Something Else is another of the albums that I acquired in the mid-80s, this time it's a reissue on the green and red PRT label. However, before I bought the album I already had all the tracks, as I had the Golden Hour vol 3 double album, which together with other compilations that I had, covered all of Something Else (I think). It was worth getting the PRT copy, though, as it's much better quality, obviously, and has all the tracks together and in the correct order. The only thing new to me was the reprise at the end of "Situation Vacant", as I think that was omitted from the Golden Hour version - a bit startling first time I heard it! It's undoubtedly a great collection of songs - whether the overall effect is that of a great album I don't know, but I certainly enjoy listening to it. The quality of the production and stereo mixing is variable, and it's a jumble of styles, none of which really sound like anything else around at the time.
Liner notes: “kinklings” has me howling. Album cover: I don’t like it. In real-time I can’t see myself reaching for it to peruse. Now that I’m familiar with the album...yeah, I can accept that it fits. This album is firing on all cylinders for the entire first half. Then gets into so-so territory in side two. I will see if my opinion changes after reading all of your thoughts.
When I started buying Kinks records, I was knocked out by Something Else. I liked the albums I already had (The Kinks (comp), Lola vs. Powerman and The Moneygoround, Part One, Muswell Hillbillies and maybe some others) but I liked every song immediately on this album. It was my favourite for a long time, with such a large variety of great songs. I don't think it's their best anymore but certainly one of their best. In this book ,Stranded: Rock and Roll for a Desert Island by Greil Marcus , Janet Maislin picked Something Else as her desert island album. I like the cover. I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt with the cover on the front in a bar before a Ray Davies show. I haven't heard the Golden Hour version which is the double album that collects album tracks from Face To Face to Percy, but it sounds like it could be the remix that was used for the PRT CD which omits the 2nd coda.
I believe Something Else was the 2nd Kinks album I got after absorbing Village Green Preservation Society. It's another great collection of songs that holds together better than Face to Face because there aren't really any throwbacks to the old style mixed in. This time we have the emergence of Dave mixed in and it's all for the better. I would rather review albums after we discuss them so I'm more refreshed on the material, so I'll leave the rest of my thoughts to the individual songs themselves. Looking forward to it.
So, Something Else to me is sometimes my favourite Kinks album. Almost every song on it is an absolute gem, and those that are just 'great' are perfectly slotted in their places. I love the cover, in the modern matte version or the shiny original design, and the liner notes are just brilliant. I wouldn't change a thing. For those that want to get to know the mono and stereo differences going into it, here's my Mixology look from last year: Something Else by The Kinks
Something Else is my favorite Kinks album. I can listen to it anytime. I don’t have to be in a particular mood to appreciate it. There’s a small number of lps I can describe that way. It may be due to the mix of styles on the record. It definitely has to do with the quality of writing, which is superb, and the production, which is both layered and raw at the same time. Until this thread, I was not aware of Rasa and her contributions to the tracks from this era. She and Nicky Hopkins deserve a ton of credit for their work.
The discussion about the cover is pertinent, to me. I have the Essential Extended CD with the (supposedly unique) lavender tint, and though I think the silvery cover is nicer, it's still a strangely forbidding cover. Dusty, mysterious, spectral. Now I don't know if anyone else finds that visuals can affect the ears.. sometimes drastically, perhaps not always. But even if I'd first listened to SE blindfold, I reckon I could have picked it out from an identity parade pretty quickly. Monochrome psychedelia. I find Ray's dismissal of the Face To Face cover interesting too, wanting something stark in b&w. I'm not sure he was right. But would Disraeli Gears or Sgt Pepper feel quite as groovy in a brown paper bag (as Brian Epstein apparently half-jokingly wanted)? Is the White Album really as cold and unnerving as its cover? Different thread.. SE is the kweasiest of the impeccable kwartet of 60s Kinks albums. It sometimes feels drunk, or bombed, or seasick. It raises a cheer, quite frequently, or leads us in a raucous pub singalong, but then lapses back into bleary contemplation. Sometimes is it quite clear eyed, particularly the character/ story sketches, but these feel like fleeting glimpses of sunshine through a murky old Victorian window. It's really quite a peculiar album. The fact it ends with Waterloo Sunset makes it seem almost explicit that we've all come through a lot together. Is this just me? Is it the mastering, or my copy, or the lavender cover, or what? And I love Something Else by the way, the whole thing, just that it's always felt like a slow burn and a strange trip.. a hall of mirrors.. pick your cliche - quite the departure from Face to Face. I look forward to hearing people's thoughts.
