Customer Reviews

Give the People What They Want

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What genre name should we use to describe "Give the People What They Want"? Heavy new-wave? It's one of those rare '80s artifacts: an album that sounds completely of its time but hasn't aged at all. "Give the People" marries the grittiest music of the Kinks' career to nimble, intelligent songs and some of Ray Davies' sharpest lyrics. Dave Davies' guitar cuts like a buzzsaw, synth sizzles menacingly underneath, and Mick Avory brings the most punishing drum attack of any Kinks album.

Ray's songwriting was on fire. From the surreal punk-hoedown title track to the bleary "Predictable" to the gleefully deviant "Art Lover," his songs are inventive and engaging. Each one is a snapshot of lost characters in bleak situations, a glimmer of hope not appearing until the bouyant closer "Better Things." But despite the gloomy material, the album's cumulative effect is invigorating, thanks to Ray's wit and the band's bracing performances.

"Give the People What They Want" endures as the Kinks' finest album of the 1980s and one of the best hard rock albums of that decade. Don't miss it!

I'd have to agree with the other review. This is the best kinks album, I've had 2 cassettes and the album version and will definatly pick up this new SA CD. I dont know why the kinks havent put around the dial on thier greatest hits albums. I think the other reviewer below Patrick only thought there were two types of music Country and Western But then again he picked it up at a flea market.

While the albums preceding "Give The People What They Want" were both solid, neither "Sleepwalker" nor "Low Budget" prepared us for this. Ray Davies not only brings The Kinks squarely into a new decade, he takes the time to acknowledge his past. "Destroyer" revives the the propulsive two-note drive of "All The Day and All Of The Night," quotes "Lola" and marries it all to Reagan era paranoia that is quintessential Kinks.

Nostalgia aside, Davies usual delivers his typical skewed vision to the instability of relationships ("Yo Yo" and "Add It Up" featuring a then Mrs Davies, Chrissie Hynde), topical; ("Killers Eyes") and statements on the state of rock (the terrific "Around The Dial"). "Give The People What They Want" was a moment of rock and roll acknowledgement; that Davies and company were spiritual forebears to the raving punk rock that was peaking at the time and that The Kinks were legends that necessitated homage.

But homage aside, "GTPWTW" ends with one of the singular most beautiful songs Davies has ever written, "Better Days."

"Here's wishing you the bluest skies and hoping something better comes tomorrow,
Hoping all the verses rhyme and the very best of choruses to
follow all the doubt and sadness.
I know that better things are on their way."

It's delivered in the most humble of voices with a simple melody, without dipping into a maudlin sound. Davies himself recently admitted on an NPR interview that this was one of The Kinks' songs he regrets isn't better known, and frankly, makes me give this CD an essential rating. The following "State of Confusion" yielded the hit ("Come Dancing"), but "Give The People What They Want" is the superior album.

I've in recent years revisited my teenage artistic fascinations, and often found the revisit underwhelming. I bought this album thanks to heavy MTV rotation, and it became a frequent player in my Walkman. I liked it so much, I bought it in CD-format. In my desperate early 90's college days, out of desperation and short-sightedness, I sold the CD. Though, I've never heard a single song played anywhere since then, I regretted that act. I just bought the technology to convert my LPs to mp3, and listening to this album again has brought me such joy. Ray's lyrics, tinged with cynicism (depraved pop culture), filled with empathy(domestic abuse), and intimate mourning (father's loss of a daughter). Oh, by the way, did I mention that they also take the time to ROCK! Replete with buzzing guitars, footballer anthems and rapid fire drum riffs, baby, this album has it all! I don't know what 1-star Patrick is thinking about.

Ray and the boys really deliver on this one. i bought this cassette because of Destroyer on the radio when i was 11 years old and enjoyed it cover to cover then i had to buy it on album too. i bought it on Cd a few years later and it hadn't lost any of its appeal to me. i find as i get older and revisit some things from my youth they often don't hold up but this one feels as fresh and good as it did then.
I admittedly know little of The Kinks other than owning a greatest hits collection and One For The Road so i can't, in good conscience, say this is their best effort since i haven't listened to enough of their others but for me it's great. Ray's lyrics are great covering things from DJ's,serial killing, assassination,Pedophilia,spousal abuse, mental illness amongst others. not your standard rock n roll lyrical fare. Saddens me to realize nearly 30 years later I'm actually living out the lyrics to Predictable.
There's a punk, new wave agressiviness to a lot of the music. i agree with a previous reviewer on Better Things-what a beautiful song. fitting way to end the record. for my money there's not a bad song on this disc.

