They were at the vanguard of the original British Invasion, still considered by many to be one of that movement’s original four horsemen — the other three being the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and The Who. They would go on to be one of the first, and arguably most successful, proponents of the concept album, churning out a memorable string of them between 1968 and 1975. And they featured one of the great love-hate sibling rivalries in the history of rock in the persons of frontman Ray Davies and lead guitarist Davie Davies.
They are The Kinks, the subjects of the Daily Vault’s first retrospective in almost a year.
The Kinks are also a band that has gone through no less than four distinct phases. From their self-titled 1964 debut through 1967’s Something Else, they were the chord-crunching heavies of the British Invasion, setting heads banging with immortal proto-metal numbers like “You Really Got Me and “All Day And All Of The Night.” From 1968 through 1975, they turned increasingly inward, softening their sound, exploring British music hall flavorings and turning out one nostalgic concept album after another. Having exhausted both that musical vein and their label’s patience, they moved to Arista for 1977’s Sleepwalker, which saw the band turn back towards mainstream rock with a harder, stripped-down sound that found Ray Davies increasingly mocking his own audience’s shortcomings while in the process of feeding their simpler tastes — and scoring a fresh batch of hits in the process. The band’s second heyday done, by the mid-80s The Kinks occupied a strange netherworld as admired survivors whose increasingly infrequent new albums were nonetheless roundly — and unjustly — ignored.
Beginning tomorrow and continuing through September 26, your hosts David Bowling and Jason Warburg will offer up brand new reviews of every Kinks studio album not yet covered on the site, moving through the years from 1975’s Soap Opera to 1993’s Phobia. Throughout this run, we’ll also feature an older Kinks review from the archives each day to round out the retrospective. Founded in January 1997, the Daily Vault has featured more than 7,800 reviews of more than 3,300 artists from all across the musical spectrum, written by a volunteer staff from around the world.
Previous Artist Of The Month retrospectives have spotlighted the work of artists from Tori Amos to Frank Zappa, including the Beatles, Depeche Mode, Garth Brooks, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Roxy Music, Yes and many others. Themed retrospectives have included punk, hip-hop, classic soul, classic jazz, Broadway musicals, Christian Contemporary Music, live albums, modern prog, Woodstock At 40, and the year 1970.
