The Kinks - Album by Album (song by song)

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

  1. fspringer

    fspringer Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    Going Solo: In and of itself, a good song, with some echoes of classic Kinks in the verses. The drums have been getting to me for awhile on the album: that tinny/thin sound on the snare that was such an 80s hallmark. Maybe not fully gated? But manipulated in that 80s production way that sounds canned and false. That similar caribbean keyboard sound we first heard in "Come Dancing" - and a few times since - is used again here, and works, Ray really got some mileage from it on the past two albums! As much as I like the song, this is not an appropriate album closer.

    Word of Mouth: this is probably my favorite of the Kinks 80s Arista albums, despite that regrettable lull in the middle. My take would have been to remove "Massive Reductions, " "Guilty" (sorry, Dave!) and "Too Hot" and replace them with "Return to Waterloo," "Lonely Hearts" and "Voices in the Dark" from the Return to Waterloo project. Not necessarily in that order, but get those songs in the mix, which would have made for a much stronger album. I gather in Ray's mind, Return to Waterloo was a completely separate endeavor, but then again, he ended up inserting songs from it into Word of Mouth as it seems like he might have been spreading himself thin songwise (enlisting Dave to contribute two songs here). I'm thinking he was thinking "Return to Waterloo" was such a powerhouse song, and the keynote song of his movie, that he needed to handle that as a separate entity. All I know is when I picked up that album later that summer, I immediately recognized song titles from Word of Mouth. And not the best ones!

    Still, this holds a good place in my memory. It felt like the last true Kinks album. When they switched labels, that might have been one thing, but Think Visual also sounded and felt different from its predecessors. (We'll get to qualitative analysis later!) There are still quite a few good songs to come, but Word of Mouth marked the end of an incredibly productive era for the band on Arista. The Arista years gave them a relevancy that took them out of the category of "faded 60s band" and forced Ray to stop monkeying around with concept albums and do what he does best.
     
  2. Whoroger89

    Whoroger89 Forum Resident

    Overall I enjoy Word of Mouth more then it's predecessor but this is also what I consider that last Good Kinks album, Think Visual has some decent songs but over a pretty poor album
     
  3. CheshireCat

    CheshireCat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cheshire
    Going Solo
    It's sort of just 'there', a bit too poppy for the 'She's Leaving Home' subject matter. It's OK, but nothing special.

    Word Of Mouth (Album)
    For the final Arista album, and despite it being something of a hodgepodge of tracks from other sources, it could still be my favourite of the Arista albums. It's more pop than rock, and very '80s, which could put some off, but as I've mentioned previously, the '80s is my formative era in music, so it sounds fine to me.
    My attempt at putting the tracks from the album in order of favourite first (the top five usually make the playlist):
    Living On A Thin Line
    Good Day
    Missing Persons
    Do It Again
    Too Hot
    Summer's Gone
    Sold Me Out
    Massive Reductions
    Going Solo
    Word Of Mouth
    Guilty
     
  4. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    One thing to note is that while none of the singles from Word of Mouth charted at all in the UK, "How Are You" did actually limp up to no 86 in the UK charts in 1986, and they hit the heady heights of no 79 in 1993 with "Only A Dream".
     
  5. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    The Arista Years.

    To me the Arista Years are as strong as the other two eras prior. They are different, sure, but it was different times, and instead of submitting to the fact that the band had been around a long time, and succumbing to the idea of being a nostalgia act, the band grabbed the era by the horns and made an impact that solidified their historical importance....
    Sadly, the simple fact of the matter is, that had the Kinks not pushed it to the next level with the Arista years, they would have been lost to the sands of time to a lot of people from my generation.....
    Sure they had some radio hits, but the word on the street was that this band was one of those singles bands from the sixties, and not really worth exploring.... and had they not made a late career comeback, that was very likely more successful than their Klassic years.... we probably wouldn't be having this discussion... or at least, I wouldn't...
    The other thing is, as folks have seemingly gone back and explored these "forgotten" sixties Klassics, the band seems to have undergone a sort of re-evaluation and albums that critics loved, but very people few bought, are now generally, seemingly, held up with the esteem they rightly deserve, by a large group of people, rather than a few rabid fans, with the Village Green SDE charting, whereas the album never did.

