Search - Kinks :: Sleepwalker

The band was wide awake for this underrated classic

B. E Jackson | Pennsylvania | 05/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, maybe it's not fair to call the Kinks Sleepwalker album a classic seeing as how most people haven't listened to it (and also because the Kinks weren't as popular when they recorded this album as they were a couple years before) but I believe, judging by the quality of *every single moment* of the album, it truly deserves to be considered among those other Kinks classics such as the Village Green Preservation Society as a quality album.



I'm not even going to mention what song from the album is the best, because the Kinks are so good at writing consistently enjoyable music and going above and beyond most bands as far as honest emotion is concerned, that ALL the songs from the Sleepwalker album really hit me on a personal note. Maybe the Kinks had a dry spell in their career, but I can assure you, it didn't start with this album. Pick up Sleepwalker as soon as possible. You'll be surprised at the quality of the songwriting.



Just forget about the fact that it doesn't rock really hard, but just like with the Who, how much they rock isn't that important anyway- it's all about memorable songwriting. I LOVE the Sleepwalker album."

Classic

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber | Mahwah, NJ USA | 04/29/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ray Davies must have tired of trying to be Noel Coward, or at least not making money at doing so. He had, since 1973, been making rock opera's, but with the rise of punk and disco and most mainstream art rock getting tacky, he made a decisive move.



What we have here is a rock and roll album. There is an over arching mood of being lost, needing comfort, engaging in rituals that have long outgrown their joy on Sleepwalker.





This is not a concept album in the sense of Preservation: Act 1 or two. Actually, Sleepwalker is a throwback to 1960s albums like The Village Green Preservation Society: not a story but songs tied together by theme and nuance--in Sleepwalkers case, compulsion and search. It works better: most rock operas have not dated well but albums with threads done well will always hold up.





Musically, this is the American, streamlined polished rock that people like Bob Segar and, to a further extreme, Boz Scaggs were doing so well. If progressive was past the boom, write really good songs, used 1970s improved production, and the best musicianship possible.



The title track, "Mr. Big Man," "Juke Box Music." All these characters with pathologies and longings center around the album the way Walter, Monica, and Annabella did the Village Green. And though Sleepwalker takes place after the world had lost the innocence of the Village, painfully beautiful "Stormy Sky," ties the album together when the lost and lonely find, for a few moments, the intimacy and refuge they seem to look for.



This is the Kinks at their most professional to date without being cold. 1970s rock when mainstream music still had some warmth.



The Kinks would do one more great album in this style, Misfits, before making a show of their sell out on Low Budget.



But if Ray was knowingly beginning flight to the rock and roll bank on Sleepwalker, he could not have done it better"