The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society -- The Kinks (1968)


 

 The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society is generally thought of as The Kink's crowning achievement. 

And I kind of get that: there are certainly no bad songs on it, and it's fifteen songs (all written by Ray Davies -- a first, I think) are melodic, rich in lyrical irony and just generally well-done. Ray gets deep into his music hall in this ironic, yet somehow warm set of odes to a vanishing rural England that maybe never existed in the first place. There are also touches of psychedelia, both the popply kind and the harder edged kind in there, though I wouldn't call it a psychedelic and a bit of bossanova.  You can hear the deep influence on later artists like Split Enz and XTC and Blur. 

And yet, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society which I have listened to many many times, has never quite grabbed me as much as several others of the Kinks, and I like both Something Else from '67 and Arthur from '69 better. I think that despite there being no bad songs there's just no song that just shakes me and knocks me on my ass like "Waterloo Sunset" or "Shangri-La", and on top of htat it may be simply that I don't fully get this very very very English album: made by one of the most English of all songwriters, for an English public. 

I do think, though, that Ray Davies is the greatest British songwriter of the sixties, and I'll stand by that and this album of strong songs does nothing to dispel that notion.Yes better than John or Paul, who were, two people, not one.

I also give The Kinks some kudos: much like The Beach Boys in 1968, they seemed to have completely eschewed the hard-edged, bluesy trends of 1968 and gone down their own, somewhat conservative road to bad commercial results: but they made great albums in the process. IN fact, I get this and the Beach Boys Friends confused in my mind: hwen I think of this album, I picture Friends' album cover. (The Village Green cover is really not very good, in the sense that it's not representative of the music within.) The Kinks rock more, of course, and the production on this is hte usual ramshackle job that just feels mixed wrong, particularly in stereo.

4.2/5

I have an old PRT German CD -- in stereo, which is wonderfully dynamic. However, the stereo mix seems quite off to me, unbalanced, tambourines way too loud, etc....The Kinks always sound like a big mess.

I also have a digital copy of the 2018 deluxe thing which also presents the record in mono which alleviates the problems in the stereo mix, but unfortunately, is brickwalled and thus unlistenable to me on headphones (way too loud and conguested.) Original vinyl mono, if possible, is probably the best way to hear this but I don't do vinyl.

Here's one of the more memorable songs on the album. I really like how the drums and guitars kind of suggest a locomotive.




Spotify Link:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0YgkR96bK9JSHcj236W9ZK?si=DqtczmKLRTqL7Yp98c3Nxw


Coming Up:

A.M. Wilco

A.T.O.M. - Carbon Silicon

ABBA - ABBA 

ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits

Abbey Road - The Beatles

Achtung, Baby! U2

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

Adult/Child- The Beach Boys

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

After The Gold Rush - Neil Young

Afterglow - Crowded House

Aftermath (UK Version) - The Rolling Stones

Against The Odds: 1974-1982 Blondie (three disc version)

Aimee Mann Live at St. Ann's Warehouse

Aiming For Your Head - Betchadupa

The Album -- ABBA

The Album That Never Was - The Kinks

All Four One - The Motels

All Over the Place - The Bangles

All Summer Long -- The Beach Boys

All the Great Hits -- Diana Ross

All Things Must Pass -- George Harrison

All This Useless Beauty -- Elvis Costello & the Attractions

All-Time Greatest Hits - Neil Diamond

Alluvium -- Eddie Rayner

Almost Blue -- Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Almost Summer - Celebration

Alpha Mike Foxtrot -- Wilco*

The Alphabetchadupa - Betchadupa

Altitude - ALT

American Idiot Green Day*

American Prayer -- The Doors

Amnesiac Radiohead*

And I Feel Fine...The Best of the IRS years (1982-1987) - R.E.M.

Animals - Pink Floyd

Anodyne - Uncle Tupelo

Another Life - Another Life

Another Music in Another Kitchen: The Buzzcocks

Another Side of Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan

Anthology: Diana Ross & The Supremes

Anthology: Smokey Robinson & The Beatles

Anthology 1: The Beatles

Anthology 2: The Beatles

Anthology 3 The Beatles

Anthology: North South, East West - Tim Finn

Apple Venus: Volume One -- XTC

Apollo 18 - They Might Be Giants

The ArchAndroid: Janelle Monae

Are the Village Green Preservation Society -- The Kinks

Are Well-Respected Men - The Kinks

Armed Forces -Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Around the World in a Day - Prince

Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) - The Kinks

At My Piano - Brian Wilson

Autoamerican - Blondie

Automatic for the People - R.E.M.

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