Released in 1968, this is the last album by the original line-up of
The Kinks -
Ray Davies (guitar, vocals),
Dave Davies (lead guitar, vocals),
Pete Quaife (bass) and
Mick Avory (drums).
For a long time one of the most overlooked albums of the 60s, this came in the middle of a run of great albums by the Kinks - Face To Face and Something Else By The Kinks preceded it, and Arthur, Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire followed.
The album was not a great success when it came out, and was not helped by a lack of singles (the current reissue, on Castle, has the contemporaneous single Days as a bonus track), but its reputation has grown considerably in recent years. Gentle, nostalgic, and yearning for the simplicities of a bygone age that probably never existed, Ray Davies' songwriting has never been better, absorbing everything worth having from English psychedelia while remaining absolutely timeless and rooted in reality.
Tracklisting:
- Village Green Preservation Society
- Do You Remember Walter
- Picture Book
- Johnny Thunder
- The Last Of The Steam Powered Trains
- Big Sky
- Sitting By The Riverside
- Animal Farm
- Village Green
- Starstruck
- Phenomenal Cat
- All My Friends Were There
- Wicked Anabella
- Monica
- People Take Pictures Of Each Other
All songs written by Ray Davies.