The Kinks - Something Else

 

I've found a second to breath at work and seeing as I have been reading a Kinks bio (more on that later, obviously), I have been revisiting some of the band's works, particularly their late-60's-and-on pieces that I previously glossed over. This one has quite a few highlights for an album that sold poorly in both the US and the UK and has only garnered praise in retrospect.

The Jam, of course, popularized the opening, piano-driven rocker, "David Watts", a fun number with rousing fa-fa-fa backing vocals and football-styled "heys!" propelled by insistent drums. Dave's classic, infectious, autobiographical tune about his ravin' around swingin' London, "Death of a Clown", was actually a big enough hit single to tempt the record label and Dave into trying out a solo career, which he wasn't quite suited for. Ray has a memorable ballad of familial jealousy with soaring melodies in "Two Sisters", while "No Return" is quiet and a bit more forgettable, "Harry Rag" (slang for cigarettes, although there is a bit of double entendre here, as well) is a barroom sing-along with military drums, and "Tin Soldier Man" is a bit of British Salvation Army-styled silliness.

The very English "Situation Vacant" alternates with whimsy and some bouncy catchiness, but "Love Me Till the Sun Shines", is excellent, with a head-bobbin' beat, simple guitar lines, swelling organ and a super chorus - all made palatable to the 80's garage denizens by the Lyres, as everyone knows. Ray takes his vocals into strange places in "Lazy Old Sun", one of his odder offerings, with different parts juxtaposed weirdly, and "Afternoon Tea" is a quite compelling pop tune, although the subject matter couldn't have been less accessible to an American teen if they tried. I was fairly astonished when I discovered that this was something that rockers still did - like, in the middle of a drug/alcohol/sex-fueled debauchery, they would pause mid-afternoon for a cuppa - a spot of tea! Seemed incredibly old-fashioned to mid-western me.

In any case, more nice, although unexciting, pop in "Funny Face", "End of the Season" is pure kitsch/Tin Pan Alley/vaudeville and the voyeuristic closer, "Waterloo Sunset" again is so very British, although this number has a huge following even in America, even though it never charted. I know I'm in the minority, but it's not a fave of mine - it's nice and all, but not the be-all-and-end-all that so many people make of it. I've heard people say that it's the best thing that Ray ever did, which I highly dispute....

I'll still always cherish their early/mid-60's ravers more than anything, but this is nonetheless a good pop record with some fine highlights.