Muswell Hillbilly LyricLly quite good, which is of course no surprise at this point. Musically kinda catchy but borderline intolerable. This is music that comes from people, as Jeff Foxworth would say, who's "family tree does not fork." This isn't just twang... it's full on Deliverance terror. Funny, I can listen to the Stones do Wild Horses or Dead Flowers just fine, but Thr Kinks doing this reminds me why I could never fully embrace this album. The last two songs actually make for a difficult finish. After such an amazing opening bookend, this album just trends in the wrong direction. Overall, still a good album, but it can never join the big three that came before.
It does seem as though you either love this album a lot, or are extremely indifferent to it at best - not much mid-ground. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to regard it as a lost masterpiece. I also don't think the next four albums are lost masterpieces either, but given that none of them have any great reputation, I was able to pick up all four recently and be pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy them. "Pleasantly surprised" doesn't seem to be an option where Muswell Hillbillies is concerned.
I can attest that "pleasantly astonished" definitely was, when I first listened to the record, some thirty years ago!
Musswell Hillbilly Boy: Our fearless leader’s write up covered all of my main points. In particular, (i) Dave’s guitar work and that earworm of a riff, and (ii) the sing along nature of the chorus (actually, of the whole darn song) are the high points for me. After a few slower songs, I’m glad they close the album with a bit of a speedy rocker (even if it does have a southern fried country rock sound about it, which appeals to me anyway). Musswell Hillbillies (the album): having spent the last eight weeks listening to this, all I can say is that, at one time or another, literally every single song on here has been running through my head incessantly. A 12 for 12 on the earworm rating system is about as good as you can get. Is it my favorite Kinks album? Nope. But having never given it a fair shot prior to this thread, it is right up there near the top (of the albums we’ve listened to thus far).
It's interesting though, because the expectation going in can be problematic. I have said to several people wanting to try out Village Green, "get the hype of best Kinks album out of your head, because it won't be what you expect it to be" And that's how it was for me... on first listen to Village Green, the first track was great, but after that I was scratching my head and thinking "what the hell is this?" because it went nowhere I expected, and sounded nothing like the Kinks I was aware of.... After acclimating to its style and feel, I loved it, and this deep dive opened it up even more.... I sort of feel Muswell seems to be the same to some degree. Some folks more familiar with the sixties material heard the rep the album has built, and so they step into it with a different picture in their heads, and possibly some cynicism, and it never breaks through.... It really is an album that if you hate country-ish music, or variants of, you will likely never enjoy it..... even though to me, it just isn't really particularly country, just a couple of hints here and there.
I guess it depends where your background in music is, because for me Muswell was much faster entering my heart than the earlier albums. For me, my dad loved country music, and I quite liked it, I found stuff i loved later in life, but I was a big blues fan early on.... so to some degree I just needed to adjust to the Kinky twist, and it was plain sailing from there.
I don't really like 'real' country music all that much but I love this album and I guess the title track is one of my favorites. 12 for 12, @mark winstanley As told since times of yore (or at least 11 days ago). Nothing more to add, really. Except that I'm a bit surprised how many people seem to have (minor to pretty major) issues with this album. And now we are going to hit some really problematic stuff for at least the next few months. What will happen to the people here? Will they disappear or will they stick it out? Exciting times indeed
Muswell Hillbillies I had stated when I made my first post that once of the things I hoped to accomplish going through this was an appreciation of VGPS and this album. Neither had really clicked with me in the past. VGPS is now firmly in my Kinks Top 3. I can't fathom why it took me so long. MH, on the other hand....I like it. A lot. That is more than I could say before. For me though, it pales next to the Face to Face through Lola albums. That said, I have really gained an appreciation for it. It really is brilliant. I added all the songs to my Kinks playlist. Very excited to start checking out the next album.
We have a run of really interesting albums. I think Everybody's in showbiz shouldn't be too difficult for folks, I think it winds back the Americana a little, so some folks may enjoy it a little more.... Unless thematically it bugs people, the Preservation albums are very good, and possibly more traditional Kinks in many ways..... I still struggle a lot with Soap Opera, but I'm trying to look for the opening..... Hopefully folks will roll with us, but I understand if they have reached the end of their journey.... To me, one thing about the Kinks albums, even the ones that may not be favourites, they are still interesting
I'm definitely sticking it out - the boot will be on the other foot sometime next year, as I doubt if anyone else will love Think Visual quite as much as I do!
This showed up on the kinks subreddit today, never seen it before Muswell Hillbillies documentary? First few minutes are great: Kinks Muswell Hillbillies documentary : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Those last three are extremely new to me, and as yet I have no opinion, so I'm looking forward to checking them out..... when we get there
Indeed. But you get the band in fully Sally Army mode in return on the live disc Soap Opera is probably my least favorite of the next lot (and perhaps of all their stuff even if the debut and Phobia weren't exactly classics either) but there are good songs to be found even there, IMO. And for me personally at least four of the lp's in my top 10 were released between 1977 and '84, so I'm looking forward to (getting over with) this a lot.
One thing I am finding with this catalog, is it is impossible for me to rank the albums.... most bands I can say (a) is my favourite etc..... With The Kinks, Pink Floyd and Cold Chisel, I just can't seem to do it without a certain amount of arbitrary day by day selection. In my world, just looking at what we have done so far Something Else, Village Green, Arthur, Lola and Muswell are all just top class number 1 albums, and are different enough that I can't draw a dividing line.
Definitely. The 77-84 or whatever, run, is where I came in, and I'm very attached to those albums.... Misfits has a couple of head scratchers for me, but aside from that it is all really solid.
I agree with the “couple of hints”. Nothing more. There was a reaction against the horns, too. And there were only two tracks with horns. So I think it’s been perception rather than, as we’ve found out by our dissection, it’s a varied album. I do understand the too-country idea, though. I’m strictly roots/alt-country…so when Son Volt out with Honky Tonk…which is just that (!), I was not thrilled. In fact, to this day Hearts And Minds, a straight absolutely no-rock, no-alt tune, is part of the live show. And I’m adamantly against it. Breaks the set flow and should be replaced by Damn Shame. I’m not going anywhere. It’s the stuff I’m not familiar with that I’m interested in. And will see if I go along with the majority opinions or not. (Oftentimes, I do).
My dad was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, but by the time I came along, all traces of a Southern accent were gone. The only tell-tale sign of his Dixie background was when he would pronounce the month of July, he put the accent on the first syllable (JUly). Other than that, you'd never know he was from down south.
Great approach and I hope it will be proven to be a worthwhile one Many of so-called classics doesn't move me that much (or at all) and a lot of my favorite records and songs aren't what other people would pick first, I guess. But when it comes to the Kinks it seems that I like both the songs that are always mentioned as their best and the less well known ones pretty much equally. Well, that is of course Ray's fault more than mine... No other songwriter comes close to this almost uniform level of excellence.
Same here. Funnily enough, where I live in Oklahoma, the people I come across with the heaviest of southern accents tend to be Native Americans.
