Search - Kinks :: Arthur - Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire

Best Kinks album

rick andreola | springfield, nj United States | 11/24/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"somewhere along the line ,there will always be someone who says a certain Kinks album is their favorite or best. In my opinion this is my favorite. its the 1st non hits Kinks album i ever bought and i still love it til this day. shangri-la is possibly their greatest song next to Celluloid heroes. Most of the album has a laid back drunk sound to it. Ray sings a couple of songs in a strange voice [victoria and yes sir no sir]. other songs like Princess marina he sounds totally different. Drivin is an excellent feel good song with great harmonies. Australia is a funny song but has an extended boring "jam" at the end. Overall most songs are great and this version has tons of xtra stuff including King Kong which is a great lost Kinks single."

Not even its shortcomings ruin it

B. Schuman | NY | 03/12/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There's not much more to say that hasn't already been said. On this album the Kinks were about as good as the Beatles, and definitely as good as the Who. It may be the only classic rock album out there that has the distinction of being the score to a musical that never got made. It wasn't even meant to be a rock opera that stood on its own as an album, like "Tommy" or "The Wall", it was meant to be a soundtrack, so there aren't songs on it that try to explain the story- so as a result, the story is even harder to figure out than the story on those two albums, and it's not the Kinks' fault. With that in mind, every song rocks and has great lyrics, even though "Yes Sir No Sir" "Mr Churchill Says" and "Nothing to Say" have similar chord progressions. Like a whole lot of the Kinks' songs, you can start singing along because the music is so catchy, and then it hits you, "wow, these lyrics are really about something." People describe lots of albums as sort of time machines to other eras, but this is one you can truly say that about. And I'm not saying it evokes the sixties, it evokes 100 years of British history- or at least Ray Davies' version of it. His lyrics are not very poetic and complex like anything by the likes of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, or Robert Hunter, but the subject matter of his songs is just as deep, and you always know exactly what he's talking about.

I have to reply to what one reviewer said about "Australia" being too long and too sixties- the four minute instrumental break really needs to be there as a transition between "Australia" and "Shangri-La."
Only complaint- and it's not much of a complaint- is that it could have better remastering. Sometimes the vocals get drowned out by the band, and on some songs the horns and strings get drowned out by everything. Anyhow, if you can wait until the next remaster version comes out, do that, but if you just have to hear it now, get this version of it."

Kinks Arthur

Ken Nagaine | Ventura, CA United States | 12/15/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The current digitally remastered CD, with the bonus tracks, sounds great; it does justice, I believe, to one of the landmark albums of the late sixties. I can't suppress a recurring feeling of ambivalence, however, towards this band. It began for me when I went to see them play at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in the course of one of their "return to America" tours. I was looking forward to an evening of nostalgia, with a precise rendering of those "classic" "British Invasion" hits, for which I remembered them best. I hadn't listened to the interim albums. I wasn't prepared for what followed. Chaos seemed to reign on stage and throughout the auditorium. The performance seemed sloppy and disjointed (see John Mendelsohn's liner notes for "Kink Kronikles"). I remember leaving the short concert confused and disappointed. I couldn't believe they were the same band. Listening to the "Arthur" LP for the first time after that night, I felt reasonably certain that something had seriously gone wrong for the Kinks...Luckily the musical odyssey didn't stop for me there. As I gradually acquainted myself with the albums I missed, I began to reappraise the value of this seminal 60's band. A new perspective on "Arthur" emerged. From the driving opening cut "Victoria," to Arthur's last hurrah on track 12, I began to appreciate this album for its rich social commentary on Empire, instinct, war and conformity, the problems of political power, economic inequality, "brainwashing," and the mortal coil of old age and death. Yet beside the "darker implications" below the surface structure of songs such as "Yes Sir/No Sir," the maudlin and melodramatic, "Some Mother's Son," the trap of gross materialism in "Shangri-La," the psychedelic trip to "Australia," and the face of meaninglessness in "Nothing to Say," the Kinks delightfully conclude their opus with evident compassion for the brave protagonist, anti-hero, and every man, Arthur Morgan: "Somebody loves you, don't you know it?" Putting myself in Arthur's place, I'm not sure whether I know it or not, or whether I believe the Kinks when they sing "Somebody loves you, don't you know it?" Are they sincere or cynical? You decide. The bonus tracks, "Plastic Man," and "Mindless Child of Motherhood," seem to fit into the social commentary projected by "Arthur," as do "King Kong," and "The Man He Weeps Tonight," to some extent, even "Mr. Shoemaker's Daughter.""