The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Apr 4, 2021.

  1. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Not at all sir, i was almost an inpatient with that in real time!
     
  2. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    I was just thinking about that last night. What would I have thought about VGPS as teen in 82-83. What you wrote is pretty much what I came up with too! Though it was around that time I heard the title track for the first time left of the dial on an area college radio station. I remember liking it.
     
  3. Martyj

    Martyj Who dares to wake me from my slumber? -- Mr. Flash

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    State of Confusion, The Cover

    It’s not bad package branding to have once found something that sold well to repeat it. Think Queen’s “Night at the Opera” cover followed by the similar looking “A Day at the Races.” Thus, State of Confusion’s cover is a conceptual sequel to Give the People What They Want, right down to the scriptive graffiti. The message is obvious: a band having bowed to formulaic marketing demands on the previous release (e.g., giving the audience what they are demanding), this new LP depicts a band scattering in multiple directions, not sure which direction audience demands will have them go. (Although, arguably, this is not reflected in the music within, which continues to follow the band’s post-Low Budget template.)

    As a design construct, it is superior to its predecessor. The color palette is consistent and solid. Shape elements fall in the right place. Remember when I wrote in my analysis of “One For the Road’s” cover about subconscious shapes that point the eye? It’s here when you make note of the shape of graffitied “State of Confusion” making an arrow that points at Ray, who is the central focus of the image. Balancing that are the positions of the extremities of Dave and Mick also forming an arrow that points to Ray. Jim and Ian, too, are positioned that lead the eye inward towards the center. The message: regardless which direction they go..all roads lead back to Ray. Or, better put…all roads START with Ray. This cover is not getting much love today, but to my mind it is as solid of a composition—and as subliminally as clever—as any they ever released.

    Now, some legitimate gripes. That typeface—I’m not sure what it is called—is very ‘of the moment,’ trendy at the time but leaving a dated ‘time stamp,” as much as Art Deco did on the 1920’s and 30’s. It doesn’t translate well today. Think of it as the 80’s equivalent of psychedelic lettering on 60’s albums. Imagine if you will the Zombie’s “Odessey and Oracle” typeface used on the Village Green Preservation album. It’s a bit like that. Maybe it works as a ‘period’ example of design, but it looks cheesy today.

    Personal dislike: people ‘posing’ in running positions. It’s tough to pull off. In my role as art director I learned early in my career to avoid it. It seldom looks natural unless the subject is a very good actor. Ray is. The rest of the band isn’t. It looks staged because it is. The closer I inspect it I question a consistency in the lighting, which leads me to suspect the members were photographed separately and comped in. But I could be wrong about that. Anyway, like the typography, it looks cheesy, but I understand what they are aiming for. Bottom line: they had a high concept that required all the players (i.e. the band members as photo models) to have the skill to pull it off. They don’t.

    I’ve been in 100% agreement with this since 1983! At least as much as track suits are acknowledged mobster casual wear, I comfort myself by imagining that Mick is reprising his ‘Big Rod” character from the Preservation play. (Not really, but it’s an easier pill to swallow if I do.)

    Overall the cover has both good and bad points. Which is a reflection of the individual tracks to follow.

    One quick comment: Based on the original release, I’ve always considered SOC a 10 track album, ending with Bernadette. This is essential when judging strength or weakness of album closers. “Noise” and “Long Distance” are outtakes, but all those contemporary (the cassette version) and later day reissues muddy the water somewhat, where a listeners takeaway might be “my favorite track on SOC is ‘Long Distance.’” To my mind this is as wrong as much as considering “Misty Water” a track from the Village Green Preservation album is, technically, wrong. I know, I know. We’re talking a first world problem here. Yeah, I’m nitpicking around a pet peeve.

    Anyway…I’m hoping I won’t be too busy in the week ahead to engage in the track by track discussions. But I do eventually find time to read them.
     
  4. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    It continues the Kinks in motion from the previous album and the street theme of the previous two.

    I mean after grafitti'ing that wall on the GTPWTW cover this would be the next logical step? Hightailing it out there in different directions. It evokes both the Monkees and Keystone Kops. I like the cover. Sure is better than the next three covers.
     
  5. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    I just listened to Think Visual last Friday. It still holds up.
     
