Muswell Hillbillies
THE KINKS
(RCA)
This is The Kinks' pastoral paean to their hometown of Muswell Hill, the North London suburb where siblings Ray and Dave Davies were, born, raised and formed their famous band in the early '60s. The album — which failed to chart in the States — tells working-class tales mostly through American music idioms like blues and country, with touches of vintage jazz. Chief songwriter Ray Davies primarily sticks to his favorite theme: modern life sucks. But he expresses his pessimism with a playfulness that makes the disc far more charming than it should be considering the subject matter.
This article appears in Jan 2-8, 2008.
