Every once in a while, I get the urge to explore some band that I’ve never listened to very much. This time, it’s The Kinks. I’ve heard a few of their staples like Lola, You Really Got Me and Waterloo Sunset, and I am a fan so far. So tell me, what are some of The Kinks’ best albums?
Just so you know, I’m not a huge fan of greatest hits compilations. I really enjoy listening to full albums as they were intended to be heard.
I find many of their albums a little inconsistent by my tastes, but I think Something Else By The Kinks ( from whence comes Waterloo Sunset ) and The Kinks Are The Village Green Society both hold up pretty well.
Everybody’s In Show-Biz
Check it out.
I understand your reluctance to get a Greatest Hits album, but what about a concert album where they happen to sing all their big hits? One More for the Road is an excellent primer for the Kinks newbie.
Even though it’s way past their peak of popularity, my favorite album is Give the People What They Want. No radio-friendly hits (“Destroyer” got some airplay, but that’s about it), but no wasted tracks either.
Their best songs take on a new and ironic meaning 20 years later. Happy listening!
The Kinks’ peak came with this extraordinary run of albums:
Something Else (1967–best known songs: “Waterloo Sunset,” “David Watts”)
Village Green Preservation Society (1968–no big hits, but has a strong claim on being the best Kinks album of all)
Arthur, or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire (1969–“Victoria”)
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround (1970–“Lola,” “Apeman”)
My own personal favorite, though, is Face to Face.
I know you said you don’t like greatest hits collections, but I do believe you’d get a much better bang for your buck if you got one of their early hits (I think that Rhino’s Kinks Greatest Hits fits the bill). This is because their first few albums (prior to Face To Face) were in the mold of most early 60s records where you had a couple of hits and the rest is filler. However, if you’re a completist, go ahead and buy the early albums; they’re not bad[ul]
[li]Face To Face[/li][li]Something Else[/li][li]…are the Village Green Preservation Society[/li][li]Arthur[/li][li]Lola vs Powerman…[/li][/ul]
If you want to know about the Kinks, our resident Kinks expert on the dope, Ms. Boods, is a fount of information.
Previous thread on this exact topic.
Biffy & Arky are right on, but for a more detailed answer, see my (and others’) posts in the linked thread.
Actually your reluctance to buy the Best of or so and soes Greatest Hits is largely misplaced for bands of this vintage. In those days bands didn’t get away with an album every once in a while when the muse was with them. The idea that albums were cohesive musical events, more often than not, is far from the truth. Bands were obligated to churn out “product” without any regard to the quality of the whole thing, just so long as it had a single or two.
I can remember in those days when listening to most music you knew when to get out of your chair to move the tonearm. You would know that for “this album” you listen to tracks 1, 4, 5 on side one and 3, 4, 6 on side two.
I still have a huge collection of “cassette tapes” (they are an ancient recording medium) of what are essentially “best of” various artists. I owned the albums but only liked bits and pieces.
don’t ask, that’s true of their earliest stuff, but once you hit Face To Face, their albums are best heard in their entirety, some of them very much so.
Also, though, the Kinks released quite a few excellent songs that never appeared on a proper album but are available on one or more singles collections. (Similarly for the Beatles, hence the Past Masters Vol. 1 & 2 CDs when the Beatles albums were released on CD. Alas, there’s no similar definitive non-album collection for the Kinks.)
If you were only going to buy one thing, I’d recommend Kinks Kronikles, which is sort of like a greatest non-hits collections of a bunch of songs from the era that most of the above records come from (1966-1970, more or less). It also has a lot of non-LP material, but I’d wager a lot of that has been appended to the reissued CDs as bonus tracks.
If you’d rather stick with original releases, I heartily second the recommendations above for Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society, and Arthur. These are all classics.
I also treasure my cassette copy of The Great Lost Kinks Album, but I’m pretty sure that it’s contents have been spread across recent CD resissues and it’s never been put on CD, at least the last time I checked. Perhaps someone will come along and correct me.
The Kinks Kronikles was mentioned in the earlier thread–it was my first Kinks album. Yes, it is a compilation, but a some of the tracks are B-sides and otherwise unavailable. I remember sitting down and reading John Mendelsohn’s liner notes when I listened to it for the first time…and I became a fan right then and there. As he says in the closing line of his essay, “God Save The Kinks!”
There’s an album that hasn’t been mentioned by anyone: Percy. It may not be essential to the Kinks oeuvre, but the subject matter [of the film] makes it of interest!
I like Word Of Mouth.
:o :eek: 
If you want to explore a bit beyond the standard Kinks oeuvre, I would recommend Dave Davies’s Bug, his most recent studio album. The philosophy of a couple of the songs may strike some as a bit whacky, but he acknowledges this with a bit of wry humour, and notes that it’s still bloody good rocking to dance to.
Additionally, Ray Davies’s long awaited solo album, Other People’s Lives is to be released in late February (according to the latest information); much of the new material has been tested out and honed in his stage show over the last few years, and is quite good. The (US) ‘taster’ EP is called Thanksgiving Day and also comes highly recommended.
If you’re interested, an upcoming issue of the academic journal Popular Music and Society (I believe April 2006) is dedicated solely to articles about the Kinks. Have read some of them, it’s quite worth checking out in a library! One is a look at how a series of Japanese pop and rock bands over the years will lift entire opening riffs from Kinks songs – and then the actual song goes off wildly in a completely different direction.
Am I alone in thinking Low Budget and Soap Opera are great albums? Everybodys’ in Showbiz is also great. I also enjoyed Phobia (which I think may have been the last album they did–if there’s been one since then I’m not aware of it).
You’re not alone with regard to Low Budget. I’ve been a Kinks fan since 9th grade (that would be 1965!), and “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman,” “Low Budget,” “A Gallon of Gas,” “Attitude”, and “Catch Me Now I’m Falling” remain some of my favorite songs by the group.
I’m also a big fan of Muswell Hillbillies, which I haven’t seen any recommendations for.
And a hearty second to blondebear’s recommendation of The Kinks Kronikles.
But yes, Face to Face, Village Green Preservation Society, and Arthur are essential.
Thanks for all the input. I think I’m gonna begin at Face to Face and start working my way forward in time. I’ll probably also get Something Else and Village Green Preservation Society. Eventually I’ll try to work up through Arthur, Lola vs. the Powerman and Muswell Hillbillies.
It’s really amazing that a band back in the 60s/70s was able to churn out one album per year. Even more impressive is that, at least from what I can tell so far, they didn’t seem to phone it in at all. I’d love to see a band like Spoon release their albums rapid-fire like the Kinks did. I’d be in heaven if I saw Girls Can Tell, Kill the Moonlight and Gimme Fiction in a span of three years.
Too late to the party.
I heartily recommend Preservation Society and Arthur, but another really good one is The Great Lost Kinks Album - a collection of songs that were part of a never-released album, and a few other songs that weren’t on records (like a tv show theme Davies wrote and the Kinks performed).
Yeah, it makes me a snobby, oh-by-the-way-did-I-mention-I-own-this jerk, but I really like it. I don’t know if it (or a reincarnation of it) has come out on DVD.
Although it is a exactly the same answer I gave in the other thread… I have to reiterate my appreciation of Muswell Hillbillies.