  6. ajsmith

    ajsmith Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow
    I’ve never been clear on whether the reuse of the cover concept on these two consecutive albums was a case of lazy, thoughtless recycling or some kind of attempt to conceptually tie the two together. I suspect the latter but it’s so half-assed in execution that if that was the intent then something got lost in translation from Rays mind to the finished product (not the first time this happened in Kinks history!). It kind of reminds me of something I can't place: there are definitely other complementary sets of two where in the first one the focus is on one figure and in the second there's multiple figures, creating this singular/plural duality: kind of an Alien/Aliens thing but I think there's something more relevant that this reminds me of I can't put my finger on, maybe another set of two consecutive albums by another artist?

    There’s also touch of down at heel ‘Abbey Road’ swagger to the fact with that both these albums, they just walked outside the Konk studio grounds and shot it there, except with erm, tbh none of the same effortless cool of the Fab Four deciding they couldn't be arsed with the trip to Everest. Also, the fact that 'Give The People What They Want' was really sprayed on a real wall whereas 'State Of Confusion' appears to be have been applied in post production onto a superimposed blank grey rectangle which the photo of the band members have been cut out around looks kinda shoddy.

    But none of that can take away from the fact that we're, for the first time in ten years, and the last time EVER seeing The Kinks represented as a full group on the sleeve art! So glad to see Mick again (and for the last time) that I don't care about the tracksuit! Can you believe that this is the ONLY album front sleeve that Ian Gibbons (12 years service) and Jim Rodford (18 years service) ever got to appear on???!!! The inside art with the word balloons is cool as well: again it's just nice to see the full line up represented rather than Ray striking another solo pose.
     
  7. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    That's a nightmare pairing. Always thought the Stones should've had the 'Mats open some of their Steel Wheels shows.
     
  8. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    :D My god, if I ever have the thread group over for a party I’m going to have to specify a dress code (and check for contraband).
     
  9. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    Aside from the title track Press To Play is unfairly maligned.
     
  10. Martyj

    Martyj Who dares to wake me from my slumber? -- Mr. Flash

    Location:
    Maryland, USA
    Maybe Fleetwood Mac's 1975 LP, and it's follow up, Rumours? A Male replaced with a Female.
     
  11. Smiler

    Smiler Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston TX
    State of Confusion – (I haven't yet read others' posts). I may have heard “Come Dancing” and “Don’t Forget to Dance” on the radio in real time (I didn't have MTV so I never saw any videos) but apparently neither made enough impression for me to explore further. GTPWTW feels like the band was inspired and energized by New Wave. SOC also has tracks that sound influenced by current sounds, but this time it’s mid-80s and that style hasn’t aged as well for me (e.g., “Don’t Forget to Dance”). My initial impression is this album has fewer highs and lows than previous Arista albums, but is less interesting to me overall. I’ve only had one focused listen so maybe it’ll grow on me. I’ll follow your comments with interest but may not say much.

    I’m OK with the cover; it’s of its time and the concept makes more sense with this title than on the previous album IMO. Plus we get to see the whole band!
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2022
  12. Brian x

    Brian x the beautiful ones are not yet born

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    It's interesting how the way @mark winstanley reacted to this on purchase -- wait, this isn't what I expected from this band -- seems to be so common among Kinks fans. But instead of a whole chunk of LPs (love the Pye stuff but hate the RCA era; love everything up to the Arista years, etc) this reaction -- like mine from loving Sleepwalker to hating Misfits -- happened in the space between two LPs, without a label change or a huge cultural/musical shift in the outside world.

    From a couple of listens to SOC (expecting more tunes in the vein of GTPWTW), I'm starting to feel like the Kinks are pretty much defined by their eclecticism and musical unpredictability. As soon as you think they've settled into a groove, a set of genre/production habits, they pull the rug out and do something completely different. & then it's up to you -- either roll with it and get used to the new new new Kinks sound, or give up.