I hear all of this... that probably describes what I was trying to, better than I. It is certainly unusual, but in a beautiful way
Paul Williams of Crawdaddy fame once compared Kink fans to wine connoisseurs. I myself tend to compare the Kinks to the cars which were popular at that particular time. To me, Something Else is in the middle of a three album run w/Face to Face & VGPS, which was their Jaguar XKE period, British Racing Green, w/wire wheels, chrome bumpers, wood on the dash & classic styling. I got Something Else probably right after VGPS, as they were both still in print when I obtained them in the late 1970s. I was already familiar w/several of the songs which appeared on Kronikles, but the rest of the album registered very well w/me. Any album that starts w/"David Watts" & ends w/"Waterloo Sunset" has to be considered a stone cold classic. As for the UK music press harping on Ray on dealing w/"dull" character topics not in line w/the current "groovy & hip" ethos, the Who were also getting basically the same criticisms. The Who Sell Out, which came out roughly about the same time as Something Else, also performed disappointingly on the UK album charts. I think that the situation was that the music scene back in 1968, was full of heaviness & fury on the rock side of things (Hendrix, Cream) & rank sentimentality & goop on the pop side (Bobby Goldsboro's Honey) that reflected the tenor of the times. The one thing that was lacking & which Something Else has, was subtlety.
Something Else is still growing on me. I think @mark winstanley and @Orino have stated it well. It's a bit much to fully grasp. There are some tunes that are so catchy, you feel like you've known them forever the first time you hear them. There are some beautiful gems. There are some murkier grottoes. Such diversity, but diversity that isn't as easy to grasp as the diversity we found on Face to Face. The band was definitely doing their own thing in 1967. While the Beatles, Cream, etc embraced psychedelic acid trips, the Kinks were doing something else. You wonder if "Something Else by the Kinks" led to Monty Python calling their 1971 film "And Now for Something Completely Different". Kwintessentially British, and something else indeed... Looking forward to the next week or so and letting some of these additional tracks explore my bloodstreams and soak in to my being.
According to Rogan the title 'Something Else' was a subtle tribute to the Eddie Cochran song 'Somethin' Else' from 1959. It was a favourite of both brothers.
I think I started listening to this around the time I got hold of Face To Face, and in my mind I consider it a sort of companion album. I don't think it moves us forward a great deal but I do think it's a little better. There's still a couple of songs here that are a bit throwaway...... No Return I'm definitely looking at you, but then we get several absolute classics which are as good as anything else that I'm aware of by them. I'm generally more inclined to play this than Face To Face due to the handful of stellar tracks. PS - backtracking to Death Of A Clown, the piano is out of tune all the way though the recording. Still a good song mind.
If so, then The Move did exactly the same the following year with their EP ‘Something Else From The Move’.. except their record actually included a cover of the Cochrane song!
Alright Ladies & Gentlemen, here is what some of the group's British contemporaries were up to that Christmas season. Feel free to compare: Any one of the above albums would be great fodder for your podcast. Being late 1967, they were all among the final batch to be released in both mono and stereo. Donovan's "Gift From A Flower To A Garden" in particular contains a lot of differences between the two. Click HERE then HERE for an example. It was first re-issued on CD in 1993 on the BGO label with the original dedicated mono mix, and then on Sony Music Special Products (Collector's Choice) with it's original stereo mix in the year 2000. To me, in it's own way, "Something Else" is as good or better than any of the LPs pictured above. There were a few things I would've done differently, largely to do with the sequencing. Simply having "Waterloo Sunset" and "End Of The Season" switch places would've made more sense. Much like "Face To Face," the hit single would've been the 2nd from the last track, followed by what sounds like much more of an obvious album closer. Like Sgt. Pepper and A Hard Day's Night, there are only 13 tracks on the album and there is clearly room for one more. Frankly, I would've stuck that irritating minor-key sea shanty "Harry Rag" on the B-side of something, which would've left room for two more tracks. Both "Lavender Hill" and "Rosemary Rose" would've been welcome additions, as would the then current single, "Autumn Almanac / Mr. Pleasant."
