposite extreme: a very pretty acoustic ballad (the first in the group's repertoire), with Ray's fragile vocals that would become typical. The big classic of the album is still the single, "Till the End of the Day", which is simply vicious. It's got the hard rock drive of "You Really Got Me" with far better hooks, harmonies, and energy (and that bit where they go into double-time at the end gets me going every time). Of course, the biggest change is that the lesser tracks on the album aren't awful. There's no need to go into detail with them, but the tracks are generally more experimental than previously, and farther from being pseudo-covers than ever.
- Highlights: "Milk Cow Blues", "Ring the Bell", "Till the End of the Day"
Face to Face (1966) - 90%
Here's where the band took its big leap. From the start, it's evident that something's up: a phone rings, and a ridiculously British-sounding man utters, "Hello? Who's there speaking, please?", and the band launches into an irresistibly bouncy rocker with hilarious lyrics about phone interceptions ("Is she big? Is she small? Is she a she at all?"). The next track, the poignant "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home", is a harpsichord-tinged shuffle lamenting a runaway teenager from the parents' perspective. "Dandy" is an acoustic jig with wonderful, sardonic lyrics about, well, a dandy. Anyway, I needn't go into every song, but they're all interesting lyrically if not musically (though most are). The album's big winner is still its single, "Sunny Afternoon", a wonderfully sarcastic music hall romp with fantastic lyrics ("Now I can't sail my yacht, he's [the taxman's] taken everything I've got." While a chunk of the album is still musically underdeveloped, this is classic.
- Highlights: "Party Line", "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home", "Dandy", "Too Much on My Mind", "Rainy Day in June", "Sunny Afternoon"
Something Else (1967) - 94%
Though many seem to find this album boring, I can only fathom that being a result of looking at the drearily grey album cover too long. Something Else is easily The Kinks' most brilliant and consistent album statement yet, covering an absurd range of styles with ease, catchiness, and a whole lot of Britishness (and fantastic lyrics all around - really, this is lyrically one of the greatest albums of all time). The opening "David Watts" prances along endearingly with great hooks and harmonies; Dave's "Death of a Clown" (easily his best song ever) has a great main melody and cool folksy vibe; "Lazy Old Sun" is one of the most interesting psychedelic songs I've ever heard, with a real winding melody and strange chord progression; finally, the closing "Waterloo Sunset" is easily among the most beautiful songs ever written, with an unbeatable nostalgia and probably the prettiest vocal of Ray's career.
- Highlights: "David Watts", "Death of a Clown", "Two Sisters", "Harry Rag", "Afternoon Tea", "End of the Season", "Waterloo Sunset"
The Village Green Preservation Society (1968) - 95%
While most other bands spent 1968 in a drugged-out haze, exploring India, or being pissed off at everybody, The Kinks decided to glorify everything that was English and outdated. Almost every song on here laments the death of aged traditions, objects and ideas ("Last of the Steam-Powered Trains", "Animal Farm") or mocks their replacements ("Picture Book", "People Take Pictures of Each Other"... did Davies have some bizarre, tribal phobia of cameras?). Thankfully, the actual music is as brilliant and hook-filled as anything could ever be. The title track plucks along through a list of things gone by, and declares the group's dedication to reviving them, "Do You Remember Walter?" is an utterly beautiful piece of childhood nostalgia with an unbeatable winding melody, and "Sitting by the Riverside" shuffles on with cute harmonies and little piano tinklings. Most of the album seems to make an attempt to not stand out, which might make it seem a little flat as a whole. If there's any flaw, it's that the album is so dang even that by the end I've almost lost concentration. That's pretty minor, though, since if I put the album on at any point in the middle I'd be thrilled to hear whatever song comes on.
- Highlights: "The Village Green Preservation Society", "Do You Remember Walter", "Picture Book", "Sitting by the Riverside", "Animal Farm", "Village Green", "Starstruck", "All of My Friends Were There"
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969) - 97%
The closing jam of the otherwise fantastic "Australia" goes on for too long, "Young and Innocent Days" is a bit too tame to be thrilling, and "Nothing to Say" has a fairly clunky verse melody. Now that we have the negatives out of the way, let me pronounce the utter brilliance of this, The Kinks' best ever and most lengthily titled album (so far). A concept album recorded as the soundtrack to an unmade movie, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) follows the life of Arthur, a British carpet-layer, and the events that change him from an ambitious youth into a tired old loser who lives in a tiny row house and has nothing to talk to his kids (who have left him) about. Lyrically, it's sort of a big summary of everything Davies has ever mocked: a bit of patriotism, some war, a dash of commercialism, and a whole lot of mundane suburban English misery. Musically, it rocks harder and more diversely than anything the band has recorded before: "Victoria", "Mr. Churchill Says" and especially "Brainwashed" verge on punk, "Yes Sir, No Sir" is a ridiculously dynamic mini-epic capturing Heller's Catch-22 in less than four minutes, "Some Mother's Son" is one of the most tearjerking ballads ever recorded, "Drivin'" is the group's happiest song since the explosively silly single "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy", "Australia" is an impressive British take on Brian Wilson, the title track is an absurd bluesy epic, and "She's Bought a Hat like Princess Marina" (with maybe Ray's most entertaining lyrics ever) is practically impossible to pin down. I think that's every track... whoops.
