Something Else By The Kinks - Poll and Discussion

I tried for years to buy an original mono pressing but the prices were crazy then, and I'm guessing even more so now. Hasn't there been a recent vinyl reissue campaign of 60s-early 70s Kinks? Are they worth buying?

 

SE mono has been reissued AAA for the 1st time in the Kink Mono Collection box set mastered by Kevin Grey. All the albums in this box set are AAA except for the Black Album

BTW my vote goes to Waterloo Sunset. Great song!

 

What remix is this? ...

BTW, per Steve, the stereo "Waterloo Sunset" is a great way to test your speaker setup. If done properly, the out-of-phase backing vocals should appear to be coming from outside the normal left-right stereo image (in my case way off to the left, seemingly from my fireplace!)

 

On the PRT and original Castle CDs, "Tin Soldier Man" and "Situation Vacant" were remixed so the vocals are in phase and there are some other minor differences. However the opening of the former was truncated and the final coda of the latter was mixed out. Funnily enough, "Lazy Old Sun" was left alone even though the original stereo mix also has out of phase vocals.

 

David Watts
Two Sisters
Harry Rag
Afternoon Tea

I’m probably in the minority but I was underwhelmed when I first heard this album. Besides Death of a Clown, I think Dave’s songs are not very good on this one.

When I first heard this in 2004, I’d already heard the Kronikles songs so I didn’t have the privilege to get blown away by David Watts etc.

 

My favorite Kinks album

 

The stereo mix for "Tin Soldier Man" is very strange. It adds two extra beats at the start, and the horns swap channels from the right to the left about halfway through the song. Here is an early version of the song with different lyrics and instrumentation:

 

Terrific album but one where the sequencing doesn't quite work for me. My faves that I voted for are Waterloo Sunset (obviously), No Return, Lazy Old Sun and End Of The Season but there's a lot of great or better than great tracks on this LP. Face To Face, Something Else and Village Green are a pretty remarkable trilogy, more so because Ray was writing so much of such high quality whereas the Fab4 had nearly 3 writers when George could get a look in.
My favourite track on the album is probably Lazy Old Sun. Jarring psychedelia that feels slightly uncomfortable somehow. Not sure Ray did acid at all but that track is pretty trippy. Factor in the singles and outtake songs from the period 66 to 68 and you have a stunning body of work that deserved and deserves far greater recognition.

 

Wow, thank you. I clearly never listened to Funny Face close enough.

Something Else by the Kinks is one of the greatest albums of all time. Tin Soldier Man is the only track I wouldn't consider and out-and-out classic, but I still like it. Ray's Face to Face-to-Muswell run is overall one of the all-time greats.

 

Can I pick every song? Man, 4 is too tough as this is one of the greatest Kinks albums and one of the great 1960s albums...BUT since I had to pick 4...

David Watts
Death of a Clown
Situation Vacant
Waterloo Sunset

but seriously, EVERY track is a stone-cold winner and shows the Kinks at their mid-to-late 1960s peak best

 

Great album. Voted for David Watts, Two Sisters, Lazy Old Sun, Waterloo Sunset.

 

I'm one of the .. what? Maybe 10,000 people that bought the album when it was released ?(US stereo which I still have in mint condition ).

It's my favorite Kinks album, just in front of Village Green.

I can't pick four songs. I love the entire album as a complete work. I can't dissect it.

 

Not only one of the greatest album of all time bit also the bonus tracks on the new reissue CD are stanning.

 

I absolutely LOVE this album. It is a stone cold classic record. Choosing four is just too difficult.

 

My fave Kinks album... and one of my Top 10 fave albums of all time!

Kan't believe that two of my picks -- "No Return" and "End of the Season" -- received so few votes... Fake News! Fake News!

 

The "Essential" remaster has NR... certainly a factor in why it sounds so bad.

.

 

I bought a new copy back in 71 or so. It was on the orange Reprise label. It looked minty! I remembered thinking "what a great lp but too bad it was produced poorly." Fast forward to 2009. I saw a first pressing on Ebay for about $35 or so and bought it because I like the label more. Wow! What a difference that made. Greater detail and deeper soundstage. I believe the orange one was pressed at Columbia and it was much softer AND thinner and sounded limited - boxy by comparison. I sold the orange to a guy in Russia who wrote nice things about me/it. I've found that other Columbia prints from that period seem to suffer the same. Be careful out there.

 

Death Of A Clown
Two Sisters
Waterloo Sunset
David Watts

hated to leave off Harry Rag, but it can't top those 4.

 

I chose:
Harry Rag
Tin Soldier Man
Afternoon Tea
Waterloo Sunset

Hate to leave off Two Sisters. Found a new version of the album in my Apple Music library a few minutes ago. Very strange since I never added it. It has a very different cover, the original track listing and all the songs are in stereo. Not silly stereo that sounds like mono like as in the Deluxe version, but full on 60's stereo with panned vocals all the way to the right and everything. Very confused by this thing. Is it the new remaster I heard about?
The stereo mix is fine, I guess, but even though I'd usually pick any stereo over any mono I have to go with mono on this album as it's just more impactful and the mixes are too different. Was going to make my own poll. Glad I used the search function.

 

So hard to pick four. They are all great. There was no question about Waterloo Sunset, Two Sisters, and Death of a Clown. I went with Harry Rag for the fourth, but could have been Afternoon Tea, No Return, David Watts, or . . . the lot.

 

Just listened to the 2011-ish mono remaster. What a great album. Where Face To Face feels a bit flabby and out of balance - and has the two weakest tracks third last and last - this feels much more concise. Ironically, it’s only a little shorter but somehow it feels less padded and better sequenced than Face To Face. There is a big range of styles but that doesn’t come across as incoherent in any way to me - just a lot of variation the whole way through, which maintains the listener’s interest. I love VGPS but I think the second side of that suffers because of Phenomenal Cat being there and coming right in the middle. Something Else is pretty much flawless.

Interestingly by the time of the LP’s release, three of its tracks had already been on UK singles and Two Sisters had been on the French Mister Pleasant EP earlier in the year. Also Funny Face was a B-side two months later. That may also be indicative of its quality.

They also managed not even to find room for Rosemary Rose, This Is Where I Belong, Mister Pleasant and Lavender Hill. Amazing.

 

Wow - someone that also thinks Face to Face is not quite up there with Something Else. I agree, and I think it's not even close.

 

These were two of my choices. When I got this CD almost twenty years ago I was particularly surprised by No Return. The way this song mixes British pop with jazzy/bossa nova influences almost predates the sound of groups like Everything But The Girl, The Style Council or Working Week by 15+ years.
I don't think any other British rock/pop group was doing that in the mid-60's.

 

Me agree 100%

I'd rank at least six or seven Kinks albums above "Face to Face"

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How does the aaa sound?