    But if you do stick with them, going a couple albums forward or a few albums back, circling back around to the ones you dismissed, revisiting the one that made you fall in love with them in the first place, you start seeing that what connects it all -- obviously -- is the singular heart, soul and discerning eye of RDD, which persists indomitable through every change. I may still dislike Black Messiah, but I have to admit that no one else on the planet could've written it, that it's indisputably and exclusively the same guy who wrote Supersonic Rocket Ship and Hot Potatoes and Art Lover. & if the only real difference between different Kinks eras is production & genre, then really there's no fundamental difference between them at all, at least as far as I'm concerned.

    Side notes: The difference between this cover & GTPWTW's that really jars is the pink-and-yellow '80s color scheme. Yuck, puke.

    Re teen tastes: At 17, it was all about Arthur and Kronikles for me, enough to overshadow pretty much everything else.

    Lastly: I'd have much more to say about SOC if the good people here hadn't turned me on to DAVID MEAD. Instead of doing my SOC homework last night, I listened to the Nashville and Luxury of Time LPs all the way through. Both are a revelation, both pricked up my wife and teen daughter's ears, and both are now on heavy rotation in the x household.
     
  13. Luckless Pedestrian

    Luckless Pedestrian Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    Not very familiar with State of Confusion the album beyond the title track and Come Dancing. Had a listen the other day and Property, Heart of Gold and Bernadette caught my ear in a favorable way. Yes, Bernadette. Reminded me of Misery, another hated track I'm fond of. Looks like we will soon be adding Rock and Roll Cities to that list as well :).
     
  14. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    How do you post screenshots from phone on here? I wanted to post an '83 Creem interview with Ray by the infamous Mendelsohn.
     
  15. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Good post all round, but the core regarding who the Kinks are and what they sound like - to me, that's spot on
     
  16. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    You'll need to go to a picture hosting site like "imgur" and then copy and paste the bb link...
    It will say folks chat boards or something.

    It's really easy to do
     
  17. pyrrhicvictory

    pyrrhicvictory Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manhattan
    Keith had them open for him. I went for the Replacements, and stayed for Keef.
    [​IMG]
     
  18. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Avid Pyrrhicvictory, how was that concert? How did the Keef/Stones fans react to the 'Mats?
     
  19. CheshireCat

    CheshireCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cheshire
    I'm a little surprised by the apparent negative vibes surrounding 'State Of Confusion'. Admittedly, I've not listened to it through for a while, but I've always placed it towards the top of the 'Arista' albums. I'm still not buying Kinks in real time, so this was probably another purchase from the Didsbury (Manchester) second-hand record store 'Sifters'. As Noel Gallagher and I have in common "Mr Sifter sold me songs". I got my Kinks from there, he, presumably his Beatles...
    I don't recall 'Come Dancing' being a hit when I would have been 11, and it may have come to me first via a rented tape from the local 'video shop', containing an edited 'One For The Road' concert and a handful of promo videos.
    I view this as a solid album, there's two tracks on the LP I don't particularly enjoy, and five of the tracks I have star rated as very good - one of which is one of the cassette/CD bonus tracks. Wondering as we go through this, whether there will be any movement of favourites.

    As an aside, Mum is now able to sit in a chair in hospital, so things are getting better. :) 'Don't Forget To Dance' is one of her favourites.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2022
    Ex-Fed, The MEZ, markelis and 17 others like this.
  20. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    I'd like to know that as well!
     
  21. ThereOnceWasANote

    ThereOnceWasANote Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cape May, NJ
    I looked at the article and its not an interview instead its 3 pages of Mendelsohn whining and lamenting about the Kinks.

    The bb option isn't there for imgur on my android even when I switch to desktop view.
    [​IMG]
     
  22. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Juding from the song "The Importance of Being Idle", I bet Noel G also picked up a Kinks record or two :laugh:.

    Nice to hear about your mother, Avid CheshireCat. Hope she gets better soon.
     
  23. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    That article ended up in the coffee table history of Creem Magazine that came out a decade or so ago and he regurgitated it in his Kinks book a year later.
     
  24. CheshireCat

    CheshireCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cheshire
    I expect he did ;) He must have got a 'Greatest Hits' while I was picking up all those from the '70s and '80s. I probably got everything from 'Muswell Hillbillies' through to 'Word of Mouth' from Mr Sifter. He never had any of the '60s albums, or at least not in my late teenage price range.
    Thanks for the kind words :) It's appreciated.
     
  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I believe he is a big Kinks fan
     

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