I really like this era of the Kinks though it may not be as critically regarded as their '66-'71 period. Each record from `Sleepwalker' through `Word of Mouth' has much to recommend and is consistently entertaining. Case in point is 1981's `Give the People What They Want' which as some cynical reviewers have said may directly pander to discriminating American tastes but since I'm an American I think it's great. "Around the Dial" may be the most overlooked song in the entire Ray Davies canon. This LP also came out when I was just entering adolescence and I distinctly remember "Around the Dial" on the radio, so it will always be special to me. "Destroyer" and "Better Things" are the two hit singles and both songs represent a sort of nostalgic view of past Kinks' triumphs with the former being more obvious as it rips the riff from "All Day and All of the Night" while the latter brings back memories of such Davies masterpieces as "Waterloo Sunset" in its gentle reminiscence. The Kinks were riding a popularity high that they had never enjoyed before or since in the late seventies early eighties, especially as an arena concert draw in the States. Much like its predecessor `Low Budget', `GTPWTW' is a very hard rocking affair with production values to match. "Art Lover" may be about pedophilia but the narrator goes to great lengths to tell his audience that he isn't perverted and "Killer's Eyes" humanizes a psychopath; both examples of Ray Davies still not afraid of taking on controversial subjects to create memorable music. `Give the People' is pretty much an enjoyable listen from start to finish or in other words - from `back to front'. Certainly not `predictable' either...

The Kinks were on a roll after "Low Budget" (1979) and the live "One for the Road" (1980) bought them some time for yet another strong studio album. "Give the People What They Want" is all that and a bag of chips as the Kinks cemented their place as punk/heavy metal godfathers. "Give the People..." is chock full of disturbing images of Dead Presidents, pervy pedophiles, spouse abusers and psycho killers amidst some mighty tight rock. "Around the Dial" starts off all hard rock and missing DJs that actually is more poignant today than it was then. "Give the People..." is a nasty double-barrel blast comparing modern society to the Roman Coliseum, even offering up Jack Kennedy and a horrific lyric that's as hard to resist as watching the Zapruder film. "Killer's Eye's" is a chilling lament on what can turn someone down the wrong path. "Predictable" is a wry turn on domestic bliss turning into monotony. "Add It Up" is a great kiss off to a partner who's "made a lot of money, but you've lost me on the way". "Destroyer" revisits Lola but puts the paparazzi/paranoia spin on things. "Yo-Yo" picks back up on the psychological aspect again with how a couple's perspective on the other changes over time. "Back to Front" is time for serious hard rock and it's a bit incongruous next to "Art Lover", the paean to creepy men sitting on park benches watching little girls. The music is so beautiful and the way Ray delivers it so sweetly makes it even more disconcerting and disturbing. "A Little Bit of Abuse" is a great turn on how the abused keep going back to abusers with the great lyric "Some people can be so uncouth, excuse me, is this your tooth?" "Better Things" closes out the disc and it's easily one of the most winning and charming Kinks songs in ages, a fond wish for well.

I've said before "Give the People..." and "Low Budget" are probably the two best recordings the Kinks did in the 70s and 80s and stick by that. "Give the People..." has held up great and the material transcends the time that has elapsed. While many groups of the 60s petered out with sad albums in the 80s (Rolling Stones, The Who) the Kinks kept on rocking and if anything were even better than before.

I wish more people loved the Kinks as I do. Thanks fellow fans. Hey I don't give the albums good ratings because I like the Kinks. I give this album a good rating because I really like the music, period. The only reason I don't rate it higher is because I reserve 5 for a very few nearly perfect albums. The Kinks Low Budget, Jethro Tull's Aqualung to name two. I wonder who agrees with me. Anyway, the song "Give the People what they Want" is a high energy tour de force of pounding rock music and cool lyrics. The other songs are interesting and tell various stories. I just like this. Nothing more to say.

Originally released in August of 1981, "Give The People What They Want" is simply a solid Kinks album, with all of the songs written and produced by the at-the-time trusty Ray Davies.

A bunch of these songs really rock out. "Around The Dial" is a great, catchy tribute to a DJ that seems to no longer be on the air. The highly sarcastic title track, with lyrics about how people crave witnessing sex and violence, starts off with power chords and rapid-fire drumming that really get the blood flowing, and the chorus riff is simply infectious. "Destroyer", left over from the "Low Budget" era, deliberately reuses the "All Day And All Of The Night" riff as the basis for a really fun, amusingly paranoid rocker, and it's got great punchy choruses. The stampeding "Back To Front" is another ultra-exciting blast, with amusing lyrics and great riffs--Dave Davies really shines on this one.

The rocked-up pop-rocker "Add It Up" is catchy too, if a bit rote--it's another one of those Ray songs about how people become blindsided by wealth. The ballad-rocker "A Little Of Abuse" is also strong--its lyrics, about staying with a boyfriend despite his physically abusive behavior, are really on the money and peppered with some dark humor.

Of the more ballad-ish tracks, the best is the gentle "Art Lover", a touching song about a man who yearns for the daughter he is unable to see. The weakest is "Better Things" which is yet another in a string of optimistic album-closers--the song is just too slight and sloppily performed to make much of an impact. But the rest of the tracks are all quite strong--there's the moody "Killer's Eyes"; the pensive 'power ballad' "Yo-Yo"; and the musically upbeat, yet lyrically dour "Predictable" which is one of Ray's trademark examinations of a man stuck in a dreadful day-to-day rut.

So, overall, this is a high quality Kinks record--if you're a fan of the band, I can't see not liking it unless you have a problem with the hard rocking side of the band.

Man, I wore this one out in high school. Moreover, I got to see them tour it, twice! Starts off with the greatest rocker the Kinks ever made and then proceeds to trade off between rockers and more touching songs like "Better Days" and "A Little Abuse." I admit that I am partial to the later Kinks stuff, because that is when I grew up, but to me this was their greatest album.