    So I personally love the Arista years, and even if these were the only albums the band had made, I would still value them highly.

    After pretty much being knocked out by the Pye Years, and suitably impressed with the majority of the RCA Years, I came to the period I grew up with, with an uneasy apprehension that there may be something wrong with these albums in terms of balancing them off against the greatness that had come prior.... but for me at least, that is certainly not the case...
    There is an odd song here or there that I perhaps don't love, and even a couple I sort of wish were not in the mix, but on the whole, the albums are very strong, and I see no shortage of Kinks Klassics.

    We've had this interesting dynamic, where since Village Green, I think, there has been an underlying tone that "it's all down hill from here", but that isn't really how it has worked, for me at least.
    I actually think Arthur is a better album.... don't shoot me..... that isn't to suggest Village Green isn't brilliant, merely that I think Arthur is more brilliant.
    Lola closes out the Pye years well, and the supplementary soundtrack album Percy contains some great tracks, that are likely largely unknown by many.

    We move into the RCA years with Muswell Hillbillies being a stone cold klassic, that for me wrestles with Arthur for top spot, with Something Else and Village Green nipping tightly at their heels.
    Everybody's In Showbiz is a very good album, but I think slightly misdirected, and I still feel it should have been two albums... the studio album, and a proper live album, somewhat like the deluxe release....

    It's somewhat startling how many brilliant songs were left unreleased over the years, which raises the bar even higher.

    Personally the Preservation albums made a big impact for me here, and even though there may be a couple of lesser tracks, and it may not be as tight a construction as it could have been, I think it works extremely well.
    Soap Opera is pretty good, and Schoolboys has some good songs, but they start feeling like they're reaching too far, and need to regroup. I love a good concept album, but sometimes overreaching is under delivering.

    So we come to the Arista Years...
    For all the talk of Clive Davis, I don't really get the impression he had too big of an impact in terms of what and how Ray was writing, personally. I think Ray may well have tempered his concept album addiction, but all through we see thematic subtleties that imply a theme, even if they don't clearly deliver one.
    We also get that rebellious Ray thing, where he writes obviously controversial lyrics, almost as if taunting Davis and the record company.

    To me Sleepwalker is a great album... it is a different sound and feel, but for me, the standout albums in the Kinks Katalog do that... Something Else, Village Green, Arthur, Muswell Hillbillies, Sleepwalker, Low Budget, Give The People What They Want all have distinct sounds and feels that make them stand out to me.
    Sleepwalker delivers, and there really isn't anything I dislike about the album.

    Misfits has some great songs, but it has a somewhat contentious track that for me just shades it slightly.

    Low Budget is a Klassic and sits with the best Kinks albums very comfortably.

    Again, each of these albums has it's own distinct style and sound, and it helps these albums to stand out.

    One For The Road is easily the best live album the band released, and sits amongst the best live albums of all time. Sure it is of its time and place, but all worthwhile live albums are.

    Give The People What They Want carries the energy of One For The Road into its grooves, even though it was made a little later than that tour.
    Again the band have this distinct sound and style, essentially revisiting the garagey sound and style of the early albums, but with the writing being of modern day Ray quality, rather than a young man figuring it out.

    State Of Confusion ends up being a sort of cumulative Kind of album, that takes the recent sounds, and the earlier sounds, and makes a sort of historical statement of the whole career.

    Word of Mouth is a solid album, but with the movie project and Dave issues, it stumbles ever so slightly for me... only slightly... and doesn't quite deliver the goods in the manner that it really could have...
    The interesting thing to me is, that the final album in the Arista years, should have been Return to Waterloo, but Dave took his bat and ball and went home, so Ray felt he needed to release it as a solo album....
    and that's even with Ray, unfortunately succumbing to the pressure to release Mick from the band... I don't like that, but it's the music industry, so I can live with it.

    Personally, what I would like to have seen happen, is more coherent recording sessions of the Word Of Mouth material, that included the Return to Waterloo material, and the best album made from all those tracks.... but what about the movie I hear someone say...
    I don't think that the songs being on Word Of Mouth and being recorded by the Kinks should make any difference to the movie personally....
    The movie could have been done still, just no extra Kinks album, but a soundtrack album of the cast recording, released as such for those interested.
    But we'll start on the movie on Monday and at the end of that interesting journey, I'll have more clear thoughts about how I would personally have liked this to come together...
    Word Of Mouth is a very good album, but with a couple/few Waterloo tracks, it could have been perhaps the crowning achievement of the Kinks Arista years.

