The Kinks

The Kinks entered the 1970s with the same stumbling, drunken surprise as The Faces – only long glimpses of confusion and sadness kept popping up between the episodes of hedonistic fun. The first half of this underrated platter about Englishmen on the American road features "Celluloid Heroes," Ray Davies' greatest song of the period. A concert occupies the second half.

Ray Davies continues to wear his English citizenship like a badge. The Kinks have often
used American musical idioms -- especially variations on Richard Berry's "Louie Louie," as
revived by the Kingsmen and by the Kinks themselves -- but Ray has regularly used his
considerable songwriting talents to anatomize situations of class and culture that are
peculiarly English. Years of touring, boozing, and occasionally brawling onstage... More >

A few of the new songs here are as strident as anything Ray Davies has done since before he started playing the recluse in London in the late '60s. They're tight; they have a firm beat; they're, you know, rock and roll. Unfortunately, they're still self-pitying--the reformed recluse doth reflect overmuch these days on the travails of the touring superstar. But for only an extra dollar you get a live album worth at least that, featuring the antics of a reborn showman who has turned stage fright into a way of life and thus rendered his self-pity somewhat more palatable. (Grade - B+)