„Something Else By The Kinks“ is the second milestone of The Kinks‘ Golden Age (1966-1972). It’s an excellent album offering 13 classic British original pop songs (10 by Ray and 3 by Dave) covering as always a wide variety of styles. They still form a cohesive whole unlike anything the band had previously released. The songs‘ selection is impressive even more as the band was at that time busy stockpiling ideas and songs for Ray’s Village Green Project so it came down to make the right choices for the respective record. Not one single miss. In those days everybody was listening to Frank Sinatra and to Perry Como a lot; their influences shine through sometimes. As Ray Davies' songwriting becomes more refined, he becomes more nostalgic and sentimental retreating from the psychedelic and mod posturings that had dominated the rock world. Well, „Something Else By The Kinks“ sounds like nothing else from 1967. The Kinks never rock very hard on the album preferring mellower, acoustic baroque pop ballads, English music hall numbers and tempered Rhythm 'n' Blues to full-out guitar attacks. Part of the album's strength lies in its calm music since it provides an elegant support for Davies' character portraits and vignettes. From the martial stomp of „David Watts" to the exquisite shimmering „Waterloo Sunset" there's not a weak song on the record. The metaphorical „Two Sisters", the Noël Cowardesque „End Of The Season", the rotating „Lazy Old Sun" and the wry „Situation Vacant" are beauties. And just as magnificent is the emergence of Dave Davies as a songwriter. His Dylanesque „Death Of A Clown" and bluesy rocker „Love Me Till the Sun Shines" hold their own against Ray's masterpieces thus helping to make „Something Else By The Kinks“ the endlessly fascinating album that it is. Many of the recordings feature the keyboard work of Nicky Hopkins and the backing vocals of Davies's wife, Rasa. Ray Davies assumed control over production after the departure of Shel Talmy; hence „Something Else By The Kinks“ marked a profound change in the sound and production style of the band. The record per se is a product of the band's „introspective soft rock period". My favourite tracks are „Two Sisters (interesting character study – could this be about Ray and Dave?)“, „No Return (Bossa Nova - great Summer easy listening)“, „Situation Vacant“, „Lazy Old Sun (definitely the oddest and most fascinating song on the whole album)“, „Afternoon Tea“, „End Of The Season (the hidden gem)“ and „Waterloo Sunset (the perfect pop song)“. The Kinks were in excellent company when "Something Else By The Kinks" was released in 1967 - other groups with a different and a new sound were The Beatles „Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band“, The Doors „The Doors“, The Moody Blues With The London Festival Orchestra „Days Of Future Passed“, Pink Floyd „The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn“ and Procol Harum „Procol Harum“ to name but a few.
I heard all the 60's Kinks records, starting with the 3rd, at roughly the same. But I think I bought a mid-80's British mono "Face to Face" LP, and my girlfriend simultaneously bought an original Reprise "Something Else." I believe we each preferred the albums we bought, at first. To me, "Something Else" was really weird. What was going on with "Funny Face" and "Lazy Old Sun"? And the sound of the whole thing was hollow, spooky, and didn't quite feel like a band that was rocking out (overall). I remember that when we found "VGPS," I was impressed that the band sounded a lot fuller and jammin' again. The album has grown on me a lot over the decades, of course. I loved "Two Sisters" immediately. But still I've tended to feel there is something "not full" about it. I chalk this up to: 1) Having trouble placing its best-known songs IN the album. It must be that I think of "David Watts," Waterloo Sunset" and "Death of a Clown" as singles that don't quite belong, perhaps because I knew them from Kronikles. 2) Its number of songs. 13 feels less substantial than Face to Face's 14 or VGPS's 15 songs. 3) Three Dave Davies songs. They feel like an intrusion from what should be a solo album. That leaves 8 Ray Davies deep cuts. I fully recognize that all of these things are just my brain being weird. It's a great album. My friend Dann feels this is the Kinks at their absolute peak, and that VGPS is overrated. I have always felt the opposite. But sometime in this past month I played both, to recheck my perceptions. Lo and behold, I was sort of inching towards Dann's view. Maybe "Something Else" is superior, simply for having a couple of untoppable peaks, and tad less indulgent whimsy? Or must one really choose one? But yes, in the past I would have rated them: 1) VGPS 2) Face to Face 3) Something Else 4) a tie between Kontroversy and Arthur.