    So the Arista years, to me are top kwality Kinks and stand tall with some fantastic songs, and great albums that do nothing but add value to this magnificent catalog of music.

    The Klassics.... well to me, these are Klassic Kinks tracks that stand alongside the band's best.

    Life On The Road
    Mr Big Man
    Sleepwalker
    Stormy Sky
    Misfits
    Rock And Roll Fantasy
    In A Foreign Land
    Catch Me Now I'm Falling
    National Health
    Superman
    In A Space
    Moving Pictures
    Celluloid Heroes (live)
    20th Century Man (live)
    Low Budget (live)
    Killer's Eyes
    Add It Up
    A Little Bit Of Abuse
    Better Things
    Art Lover (part of me wants this here, and part of me wants a slight re-write of it)
    Come Dancing
    Property
    Don't Forget To Dance
    Do It Again
    Good Day
    Living On A Thin Line
    Missing Persons

    I doubt anyone will agree with me, but that's ok :)

    So, as I say, Monday we will start Return To Waterloo, and I'm looking forward to that. A couple of really excellent tracks, and an odd movie, that is probably more interesting than any other descriptor.
    I'll be interested to see whether between us we can figure it out, or if we'll just smile and scratch our heads.

    @ARL has spoken fondly of the MCA years ahead, and I understand why.
    Think Visual is starting to seep into my mind, and UK Jive is making headway.
    The weird thing to me so far, is on both albums, the title tracks appear to be my least liked tracks.... but fear not, I think we have at least two very good albums coming up.
    There is some very solid writing, although to some degree, at this stage, there aren't really any surprises.... I don't think.... but we'll save that for another day :)
     
  6. Paul Mazz

    Paul Mazz Senior Member

    Going Solo

    This is another track my appreciation for which increased after watching Return to Waterloo. Not sure what I would have made of this song years ago, but I can relate to it now. I believe Ray’s eldest would have been the right age to leave home when this song was written. I don’t mean to say that she up and disappeared like the daughter in the song, but I’m sure he had some raw material to work with. My wife and older daughter had a tumultuous relationship in her teens, to the point where I had to ask my wife “are you trying to get her to run away?” A friend recommended a book, that I’ll just drop here, that was very appropriate “Get Out of My Life, But First Can You Drive Me and Cheryl to the Mall.” My older daughter moved out of the house a few months after finishing college. She couldn’t wait to leave. She found an apartment with a couple of friends and decided to move upstate about four hours away, and worried about looking for a job later. In spite of the fact that as a parent you know that your goal is to raise well adjusted, independent, fully functioning adults, the process of separation can still be painful, and not without drama. My wife and daughter are as close as can be now, and talk on the phone for hours more than once a week usually. My daughter is working on a second degree, while working, and has been in a long-term happy relationship.

    I have no problem with this song as a closer on the album musically. It’s another musically upbeat song that you can sing along on the chorus to. Not sure about it lyrically as the closer, except as @Fortuleo pointed out, as a lead in to his solo career.
     
  7. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    That seems pretty normal.
    From my experiences, women don't tend to live together well.
    Most girls I know that moved in with each other, often to get away from mum/mom, frequently ended up not talking to each other
     
  8. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Going Solo

    This one has also been growing on me. I think I prefer Summer's Gone, but this has enough vocal hooks and I like a chorus that has some instrumental bits as part of the chorus. That little riff (and claps) are just as much a part of the khorus as Ray repeating "solo" four times... Or wait, maybe that's not the chorus? Perhaps the "Soloooo, solo, my little child is going solo" is the main khorus, but I consider the repeated "solo" with the riff as a second chorus? It's not a bridge. Gotta love that Ray!

    Musically, we start out with the that 80s snare, and I wish this would have had a bit more of a shuffle(?) like Mick did at the beginning of Sleepwalker or Juke Box Music.... But then the guitar comes in sounding like Moving Pictures, and that works for me. I also like the organ bed later in the "we work like dogs" bridge.

