Product Description
Brand New ~ Sealed! Special 50th Anniversary Remastered Edition Of The Tenth Album By The Kinks. 180 Gram Vinyl, Gatefold Cover Includes Lyrics.
This period’s first Kinks album, ‘Muswell Hillbillies’, is for many people their best of all. It conversely looked back on Ray and Dave Davies’ London roots, telling tales of working-class families migrating from the war-torn and redevelopment-ravaged inner city to the strange, leafy suburbs of North London. Expertly recreated and retouched original artwork with gatefold sleeve. All audio has been produced by Ray Davies and mastered by Kinks expert Tony Cousins at Metropolis studios.
Stereo Review magazine called the record “album of the year” in 1972 (even though it was released on 24 November 1971). In the 1984 Rolling Stone Album Guide, Rolling Stone editors gave ‘Muswell Hillbillies’ five stars out of five and called it Davies’ “signature statement” as a songwriter.
Side 1:
20th Century Man
Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues
Holiday
Skin & Bone
Alcohol
Complicated Life
Side 2:
Here Come The People In Grey
Have A Cuppa Tea
Holloway Jail
Oklahoma U.S.A.
Uncle Son
Muswell Hillbilly
AMG –
Davies' songwriting is at a peak, as are the Kinks themselves. There are a lot of subtle shifts in mood and genre on the album, and the band pulls it off effortlessly and joyously. 4 ½ Stars How did the Kinks respond to the fresh start afforded by Lola? By delivering a skewed, distinctly British, cabaret take on Americana, all pinned down by Ray Davies' loose autobiography and intense yearning to be anywhere else but here -- or, as he says on the opening track, "I'm a 20th century man, but I don't want to be here." Unlike its predecessors, Muswell Hillbillies doesn't overtly seem like a concept album -- there are no stories as there are on Lola -- but each song undoubtedly shares a similar theme, namely the lives of the working class. Cleverly, the music is a blend of American and British roots music, veering from rowdy blues to boozy vaudeville. There's as much good humor in the performances as there are in Davies' songs, which are among his savviest and funniest. They're also quite affectionate, a fact underpinned by the heartbreaking "Oklahoma U.S.A.," one of the starkest numbers Davies ever penned, seeming all the sadder surrounded by the careening country-rock and music hall. That's the key to Muswell Hillbillies -- it mirrors the messy flow of life itself, rolling from love letters and laments to jokes and family reunions. Throughout it all, Davies' songwriting is at a peak, as are the Kinks themselves. There are a lot of subtle shifts in mood and genre on the album, and the band pulls it off effortlessly and joyously. Regardless of its commercial fate, Muswell Hillbillies stands as one of the Kinks' best albums. 4 ½ Stars