# Best Kinks Albums **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 18, 2006, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485 "2006-01-18T07:16:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![some\_white\_dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@some\_white\_dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/some_white_dude)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/1 "2006-01-18T07:16:05Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/2 "2006-01-18T07:28:10Z")
> [@Team of Scientists](#): > > 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. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![cheela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aca169/32.png) [@cheela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheela)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/3 "2006-01-18T07:28:25Z")
_Everybody’s In Show-Biz_ Check it out. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/4 "2006-01-18T07:59:16Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/5 "2006-01-18T12:46:05Z")
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**. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/6 "2006-01-18T13:13:01Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/7 "2006-01-18T13:14:38Z")
[Previous thread on this exact topic.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=297938) **Biffy** & **Arky** are right on, but for a more detailed answer, see my (and others’) posts in the linked thread. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/8 "2006-01-18T13:16:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/9 "2006-01-18T13:23:20Z")
**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.) ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/10 "2006-01-18T15:59:15Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/11 "2006-01-18T16:05:35Z")
**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](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000089A3/qid=1137599829/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-7823010-6237759?n=507846&s=music&v=glance). It may not be essential to the Kinks oeuvre, but the subject matter [of the film] makes it of interest! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/12 "2006-01-18T16:08:16Z")
I like **Word Of Mouth**. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/13 "2006-01-18T16:53:13Z")
> [@](#): > > If you want to know about the Kinks, our resident Kinks expert on the dope, **Ms. Boods** , is a fount of information. :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. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/14 "2006-01-18T18:42:46Z")
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). ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/15 "2006-01-18T19:17:25Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![some\_white\_dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b487fb/32.png) [@some\_white\_dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/some_white_dude)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/16 "2006-01-18T22:47:50Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/17 "2006-01-18T23:04:07Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-kinks-albums/340485/18 "2006-01-18T23:08:19Z")
Although it is a exactly the same answer I gave in the other thread… I have to reiterate my appreciation of **Muswell Hillbillies**.