    Lyrically, it retells She's Leaving Home almost to a T (wait, this is the Kinks, so "to a tea"). But I would say that song told it more tellingly, and with more emotion, and better.

    But this, it's an enjoyable pop/rock song. I'm ok with it as a closer. But not as well as Moving Pictures did for Low Budget.
     
  9. donstemple

    donstemple Member of the Club

    Location:
    Maplewood, NJ
    Word of Mouth / Arista Years

    This is a really enjoyable album to listen to. There's no real theme or concept, except perhaps just looking at the titles of the last few tracks. It does seem like a bit of a hodgepodge frankenstein of various sources put together, but there are a lot of good songs. I'd add these to my playlist (in order of favoritism):

    Do It Again
    Living on a Thin Line
    Summer's Gone
    Too Hot
    Going Solo
    Good Day
    Missing Persons
    Sold Me Out

    The Arista years, like everything in the RCA years after Muswell Hillbillies, has all been new to me. I don't think these can be lumped together in one playlist. I've got my playlists like this:

    Kinks (1964-1965) - the early stuff, 24 songs, 61 minutes
    Kinks (1966-1971) - Face to Face through Percy- the "golden era", handpicked the best of the best, 24 songs, 74 minutes
    Kinks (1972-1976) - the rest of the RCA years - 19 songs, 67 minutes
    Kinks (1977 - 1980) - first half of Arista - 31 songs, 123 minutes (most of these albums, with a few songs removed)
    Kinks (1981 - 1984) - second half of Arista, 30 songs, 118 minutes (most of these albums, with a few songs removed)

    We'll see where I put Return to Waterloo songs.

    I figure Think Visual will start my final playlist period.

    It may seem to odd to load up on the Arista period, but I think it comes down to that there are few standout OMG tracks that excel across everything else. It's basically all really good to great, and since this is all new to me, I'd like to listen to pretty much most of these albums together (but separated by One for the Road in the middle). You may also wonder how I could only pick 24 from 1966-1971.... well, for those, ideally, I'd rather just listen to each album again and again in their entirety. But for a representation of that era, I really picked the elite of the elite (for me), and it is just stunning.

    I really see Arista as really pre and post One for the Road. It's not "arena rock", it's just more mainstream pop/rock with some kwirkiness and Ray's unique lyrical/vocal touches that can upgrade any "generic" sounding song. The second half of the Arista period really showcases the combination of modern mainstream but sprinkled with some of that 60s magic too. Yet again, I now have more hours of Kinks music to listen to for the rest of my life. Incredible.

    Say it loud, say it clear, you can listen as well as you hear... the Kinks still had their magic, in the Arista years...

    I've given Think Visual a few listens over the past two weeks, but haven't started UK Jive yet. Return to Waterloo will all be completely new to me next week. Looking forward to that as well.
     
  10. pantofis

    pantofis Senior Member

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    Going Solo

    I like the track, but cannot listen to it without picturing the blonde girl on the train listening to her walkman as seen in Return To Waterloo. Once again I have an issue having another track from that film on a Kinks album where it’s out of context position takes away from the impact.
    One more thing: I always hear some kind of word play on solo as so low.

    The Wor Of Mouth album:

    After revisiting this with you guys on Spotify I am more determined than ever that I will not buy it so it just takes space on the shelf. I have the opener and Living On A Thin Line on compilations and truly don’t need the rest. Rest of the tracks are largely lackluster filler material.
     
  11. ARL

    ARL Forum Resident

    Location:
    England
    I've spoken fondly of Think Visual, but UK Jive is another matter.... :)

    When I listen to that one in a couple of weeks, it will be the first time in a long while, and the question will be whether my opinion has changed...

    In terms of ranking the Arista albums, I can only really say that I think State Of Confusion is my favourite, and the other five would be jostling amongst themselves for equal second and third place. I don't think I could order the six of them. They are all decent, generally underrated albums that deserve to be more well-known.
     
  12. Paul Mazz

    Paul Mazz Senior Member

    Word of Mouth

    I’m with you @donstemple - hodgepodge is the right word. I really like individual songs on this album a lot, and, like you, never heard this album before and am thrilled to have “new” Kinks music to listen to, and revisit, over and over again.

