SONGS RANGE FROM EXCELLENT TO OK
The philosopher | Mass. | 09/30/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"First of all, the title of this album is misleading. This CD does not have "All the Hits." Rather, it has a collection of hits up to their 1970 album that features "Lola." The next 23 years of the Kinks music is nowhere to be found on this CD.I have no idea how they chose to order the songs on this greatest hits album; for whatever reason, the songs do not appear chronologically, which means that there can be some jarring contrasts. The Kinks came roaring out of the gates with the raucous "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" in 1964. It would be a long time before they'd match that rambunctious energy. Some of their music from '66 to '69 is classic (think "Sunny Afternoon" and "Tired of Waiting for You"), but some of it verges on the awful, from sentimental music influenced by English dance hall music to condescending "social commentary" songs set to sing-song music that are not half as clever as Mr. Davies clearly believed them to be (think "Mr. Pleasant" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion"). Just when it looked as if the Kinks were down and out for the count, having produced several weak and even grating singles in the late '60s that sounded years behind what the Beatles and the Stones had been producing during that same period, out of the blue came the incredible 1970 Kinks singles "Lola" and "Ape Man" (let's forget "Victoria," OK?). This greatest hits albums contains samples of all of the above highs and lows of the Kinks career, so you may find yourself skipping some tracks to get to others, but hey, isn't that what the programmable feature on your CD-player is for? In any case, just understand that the Kinks did have some hits after 1970, and none of them appear on this CD. One thing that I do like about this CD is that for each song it identifies its year of release and how it charted in Germany, the UK, and the USA."
