Search - Kinks :: Arista Years

A Great Band in Decline

D. Wright | 06/20/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Kinks are perhaps my favourite band ever; certainly only the Beatles and The Beach Boys would dispute top place in my all time top list, however this doesn't blind me to the fact that they were in irrevocable decline by the time these albums were released.

Ray Davies is probably my favourite pop song writer too; as Paul Weller once said 'Waterloo Sunset' is perhaps THE greatest pop song of all time. For that one song alone Ray deserves all the plaudits he gets. Unfortunately his songwriting was massively inconsistent by the time the Kinks joined Arista.

The first two albums in the collection, Sleepwalker and Misfits aren't actually bad at all and many would argue that they were a vast improvement on anything the Kinks had produced since Muswell Hillbillies. Personally I feel the RCA era taken as a whole knocks spots off the Arista years, as the music was far more varied. However Sleepwalker is a fine album. The title track, the excellent rocker Life On The Road, the poignant Brother and Stormy Sky, together with one of the bonus tracks On The Outside (present in 2 versions) are highlights; but there's barely a bad track on the album, something that can't be said of any subsequent release in theis box set.

The second album, whilst generally not as consistent does contain one of Ray Davies' greatest ever songs in Rock n Roll Fantasy. This tune is genuinely up there with Celluloid Heroes and even Waterloo Sunset itself, a stone cold classic and easily the best thing Ray has written since the early seventies. Misfits itself is also great, whilst Black Messiah and the bonus track Father Christmas are worthwhile.

The next album Low Budget was where the Kinks started to get into arena rock and become 'heavier'. It still contains some worthy numbers in Catch Me Now I'm Falling, Wish I Could Fly Like Superman, the title track and the great bluesy number A Gallon Of Gas, but the rest is forgettable and would be a precursor of things to come. A live album One For The Road, which turns many of the songs into generic sounding heavy rockers, follows and is largely disappointing. The Kinks might have been great on stage but never made a really decent live album.

The following release Give The People What They Want is for me truly dreadful, and ranks in my opinion as perhaps the worst album released by any band I love. There's only one decent track and that's the closer Better Things; most of the rest of it is tuneless shouting, which apparently equated with what Ray must have thought was the commercially successful arena rock of the time. Personally I've always thought arena rock was tuneless and this album is no better. As for being heavy metal, well Ray never had a 'heavy metal voice', so consequently had to just shout. I also thought that Dave Davies didn't have much of a voice at all, nor was he (despite what others say) a particularly talented songwriter. Apart from Better Things the only other track from Give The People What They Want which made it to the Come Dancing Arista years compilation was Destroyer, the best known number on the album, but I still think it's dreadful.

Fortunately things pick up somewhat on the last two albums State Of Confusion and Word Of Mouth, although these are still inferior to the first three Arista albums. State Of Confusion contains the excellent, catchy Come Dancing which was the Kinks biggest (and in the UK, only) hit for years - since Apeman way back in 1971. I'm not sure why as they had some equally catchy RCA singles. However, apart from this and the fine ballad Don't Forget To Dance there's not much else memorable on the album. The final release Word Of Mouth also contains a superb number in Good Day, but apart from the opener Do It Again, once more there's relatively little else of merit. So like the RCA box there's a lot of rubbish amongst the good stuff, except this time the bad outweighs the good. Unless you like 'arena rock' which as I say seems to equate to tuneless shouting, then you'd be advised to steer clear of this box and just pick up the Come Dancing compilation album of these years. This is an excellent eighteen track collection which gathers nearly all the best material from these inconsistent albums, although it does miss Brother, Black Messiah, On The Outside and Stormy Sky whilst including the dreadful Destroyer.

What made the Kinks special was their variety and Ray's lyrics and melodies. The lyrical quality is often still there (although sometimes obscured by the racket), much better than most heavy metal songs, but the melody and variety is lacking in the Arista years albums.