    For what it’s worth, I played Word of Mouth in its entirety during a backyard barbecue last weekend, and my sister-in-law who would normally complain about any of my music that she was unfamiliar with seemed to be enjoying it.

    Being an album guy, I’m not sure I’ll make a playlist - I might just have to suffer, lol, through the few songs I don’t much care for, but I will certainly be listening to the Arista albums that I was unfamiliar with again.
     
  13. Whoroger89

    Whoroger89 Forum Resident

    Arista years

    I've stated this before this is my favorite period of the Kinks. It adds the hard rocking greatness of their early to mid 60s sound but with the songwriting genius that Ray had acquired around Something Else and onwards. Don't get me wrong the Pye years are fantastic and I agree with Mark on Arthur being a better album then the Preservation Society. I love every album from the Arista years including the much maligned Misfits. You've got a grown up band with some great guitar riffs what's not to like.
     
  14. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    I’m uncertain what I’m going to do based on just a preliminary listen to ‘Think Visual,’ ‘Phobia’ and a couple tracks from UK Jive. I’m skeptical as to whether I’ll have enough material for a standalone (aka ‘hearty’!) playlist.

    I can master the slogan so if it’s Quiz material, I’ve got this!
     
  15. DISKOJOE

    DISKOJOE Boredom That You Can Afford!

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    I remember in my freshman year in college that there were two young women who were friends since grade school in their hometown that started out as dorm roommates and split up even before the year was half over. They probably haven't spoken to each other since.
     
  16. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    Going Solo
    Sorry to say, but I think the one line about children moving on in Summer's Gone carries more impact than this entire song. It just seems a lazy lyric by Ray standards. It also sounds lazy musically. Nothing overtly wrong with it, but nothing to recommend it either. I generally don't like the term "filler," but this song qualifies, and stands out even more as such as the album closer.

    Word of Mouth
    Like @Fortuelo, I love this album as a more upbeat Kinks offering. I also get a bit of positive '80s nostalgia from it as well.

    More so than any other Kinks album, though, this one has by far the biggest gulf between side one and side two. Really, side one is fantastic; side two is mostly disappointing. I generally let the CD play, but on LP, I don't bother to flip it.
     
  17. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    I'm rather looking forward to the next three in the standard katalog. Over the years, I've really neglected Think Visual, UK Jive, and Phobia. Approaching them anew in this forum is likely to be like really hearing them for the first time. I'm keeping expectations in check, but I do expect some pleasant surprises and "why didn't I appreciate this sooner?" moments.
     
  18. palisantrancho

    palisantrancho Forum Resident

    "Going Solo"

    I have still not heard Return To Waterloo, but I find it odd that Ray would include songs from this album. I may have to visit the record shop today and try and find a copy. I have seen it around, but never knew if it was a worthwhile album to pick up.

    This is a decent song that goes back to the sound of "Come Dancing", but this time it's even more 80s. It sounds like a song that would be in a tropical 80s movie like Hot Pursuit, featuring John Cusack. "Summer’s Gone" would have been a better album closer, but I like this as an album track. Is Dave absent on this song? I think it benefits from not having a big Dave solo. Did Ray think that this was possibly the end of The Kinks and the start of his solo career? This song would then make perfect sense as the album closer.

    Word Of Mouth

    I was pleasantly surprised with the sound of this album. I only ever paid attention to "Do It Again" and "Living On a Thin Line". The rest was perhaps too much in a commercial 80s sound for my taste. On a closer look, it becomes one of the best albums of the Arista years. I don't really know how to rank some of these album because the last three all kind of blend together in my mind. They are the 80s albums! Even though we have two more 80s albums coming up, they don't have as much of this 80s production going on. There are still a few totally 80s tunes in our future, but overall the next two albums have a different sound and don't feel like this same era of 80s Kinks.

