Vinyls. Adding sophisticated hipster cache to overpriced collections nationwide since 2007. Vinyl revival - Wikipedia "Though many sales in vinyl are of modern artists with modern styles or genres of music, the revival has sometimes been considered to be a part of the greater revival of retro style, since many vinyl buyers are too young to remember vinyl being a primary music format." A) "Check out this vinyl I just bought! It's Madonna's True Blue. Classic. It was only $44.99." B) "Why is that corner clipped off?" A) "I think they did that so they'd fit in special cabinets for vinyls like the ones I saw in Ikea the other day." B) "Cool." A) "Let's put it on." TT) "POP! POP! whooooooshhhhhhhhhh...tick...tick... tick...tick...tick... tick...tick...tick... tick...tick...tick... tick...tick..." B) "Don't those sounds piss you off? Really irritating." A) "Naw, it's supposed to sound like that. That's what makes it so cool."
funny, but thankfully i've never seen anyone dare to sell "true blue" at a price like that. something about the kinks though...
Where I live anything Kinks sells for a premium, especially UK presses, and even US presses which are not, generally, held in high regard. Not cut-outs, though. The Japanese collector won't tolerate a cut-out, generally, though I have started to see them now and again at some of the DiskUnion stores in Tokyo -- for cheap. But any UK Pye Kinks no matter what the condition is going to be US$60, $70, $80 to start and something like a NM copy of FTF, SE, VGPS, Arthur, Lola...those are going to be in the $150 ~ $200 range -- sometimes more -- and anything Kinks UK through the '70s is going to be priced with a "highly desirable" premium.
Good question. However, I'd rather be made to wait for a high quality analog reissue of Lola... than get a quick slapdash digital re of it like Phobia.
The UK copies have gone for big $$ for many years now. I think the premium prices for US copies is a fairly new phenomenon. Fortunately we recently got the terrific Kevin Gray cuts for part of the catalog & the also terrific mono box for the full Pye lot. Now if we could just get Gray to finish the catalog in stereo I'll be (reasonably) happy.
Not to mention Kevin Gray actually cut the Phobia RSD vinyl from those digital files, time I'm sure most wish he were spending on a new Lola cut instead. I thought a few tracks from the Phobia vinyl sounded nice. Most of side 4 did it for me, "Hatred", "Close To The Wore" (sic) haha, and "Scattered". Side 1 was a pretty fatiguing listen though, and overall the more rocking tracks sounded pretty squashed to me. It's a pretty spotty album to begin with in my view, but I'm giving it another chance. Always good to hear Ray and Dave together, like on the charming back and forth of "Hatred." And Jim Rodford's bass punching through, R.I.P.
I'm pretty much with ya on those assessments. It is a spotty album, but Still Searching ranks among my fav Kinks songs and the ones you mention are favs, too, as well as The Informer, which I think is actually chilling when one considers the end where the narrator says he'll be the one "to take you home tonight" and what that likely means in the context of the song.
A couple of years ago "Lola" wasn't the only vintage Kinks album without a recent reissue. It's grotesque, since the recent vinyl reissue campaigns those 80's reissues keep showing up cheap again. Except for the obligatory "Village Green" and of late..... "Lola". In the last couple of months I actually saw many copies of "Muswell Hillbillies"(! ) but not a single "Lola".
I've been meaning to reassess that one, I'll give it a spin today. Bought it on vinyl when it came out and liked "Loony Balloon" but the other songs didn't get committed to memory. There were some pretty poor Lola vinyl reissues done in the late 80s through early 2000s that fetch big dollars now. I'd honestly rather spend $40 on the new Phobia vinyl than those. But they can take my money for a new analogue cut!
Yeah that's what I meant. I wouldn't buy say, an Earmark reissue of Lola. Should have been clearer on that. I'll hold out for a better reissue. As far as Phobia, I'll end up getting the reissue. Same thing if UK Jive gets reissued, I'd get it. Especially if the CD only songs from the original release were issued this time on the vinyl version.
Not the ones from the mono box, but there were mono reissues cut by Kevin Gray released prior to the Mono box's release; they were the debut album, "Kinda Kinks", "Kontroversy", and "Face to Face". They're still available.
While of the subject of PHOBIA (easily, my least favorite Kinks album), I (for fun) made an album-length edit of PHOBIA to listen to (in the car). For me, at least it flows much better. I tracked it as such, and imagine a vinyl issue like this: side one: Drift Away Still Searching Only a Dream Surviving side two: Don't Over the Edge The Informer Close to the Wire Scattered It's flows nicely, focuses on melody rather than Dave's geetar work. Clocks in at just over 42 minutes. The only other album I ever chopped up like this (read: throw away tracks to make it a single LP running time) was The Who's ENDLESS WIRE. In my eyes, both benefit from trimming.
Thanks. I'll get Face to Face. Is it available on Amazon? I'm not going to spring for the box. Guess I'll never get to hear Something Else in mono - the originals go for crazy money.
IIRC, they're around $20-23 each per LP. Why not spend a bit extra and get the box? Then you'll have the albums you're looking for, plus "Village Green", "Arthur", the live album, and Kevin Gray's 2-lp cut of the "Black Album" compilation, all in the original mono mixes. Unless you're just not interested in the others, that seems to me a better return on your money. Just an opinion.
For some of these Something Else tracks on mono vinyl cut by Kevin Gray, albeit in 45 EP format, you could seek out these guys. They sound very good in my opinion. The Kinks - The Kinks Dave Davies - Dave Davies Hits I second that getting the mono box is a really good value, but could see it being a bit much if you only want specific albums.
Either I didn't realize or had totally forgotten that, of the 12 Kinks RSD EPs, KG did 10 them (The Kinks - All Day And All Of The Night & The Kinks - Got Love If You Want It are the exceptions). And of course they sound better on 45 than at 33 1/3. When I have time I'll put that info in Discogs. Thanks for the reminder!
I think that's an apples-to-oranges comparison, if you're talking about comparison to the mono box. 2 or 3 songs per side on a 7" record, even if it's cut at 45 rpm, isn't a recipe for sonic success. I believe these RSD EP reissues are digitally sourced as well.
Certainly not those 7" ones cut with more than one song per side. Now, the 12" maxsingles of the late '70s and '80s, those were often very good, and often bettered the particular song mastering on the LPs they came on (I'm thinking of the Smiths' or R.E.M.'s 12" singles, for example). The 7" format just doesn't have the physical real estate to accommodate multiple tracks.
Whichever way they're cut they sound pretty darned good but wouldn't it have made sense for them to use the same masters that were done for the LPs? The timeframe is about the same.
