The Kinks – Something Else By The Kinks
I’ve written before about how I somehow managed to consider myself a Kinks fan while still owning hardly any Kinks records. I had the stuff from Misfits on into the ’80s, and an old greatest hits collection, and the abysmal Live Kinks, and that was it. But even just based on that, they always had a special place in my heart. And now, so many of their earlier records, the ones I passed over in the used record bins for years, are getting repressed, and I’m here for a lot of them.
I picked this up at the end of May, 2024, having never had it before, and it quickly became one of my favorite records of the summer. (Sitting here in the January after, it seems so long ago!) And I marvel at how this is a record I barely remember even seeing back in the day. It didn’t sell well in the UK and did even less in the US – which is just baffling, because today I’d consider this one of the finest Kinks albums. It features “David Watts,” “Death of a Clown,” and “Waterloo Sunset,” as well as my favorite Dave Davies track, “Love Me Till The Sun Shines.” “Harry Rag” does the impossible by bringing the sound of British music hall and not annoying me – other artists incorporated music hall into their records and brought them to a dead stop (looking at you, Cream, with your “Mother’s Lament.”) And somehow, “Situation Vacant” straddles that weird line as well.
This is cracking with that Ray Davies balance of bitterness and sweet. Just a wonderful record.
I’m with you on the general aversion to British Music Hall fare. I think my own one notable exception to that rule would be Family’s “Sat’d’y Barfly.”
I’m also with you on not having a lot of Kinks, but certainly liking them in concept. My biggest period of actively listening to them was during their late ’70s/early ’80s Arista Records era. I’m thinking they were making more “American Sounding Music” at that time, so it got more push on rock radio.
Yes, the Arista era, their big comeback, was for a lot of reasons far less British in its nature. I assume you’re familiar with Andrew Hickey’s podcast, “A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs”? If not . . . you probably want to be. He goes into incredible detail and routinely turns up details that surprise even avid fans. But each episode is a deep, deep dive. He did one on the Kinks I really appreciated (“Waterloo Sunset,” I believe). But I also just read a 2012 history of The Kinks that was pretty good as well.
I’m not familiar with that podcast, will investigate!!