    If I had to rank the Arista years it would look something like this:

    Misfits
    Word Of Mouth
    Low Budget
    Give the People What They Want
    Sleepwalker
    State of Confusion


    Top ten (album) songs from the 70s Arista years (chronological order):

    1. Life On the Road
    2. Life Goes On
    3. Misfits
    4. Live Life
    5. In a Foreign Land
    6. Permanent Waves
    7. Pressure
    8. National Health
    9. In A Space
    10. Moving Pictures

    Top ten (album) songs from the 80s Arista years (chronological order):

    1. Predictable
    2. Add It Up
    3. Better Things
    4. Don't Forget To Dance
    5. Heart Of Gold
    6. Cliches of The World
    7. Do It Again
    8. Good Day
    9. Living On a Thin Line
    10. Sold Me Out

    Before this thread I would have had Sleepwalker ranked higher, and I wouldn't have guessed that Word of Mouth would place 2nd! I had the hardest time narrowing down favorites from Misfits and Word of Mouth, so those are my top two!
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2022
  19. Smiler

    Smiler Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston TX
    I will have to come back and read all of your comments later...

    “Going Solo” – Apparently the Missing Person has turned up alive. Lyrically, I like how Ray shares the feelings and resentments of the parents (“we work like dogs all of our lives”) but ultimately cheers on the child (“now they can’t hold you back ‘cause you’re going solo”). But the Beatles addressed this subject with more intimate detail in “She’s Leaving Home.”

    Musically, The Kinks do The Cars but don’t fire on all cylinders. It feels repetitious and doesn’t grab me. My least favorite song on the album. 2/5

    The only reason I can figure that this is the closing song is that Ray typically likes to end his albums on an upbeat, positive note, no matter what dark, winding paths they may have traveled (e.g., “Better Things” on Give the People What They Want). A young person leaving the nest and starting her life is more uplifting than the despondency of a man standing in the rain looking at his best years (or at least his lover) behind him. I could also perhaps see it following Summer's Gone to show the passing of the torch from a graying generation to the rowdy kids in the back seat who are now going solo. But as a musical finale, it's weak.

    Word of Mouth has a couple of classics and to me is consistently good to great except for the last song. Ultimately, this has turned out to be my favorite Arista album, and easily Top 10 Kinks for me. It’s even better with Smiler edits that trim five songs and speed up “Do It Again” to match its live tempo. :D

    Arista studio album ranking:
    Word of Mouth
    Misfits
    Low Budget
    Give the People What They Want
    State of Confusion
    Sleepwalker
     
  20. Brian x

    Brian x the beautiful ones are not yet born

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Things have been a bit chaotic around the house the past week or so. I hope to be able to contribute something about Word of Mouth and the Arista years in general on free-form Sunday, but for now:

    Summer's Gone

    The first few moments give me hope, some nice sounds, doo doo doo, RD looking out a window... but then it sort of falls apart foe me. I hear this sort of Born in the USA thing going on with the keyboards & drums, and the song seems to edge out of "cleverly constructed" and into "these bits don't hold together." Missing Persons was giving me some hope for side 2, but in the alternate universe where I bought this LP on release, side 1 would've gotten a lot more play.

    Going Solo

    No great improvement here, maybe the '80s sounds have finally gotten to me, or maybe it's true that RD is going through a somewhat fallow period.

    What I do see with this and Summer's Gone and a couple of other bits here and there on the LP is a theme of emotional loss with some measure 0f self-recrimination. I can think of lots of artists who did albums that were clearly and explicitly about a specific breakup, but here anything that might kinda-sorta be about Chrissy has been scrambled and half-concealed under other storylines.

    Nothing wrong with that, since the emotions are still there and still give the songs heft and resonance. But interesting to find between the lines.
     
  21. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    Going Solo

    My first feeling about this song was pretty much around the lines that the most negative reviews here have set. But for some reason, the film transformed my perception of the track, and I really like it now. One thing that hasn't been said yet [but Avid @Paul Mazz has stressed it since, as I just saw] is that, if I'm correct, Ray's elder daughter must have been leaving home at around this time, or maybe was about to. Of course she was not leaving Ray's nest, since she had not been living with Ray for quite a few years, and she's singing on the album so I guess she had not ran away very far; but maybe Ray is echoing Rasa's feelings here. What I mean is, he was not inspired by a newspaper clip like 24-years-old McCartney was; he was talking from a very mature and informed point of view, as part of a parental couple who was going through this very same experience at the time. And I love the way Ray has of writing pop-rock songs about grown-up topics, indifferent to the risk of revealing his age.

    The music has a relaxed groove of its own that I really enjoy. It would have been better with some Dave, probably. Still I like it that way.