Death Of A Clown I was waiting for someone to mention breaking up the crown (currency) to share a (last?) drink with the writer whose life he knows needs to & will change. Much has also been said about this being on a Kinks album though also released as a solo Dave Davies single. Their was somewhat of a parallel in 1967 with Bill Wyman's "In Another Land" being released as a US single under Bill's name whilst also being on the Rolling Stones LP Their Satanic Majesties Request. For me this is Dave's best song though I think if released a few years later in a different pop culture it would not have hit as high as UK #3! Loved it on first hearing and buckled down to learn it on guitar and accompanying myself with a vocal. Dave composes a lyric of vivid storytelling that is not unlike what an older sibling had also been doing in more recent years! These days for some reason iam not as in love with it as 20 years ago but it is still a very fine song.
Oh Geez! I always thought it was "break up this ground".... because they were going to bury the clown. Oy. Yours makes a lot more sense, and rhymes.
[QUOTE="idleracer, post: 27108936, member: To me, in it's own way, "Something Else" is as good or better than any of the LPs pictured above. There were a few things I would've done differently, largely to do with the sequencing. Simply having "Waterloo Sunset" and "End Of The Season" switch places would've made more sense. Much like "Face To Face," the hit single would've been the 2nd from the last track, followed by what sounds like much more of an obvious album closer. . [/QUOTE] Putting any song after Waterloo would be a disservice to that song and to the listener, who should be allowed to simply bask in the afterglow of a masterpiece.
I believe I first heard all of Something Else on the same compilation (Golden Hour Kinks) as I heard the last album. I quickly bought all the individual albums on CD which also featured many bonus tracks. I aways thought Face To Face was the more impressive album because it was such a major step in the evolution of the band. Something Else continues with many of the same styles and feelings as the previous album, but manages to be more quirky and unique. I feel a few favorites on this album are the songs that often get mentioned as the weakest on the album. I am curious to see if that holds true with this discussion. I like the album cover. Just like I thought that "Death Of A Clown" had an Old West vibe, I get the same from the album cover. A vintage looking frame that for some reason reminds me of looking into the end of a double barrel shotgun. 1967 is most likely my favorite year for music and this Kinks album is one of the many reasons why. I can't wait to dive in with everyone!
Something Else was the fourth Kinks album I bought back in 1977 (after Sleepwalker, Kronikles and Greatest Hits) when I was exploring their catalog. There were some songs I liked a lot (David Watts, Death of a Clown, Situation Vacant, and Waterloo Sunset of course). Others I found offputting musically: Harry Rag, Tin Soldier Man, Two Sisters). At some point I sold the album; by then the Kinks focus had passed and I must have figured I had all the songs on the Golden Hour UK import and Kronikles. Revisiting it recently, I am appreciating the more uncharacteristic tracks like No Return, Lazy Old Sun and End of the Season. I like the variety of styles on this album. And the production is definitely a step up from FTF. To me, SE feels like a further transition from their rock roots toward English pub/music hall. Reading "X-Ray" gave me more insight into why Ray wanted to escape the "rock scene" of the time. I have long considered Face to Face my favorite Kinks album (despite the anemic production values) because it has more songs I like, but it's possible my opinion will change as I listen to the other albums more.
It's a fascinating exercise isn't it... Prior to the thread, I would have almost certainly (roughly) rated my favourite Kinks albums as Muswell Hillbillies Village Green Low Budget Sleepwalker As we go through it's going to be really interesting to see how it pans out, because so far these earlier albums are really getting my attention... I'm going to be very interested to see where the chips fall here
I always thought Something Else was one of the Kinks albums held in the highest esteem, especially until Village Green started to become the default choice. Surprising to see some of the comments here. Harry Rag and Two Sisters - these are some of my favorite Kinks songs, aside from the obviously luminous greats here. Harry Rag is probably among the ten or so Kinks songs I listen to most, but more on that later.