- Highlights: "Victoria", "Yes Sir, No Sir", "Some Mother's Son", "Brainwashed", "Shangri-La", "Mr. Churchill Said", "She's Bought a Hat like Princess Marina"
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970) - 81%
This little in-betweener can hardly be seen as the successor to Arthur (Or the Decline...). It's still a concept album, though, with much the same storyline except about a rock band trying to make it, succeeding, and then being struck down by the awful industry goons. Or something like that. The important difference is that the songs mostly feel as if they'd been written to fit the storyline, and not to be great. Because most of them aren't. The few exceptions, the heartfelt rootsy ballad "Strangers", the jangle-pop lament "Get Back in Line", "Lola" (which I needn't describe), and the proto-Muswell Hillbillies, pseudo-tropical "Apeman". Still, this album falls into the post-peak class of Kinks albums, with a few genuine highlights in a sea of inconsequential plot-tracks.
- Highlights: "Strangers", "Get Back in Line", "Lola", "Apeman"
Muswell Hillbillies (1971) - 94%
Apparently, the group had one last brilliant album to craft before settling into the semi-mediocrity of Lola Versus... (another absurdly long title, speaking of). This one is the sort of album that defies all comprehension. After a career of unabashed England-worship, The Kinks get together and record a collection of twelve hilarious takes on American folk music (Are they parodies? Are they tributes? I have no idea!) with some of Ray's most insanely entertaining lyrics ever, mostly decrying the paranoia and alienation of the modern world. Every song is memorable in its own way, but the best of the lot is definitely the opening "20th Century Man", which ironically sums up everything Davies is about as well as Arthur (Or the Decline...) did. Ray's humorously dumb-sounding vocal delivery offsets what are some seriously unnerving and macro-minded concerns: "This is the age of machinery, a mechanical nightmare; the wonderful world of technology: napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare." Also of note are "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues", maybe the most hilarious blues song ever recorded ("Well the milkman's a spy, and the grocer keeps on following me, and the woman next door's an undercover for the KGB, and the man from the Social Security keeps on invading my privacy; oh, there ain't no cure for acute schizophrenia disease."), and the title track, a straight country-western piece of nostalgia for the Davies' home in Muswell Hill, London. No, "they're never gonna kill [his] Cockney pride."
- Highlights: "20th Century Man", "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues", "Alcohol", "Muswell Hillbilly"
Everybody's in Show-Biz (1972) - 84%
Already it's clear that the group's ingenuity is slipping. Very few songs on Everybody's in Show-Biz stick beyond the songs' boundaries, with melodies that sound like Ray just heard them on old American records are regurgitated them (the generic bluesisms of "Maximum Consumption", "Unreal Reality" sounding exactly like "Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues" without the great humor, "Hot Potatoes" which might as well be "You Really Got a Hold on Me"... et cetera). The big winners, and the only two songs that suggest the brilliance of the band's past, are the two side-closers: "Sitting in My Hotel" is a heart-breaking piano ballad that does a better job of painting the rockstar as a solitary, desolate figure than the entire The Wall album, and the Dylanesque (the melody is somewhere in between "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again") "Celluloid Heroes", which builds upon the fantastic irony of celebrities being little stars on the sidewalk in LA ("Avoid stepping on Bela Lugosi, 'cause he's liable to turn and bite"), and ultimately succeeds at humanizing celebrities in a backwards way. As would become the tradition, though, the great songs are an exception to the rule.
- Highlights: "Sitting in My Hotel", "Celluloid Heroes"
Preservation Act One (1973) - 69%
This is the first in a three-LP long rock opera Davies wrote over the course of '73 and '74, and it's generally considered to be the beginning of the group's descent into constant and endless mediocrity. While I wouldn't say this album is particularly worse than Lola Versus Powerman... (which was certainly the genesis of The Kinks' mediocrity streak), it's clear that the group takes itself too seriously here. Though the music is still about as silly as on Everybody's in Show-Biz, albeit with a lot more standard musical fare and less blues, the lyrics don't attempt to be humorous or wry - they're just nostalgic and theatrical (and not very good). Aside from "Sweet Lady Genevieve", which would have been a good album track on practically any of the group's albums (bar Arthur...), I can hardly remember how anything here goes.
