27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Kinks Turn an About Face, January 8, 2000
This review is from: Face to Face (Audio CD)
Don't let the psychedelic appearance of the album art fool you into thinking this is somehow the Kinks' entry in the summer-of-love sweepstakes, including Sgt Pepper, Smiley Smile, Their Satanic Majesties Request, or Of Cabbages and Kings--all which were released in 1967. Instead this is Ray Davies turning away from the hard-driving rock 'n' roll which was the backbone of their first three UK albums and finding a broader range of textures to add to his music and a shift in his lyrics.
Ray's songs often were snapshots of everyday life. "Session Man" was written as a tribute to Nicky Hopkins who frequently appeared on Kinks tracks (and almost every other major British artist of the period). "Rosie Won't You Please Come Home" was directed at Ray's sister who was living in Australia at the time. "Rainy Day in June"--complete with opening thunderclap--was inspired by Ray's backyard garden sanctuary. As he explains in the liner notes: "I love rain and the moistness after a storm, and it was about fairies and little evil things within the trees that come to life." And you can't help but believe that Ray's personal experience with the taxman was the basis for "Sunny Afternoon"--a No. 1 in the UK, but only No. 15 in the US.
There were still songs that were reminiscent of the Kinks of old: the rollicking "Party Line," the hard driving "Holiday in Waikiki." But Ray was broadening his musical landscape. He wasn't going to limit the band to the "Kinks" sound of "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" and remain a durable and viable band.
This was the beginning of a high water mark for the band. Face to Face, along with Something Else, Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur, is as good an album as any other album to come out of the sixties. And other than the Beatles, no group put out four albums of this consistent quality during the decade. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Daring, brittle, dreamy, essential, November 10, 2002
This review is from: Face to Face (Audio CD)
Between the years 1965-69 (but especially between 66-67) four
UK bands were crowned the royalty of rock: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Who. Of these four, The Kinks
would decline and fade the quickest--especially in the United States--by no fault of their own. Released at the tail end of
their chart success in the US (Sunny Afternoon had made #14 there in the summer of '66, and topped the UK charts), "Face To Face" was the album which simultaneously put them in the same artistic league as their three peers while destroying any further chance of commercial success.
"Aftermath", "Revolver", "A Quick One", "Between The Buttons", "Sgt.Pepper" and "The Who Sell Out" represented a stunning growth and maturity in UK album style during this time, and "Face To Face" (along with its successor "Something Else") is no exception. It was 1966 when the LP became more than just a collection of songs, and The Kinks were pioneers in the field, making "Face To Face" a song cycle outlining the UK class system with exquisite detail. Ray Davies' original plan for the album was to link all of the songs without the customary three-second gap (an idea which predated "Pepper"), so sure was he that he had created something of thematic unity. Although he didn't get what he wanted, "Face To Face" remains a landmark in the group's career, a time when their music began to take on greater instrumental color and their lyrics reflected the singer's own personal obsessions (this, of course, characterized albums like "Aftermath" and "Revolver" as well). Harpsichords, horns, sound effects and other odd additions paint a lucid aural sheen of the crazed party lines, Hawaiian holidays, rainy days in June, elitist upper class snobs and forgotten session men who people Davies' world; many of the lyrics were written after he had suffered a nervous breakdown in the spring of '66 and specifically reflect that state of mind ("Too Much On My Mind", the hauntingly dark and ethereal "Rainy Day In June").
Over and above all else, however, "Face To Face" is a portrait
of the ups and downs of the UK class system. Side one gives one
representations of the upwardly mobile, and the emotional impact this leaves on themselves and their families ("Rosy Won't You Please Come Home", "House In The Country"), while side two generally charts their decline and fall in an almost Dylan-esque fashion ("Most Exclusive Residence For Sale", "Sunny Afternoon").
The most revealing song on the album--and the one which most reflects its pop-art psychedelic cover--is the hypnotic "Fancy", in which Davies outlines the boundaries of his ego by his tastes and preferences, which cannot be penetrated by others.
In short, "Face To Face" is an essential purchase, in spite of a few filler tracks (which were actually leftovers from the '65 "Kink Kontroversy" sessions, such as "I'll Remember") that don't seem to fit in its overall scope. The expanded CD import includes many essential bonus tracks which fit the mood of the era, including the scorching b-side "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" and the cautionary lower-class tales "Dead End Street" and "Big Black Smoke", both of which are augmented by the same growing attention to lyrical and instrumental detail that marked the album.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the first in a trio of classics, May 28, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Face to Face (Audio CD)
this album is a flat-out masterpiece! i think of it as the kinks' revolver -- and, trust me, i'm not guilty of hyperbole. it was recorded in the same year (1966) and it has the same dreamy (i.e., druggy) feel of the beatles LP. nearly every song is a daring departure from the earlier, wildly popular kinks sound of you really got me and till the end of the day. even the extra tracks on this english import shine like pure pre-summer of love authentic psychedelic diamonds. do your head a favor and check this out.....P.S.: the kinks next two albums, something else and the villiage green preservation society are -- and it almost scares me to say this -- even better than face to face and are a must own for anyone who claims to care at all about rock n' roll (or whatever their calling it these days).
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