    Word of Mouth

    I like this album. I have come to terms with the fact that I can't like the Kinks' 80s albums in the same way as I like their earlier output. I definitely have lower expectations from them. And that's OK.

    For some reason I find this album more enjoyable than the 2 previous ones. Maybe loneliness suits Ray. This album documents several break-ups : Chrissie leaving him, Dave leaving at some point, Mick leaving the band permanently, his elder daughter coming of age and leaving childhood - not to mention the change in record label that was still in the future. Yet, most of the songs have a joyful, almost appeased feeling about them, even when the words are tragic. The joy in the previous albums sounds a bit forced by comparison. Now he sounds like a man reaching 40, finding himself free and full of projects for the future, relieved of the tensions and obligations of a complex relationship.

    Breaking up and starting over: this is the main theme of the album to me. Breaking up: Good Day, Summer's Gone (which has to be about Chrissie, when you just had a break-up, every break-up song you write is about that break-up, even if you're trying to disguise it); children leaving: Missing Persons, Going Solo; all the rage around betrayal: Sold Me Out, Massive Reductions (though that dates back to the previous break-up), Word of Mouth; Starting over after the break-up: Do It Again (but could it also be about, breaking up again?). The Dave songs and Too Hot offer some background and breathing space.

    EDIT: I forgot to say, of course I will also make a Frankenstein album out of Word of Mouth and Return to Waterloo, as soon as I find the time. Word of Mouth (the song), Massive Reductions, Summer's Gone and maybe Do It Again :hide: will have to go.

    I forgot to share my favorite "too hot" song:
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2022
  22. Kjasonl

    Kjasonl " I'm on a low budget"

    Location:
    East Lansing, Mi
  23. Zeki

    Zeki Forum Resident

    You’ll have to rename it, then. No ‘Word Of Mouth’ for you!
     
  24. The late man

    The late man Forum Resident

    Location:
    France
    I like it when an album doesn't have a title track. Especially when the title track exists elsewhere.

    And I will mix the cover arts of both albums to create the Perfect Horror.
     
  25. Michael Streett

    Michael Streett Senior Member

    Location:
    Florence, SC
    The Word Of Mouth album will always hold a special place for me since it was my first Kinks album ever purchased and at the time of release. For that reason alone, it's flaws or weaker songs and moments don't bother me as much as they may otherwise. There are some on this album, I can admit this. I'm an album listener not a playlist or isolated track listener so these same flaws are often hidden within the overall context of the album and are not as obvious or revealed as much as they are in a track by track day by day listen as we do here. This is true of any album for me, not just this one. Ah, but the cover still stinks.

    One thing that is puzzling me even more as we've been going through it, and it's been mentioned several times by lots of folks, is the three Return To Waterloo film tracks Ray added to this album. I assume he knew there would be a soundtrack LP in 1985 to accompany the film, but since that soundtrack was only released in the US and Canada, maybe that was a last minute decision and he wanted to make sure these specific tracks got a general release not knowing they would be released later on record. There is no comment in any of the books I've read or from Ray about this so I guess we'll never know. There are no liner notes in the 2005 Koch CD release of the soundtrack.

    Ray was always so prolific that I would be surprised if he was short of other material to round out the album. "Once A Thief" was already in the can from the previous year and I can easily hear that song slotting comfortably as is somewhere into Word Of Mouth. "Entertainment" from 1981 was still in the vault, but that likely would have had to be re-recorded to better match the rest of the album, but since they did this with "Massive Reductions", there was precedent. There was also an unreleased track called "Regret It" recorded during the early State Of Confusion sessions, but this has never surfaced so we don't know how complete this was or if it was re-written into another song. And this is just what we know about. Dave had been writing consistently for several years at this point and probably had several more songs or ideas that could have been worked on and gotten a third track on the album. My point being there should have been enough unique material to flesh out Word Of Mouth without the duplication, unless the reason really was simply what I mentioned above.

    I have not watched the Return To Waterloo film in probably 20 years, so I plan on setting some time aside on Sunday to do just that. I know the album very well, but as an album, like any other music album. I don't listen to it and think "oh, this a soundtrack to a film or a scene in a movie".
    I will be paying extra attention the the context of all of these songs in the film itself and see if that affects or changes my thoughts on these tracks as album listening tracks.
     
    Last edited: Jun 25, 2022

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