- Highlights: "Sweet Lady Genevieve"
Preservation Act Two (1974) - 66%
Apparently, Preservation Act One wasn't actually part of the opera, but rather an introduction that Ray had to release to fulfill contractual obligations. So this double album contains the entire plot. The music, aside from a few generic rockers and lethargic ballads, sounds so very much like a musical soundtrack that it's kind of laughable. At times, I'm amused by it (the bigoted slogans of "Shepherds of the Nation"), but more often I just lament its lack of real melody. Usually Ray sort of rambles off the lyrics in a speak-sing voice, and it isn't very entertaining. The lyrics sound like they're at least a bit better than those on Act One, but I've never been one to like lyrics independent of good music... so bummer dude! The closing "Salvation Road" has a silly, pseudo-patriotic vibe going for it, but unfortunately the melody sounds like a second rate Van der Graaf Generator one, which isn't a huge compliment (as much as I love the group).
- Highlights: "Mirror of Love", "Salvation Road"
Soap Opera (1975) - 76%
Most people seem to think that this is the absolute worst Kinks album... and that might be true on some level. But it's also quite cute, and I don't think Ray takes it too seriously. Thus, the in-between song ramble takes on a kind of self-parodic tone, and is rather amusing. As for the actual music, it's pretty much the same generic rock-pseudo-broadway slop as Preservation Act 2, but here Ray affects some humorous vocal intonations, and makes an effort to have sillier, less pretentious lyrics. "You Make It All Worthwhile", for instance, is a rather generic ballad made pretty by Ray's sincerity and the cute vocal dialogues inserted here and there. Also, "Underneath the Neon Sign" is a pretty solid soft rocker, with nothing cringe-inducing about it. Good job, guys... I guess.
- Highlights: "Under a Neon Sign"
Schoolboys in Disgrace (1976) - 82%
This album, the group's third rock opera in a row (and umpteenth concept album, yeesh!), is easily the best of the lot. The blatant superiority is in part due to Ray approaching it with appropriate silliness, and in part due to a serious improvement in songwriting. While at least half of the album's tunes are parodies of homey American styles - sort of a Muswell Hillbillies for the 20th century, stylistically - they're good parodies! The opening "Schooldays" is easily the group's best song since "Sitting in My Hotel", with hilarious vocal intonations adorning harmonies over a very silly set of pseudo-nostalgic lyrics. It almost feels like Ray is mocking himself, but it's highly enjoyable. Other highlights include the dumb rocker "Jack the Idiot Dunce", with the title as a hilarious back-up refrain, and "The First Time We Fall in Love", a dumb-voiced, innocent take on doo-wop. Maybe I enjoy this album much more than it deserves to be - it couldn't be any less original - but Ray sounds like he's having a good time, and it's contagious.
- Highlights: "Schooldays", "Jack the Idiot Dunce", "The First Time We Fall in Love", "No More Looking
Sleepwalker (1977) - 83%
On Sleepwalker Ray takes a serious step in making The Kinks' first concept-less album since their pre-Face to Face mediocrity. Thankfully, the album is very good! The songwriting is highly consistent, even if only a handful of songs really stick in my head. There's little-to-no banality to be found, and Ray doesn't even need to use self-parody to justify himself. The opening "Life on the Road" is one of the band's most well-done energetic blues-rockers, "Full Moon" sounds like Robbie Zim taking on a big wall of sound to amusing effect, and "Stormy Sky" might be the band's best anthemic arena tune ever, with a pretty melody and a great, moving chord progression.
- Highlights: "Life on the Road", "Stormy Sky"
Misfits (1978) - 77%
This one's sort of like a less consistent rehash of Sleepwalker, except Ray tries to run back into the world of vague concept albums. Misfits follows the lives of, well, various misfits, which would be a nice theme if the songs were any good. The only songs that really jammed their way into my memory are the title track, a pretty ballad with a really nice chorus hook ("Every dog has his day") redeeming the fact that the melody is so unoriginal, and "(A) Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy", a poignant sympathy piece to those who hole themselves up and replace life with rock 'n' roll records (we've all been there at times, haven't we?). The rest of the songs are slightly less interesting versions of the already-uninteresting songs on its predecessor. Bummer, dude!