There is actually enough material for one great album out of these six studio releases (the live album is almost wholly dispensible). For what it's worth my track list would be Life On The Road, Sleepwalker, Brother, Stormy Sky, On The Outside (Sleepwalker) Misfits, Black Messiah, A Rock n Roll Fantasy, Father Christmas (Misfits) Catch Me Now I'm Falling, Wish I Could Fly Like Superman, Low Budget, A Gallon Of Gas(Low Budget), Better Things (Give The People What They Want), Come Dancing, Don't Forget To Dance, (State Of Confusion) Do It Again and Good Day (World Of Mouth).

By the way even if you collect both the RCA and Arista box sets and the Pye individual albums (Don't get the Pye box set as it misses all the bonus tracks, many which were classic singles) you still wouldn't have everything by the Kinks as they made three more albums after leaving Arista: Think Visual, UK Jive and Phobia. However from the samples I've heard and what I've read about these albums you won't be missing much without them!

"

More Jewels

Jose Ruben Orantes Garcia | Chiapas, México | 03/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well the 80s, the new wave decade, the new romantic decade, but Kinks represent the real and honest rock'n'roll band. Buy It"

Recommended...with caution

Johnnie Neptune | Ontario, Canada | 01/13/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The first thing to take into consideration is that these albums have already been available on CD. So, why bother buying again?

Well, in short, the move to SACD has improved the sound of ALL of these recordings. Ray Davies was not the best choice to produce Kinks' music but these re-issues have added sonic improvement (along with liner notes and bonus tracks though the bonuses are questionable in some cases). You can now own the vast majority of klassic Kinks music in 3 box sets - the "Pye Album Collection", the "RCA Years" and this set, the "Arista Years". Add on the "Lost and Found" compilation from the MCA years, the "Did Ya" EP and (much underrated) "Phobia" CD both on Columbia and you pretty much have it all. (Though personally, I would recommend hunting down the British import version of "To The Bone" that includes the immaculate re-recording of 'Waterloo Sunset', inexplicably left off of the North American version.)

The Arista Years were a time of resurgent popularity for the Kinks. Ray Davies is a contrarian survivor first and foremost. He doesn't want to be like "everybody else", he is a self admitted "misfit" yet he is one of the "last of the steam powered trains" and keeps going, right on to this day (see his newest solo disc). Just when he is on the verge of extinction, he pulls another artistic rabbit out of his hat. On this set, he manages this a few times. "Sleepwalker" is one example. After the trials and tribulations of the conceptual RCA Years, he was moving back toward more straight forward songs (starting with "Schoolboys in Disgrace", their last for RCA). He consolidates that direction with "Sleepwalker". Though lacking a bonafide hit single, the excellent "Juke Box Music" was a solid return to rocking form.

"Misfits" was vulnerable and magnificent in the traditional Kinks way - and even had a minor hit with "Rock 'n Roll Fantasy". A solid effort all around. Still, changes were in the offing...

Who would have guessed that an arena rock band pose would be next in "Low Budget"? If the trend was toward disco, then Ray would answer with "Wish I Could Fly Like Superman". Why not - the Stones did "Miss You"?

This new found popularity was documented on their most polished live album, "One For The Road", where the Kinks merged their new hits with classics recorded by others like "Stop Your Sobbing" (courtesy of ex-love Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders), "David Watts" (the Jam) and of course "You Really Got Me" (thanks Van Halen).

(Note: Later on The Kinks did do the 2 versions of "To The Bone", ostensibly live but come on, while excellent, they were way too polished to believe they were really 'live'.)

"Give The People What They Want" was their most transparently titled work. "Destroyer" was self-derivative and only "Better Things" saved what little there was of this attempt. Fortunately, Ray got over himself to re-vitalize the band, yet again, with a hit single in "Come Dancing" and the "State Of Confusion" disc where he adeptly timed his vision for the visual with the coming of the video age and MTV. And hey, a second minor hit with "Don't Forget To Dance" didn't hurt that cause.

"Word of Mouth" closes off this era, with 3 really good songs on an otherwise mediocre offering. "Do It Again" (Ray often does), "Good Day" (unacknowledged simple brilliance in the vein of Village Green...) and Dave's best ever (!) song in "Living On A Thin Line". So all in all, lots to recommend here and with superlative sound to recommend it.

"