This box set delivers both a little more and a little less than it
promises -- though the packaging is so cryptic that it's difficult to
say precisely what it does promise. Billed as
The Pye Album Collection,
it contains ten nicely packaged mini-LP sleeves representing the group's
ten original albums for Pye Records. Not that these haven't been
available before in various incarnations on both sides of the Atlantic
(including some extant audiophile editions) and loaded up with bonus
tracks -- but the producers have correctly reckoned that for the fans,
on some level, the
Kinks are like the Beatles, the Rolling
Stones, and the Who, in that their albums carry some serious
significance for a lot of people, standing up well on their own and also
evoking a specific time and place in listeners' respective pasts.
There
are no bonus tracks anywhere here, and onlookers should also be
reminded that the Kinks released a ton of important singles early in
their history -- including "All Day and All of the Night," "A Well
Respected Man," "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," and "Till the End of
the Day" -- that were never part of any official LPs (except
greatest-hits compilations) and, thus, are not represented here in any
form. But that said, on the original Pye albums themselves, the spot-on,
state-of-the-art, up-to-date mastering is so close that you feel like
the Davies brothers' guitars are in the room with you on "So Mystifying"
and "Just Can't Go to Sleep" (from their self-titled debut LP), and
everything on the disc sounds that way. On the other hand, the makers
have opened that album with "You Really Got Me," which was track number
seven on the original LP, and also moved "Too Much Monkey Business" from
its spot at track number 11, and everything except for "You Really Got
Me" is in stereo, which is OK because they got the sound right (in fact,
better than it was on the original LP). And the cover is a kind of
hybrid, re-creating a Japanese cover for the album (with all songs
listed in Japanese), and using the title "Kinks" on the spine but
Kinks-Size on the front cover. Kinda Kinks, by contrast, contains only
12 songs (no singles) and a French Vogue Records cover (which uses the
title "The Kinks" on its front and back jackets). Kink Kontroversy is
present with the art from the Italian version (cover title "United
Kinksdom") and the basic 12 songs. Face to Face is offered with its
familiar U.K. cover art missing, replaced by a really cool photo of the
band from the Greek version of the album. And Live at Kelvin Hall uses a
cheerful shot of the bandmembers, all holding clocks, from the French
issue. The real treat, however, is the Japanese version of Something
Else, with its shot of the bandmembers staring out in full color, while
the foreground presents as pretty a psychedelic array of flowers as
anyone saw in 1967. Village Green Preservation Society appears in its
ornate Italian jacket, with its cheerful shot of the band on a grassy
field, and Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), in
its Dutch sleeve, has the black-and-white profiles of the bandmembers
flanked by visual Victoriana, including the old girl herself. Lola vs.
the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1 features the familiar U.K.
and U.S. art, and Percy -- which is really an afterthought as an album
-- offers the U.K. sleeve art.
tracklist & info
The Kinks-(1964)-Kinks
The Kinks-(1965)-Kinda Kinks
The Kinks-(1965)-The Kink Kontroversy
The Kinks-(1966)-Face to Face
The Kinks-(1967)-Something Else by the Kinks
The Kinks-(1968)-Live at Kelvin Hall
The Kinks-(1968)-The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
The Kinks-(1969)-Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
The Kinks-(1970)-Lola vs. the Powerman and the Money-Go-Round , Pt 1
The Kinks-(1971)-Soundtrack from the Film ''Percy''
The Kinks-(1972)-The Kink Kronikles [Disc 1]
The Kinks-(1972)-The Kink Kronikles [Disc 2]