- Highlights: "Misfits", "(A) Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy"
Low Budget (1979) - 75%
This album picks up on The Kinks' apparent street cred as the godfathers of punk ("You Really Got Me", I guess?) and goes into all-out sellout mode. Unlike some others, I don't see this as an accidental trash-terpiece. It is trashy, but it's also pretty mediocre. The songs are all doused in this awfully tinny production where Ray's voice sounds like it was added on months later to a guitar track recorded in another room, the hooks are pretty lame all around, and Ray has taken to hilariously blunt musical (The "Jumpin' Jack Flash" riff? Really?) and lyrical ("We've gotta get out of this place") theft. I guess the songs aren't any worse than those on the few preceding albums, but for some reason I was expecting an improvement, and am thoroughly disappointed. Perhaps of biggest note is "Moving Pictures", which serves - along with "Permanent Waves" from Misfits - as the apparent inspiration for Rush's most successful album titles (Second rate, post-peak Kinks album tracks? Go figure.).
- Highlights: "Catch Me Now I'm Falling"
Give the People What They Want (1982) - 76%
This is more generic 80's crap - from the incredibly phony-sounding metal songs to the equally stuffy ballads - but it's better produced (...slightly) and more hooky (again, slightly) than Low Budget, which just seemed like it was trying to be ugly. Most songs ("Predictable", "Add It Up", "Yo-Yo", "Art Lover", and "Better Things") have their cute moments, though on the whole they're comically generic and trashy. I don't hate this album as much as I should.
- Highlights: "Predictable", "Add It Up", "Yo-Yo", "Better Things"
State of Confusion (1983) - 78%
Some more empty synth-pop alongside more generic metal... actually, this time Ray takes a more genuine approach to his vocal deliveries and songwriting, so the actual core of each tune is much more reminiscent of classic Kinks than before. Of course, the arrangements are just awful, and only detract from the product, but the album isn't too bad, and at least has a better vibe than the few preceding it. He's still ripping himself off like mad, though ("Come Dancing"... "Misfits"?). On the upside, "Heart of Gold" is a lovely, straightforward rock-ballad, and "Cliches of the World (B Movie)" is probably Ray's most entertaining song since Muswell Hillbillies.
- Highlights: "Heart of Gold", "Cliches of the World (B Movie)"
Word of Mouth (1984) - 72%
Yet another album full of trashy 80's tunes. I'm getting really sick of this! The opening "Do It Again", though not as catchy as the Steely Dan tune of the same name, is actually quite good, with a nice verse melody and a silly, stuttering chorus hook. As with almost every late-period Kinks album, Word of Mouth is populated by songs that don't have anything particularly wrong with them, but don't have anything particularly right with them either. Add this total ambivalence to cheesy 80's production, and you get a grade of... ambivalence-minus. Mucky.
- Highlights: "Do It Again"
Think Visual (1986) - 77%
Maybe somebody told Ray that he should try going back to that ol' classic rock sound (Dave probably did, on second thought), because this is the first album in a while that doesn't sound like trash-metal or synth-pop shit. It's still pretty crappy, though, and hardly has any memorable moments at all... but at least the arrangements are uniformly tolerable (well, except the awfully synth-drenched closer, "When You Were a Child"). The only tracks that even threaten to stay in my memory are the title track, with its amusing little honky-tonk piano break, and the opening "Working at the Factory", which explores the neat journey of a young Ray's fears of factory work being alleviated by his musical success, in turn leading him to realize that the music industry is just another factory. Very cool, but the music is still only okay.
- Highlights: "Working at the Factory", "Think Visual"
UK Jive (1989) - 73%
Yep... another generic 80's rock album. This time Ray takes on a seriously bleak worldview, but the music doesn't really sound any different. On the upside, the opening "Aggravation" has a neat shuffling groove going for it, as well as a reasonably inspired vocal performance, and "Loony Balloon" has a light, jangly feel that feels like a genuine throwback to the good old days. Mostly, this is just more of the same, though. I'm running out of things to say!
- Highlights: "Aggravation", "Loony Balloon"
Phobia (1993) - 53%
This one, more than any other Kinks album ever - even Preservation Act 2 - is just a bad idea. Some devil possessed the Super Davies Bros. and convinced them to record a double-album length pile of generic heavy metal shit. Now, I think most people are too harsh on this thing - cringe-inducing as it might be - because the songs are far from 'unmelodic' and ugly. They're just painfully amateur attempts at being heavy, and don't make any sense coming from these poppy (one day, long ago...) anglophiles. Again, generic as this whole pile of slop is, nothing is particularly unlistenable... except the whole album at once. Which is kind of the point. Bleh. Take the following 'highlights' with a grain of salt.
- Highlights: "Wall of Fire", "Somebody Stole My Car", "Close to the Wire", "Scattered"
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