Customer Reviews

Something Else By The Kinks

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In a three-year span (10/66-10/69), the Kinks succeeded in releasing four classic albums: Face To Face, The Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur, and the crown jewel Something Else. Unfortunately this creative peak of Ray Davies and Co. coincided with problems with a U.S. musicians' union and the band did not perform in the United States during this time. [Note: During this three-year period only two Kinks songs charted in the U.S.--"Dead End Street" (#73) and "Mr. Pleasant" (#80).]

And in the fickle world of rock 'n' roll, the Kinks never really regained their momentum with their fans. And that is our loss. While I still enjoy going back and listening to the early sixties Kinks' hits like "You Really Got Me" and "All Day And All of the Night," it was only after Ray Davies began writing more introspective and personal songs that the band set themselves apart from all of the other British Invasion Bands.

Something Else brims with such songs. The wistfullness of "David Watts," the touching "Two Sisters," the emotional "Death of a Clown," and perhaps Ray's best song ever "Waterloo Sunset."

Back in the Sixties when I was a teenager, my allowance barely allowed me to keep up with purchasing all of the Beatles' output. But when I came across a cutout version of Something Else on vinyl for 99 cents, surely the gods were smiling on me that day. What a terrific album! I, of course, was hearing all of these songs for the first time since the radio long ago quit playing the Kinks. This has got to be one of the best Kinks albums no one has ever heard--it peaked at #153 on the album charts.

Now on CD we get the added treat of eight(!) bonus tracks, including the UK singles "Autumn Almanac," "Wonderboy" and "Susannah's Still Alive," along with a couple tracks that I don't think have shown up before on a Kinks' CD or vinyl album before: "Act Nice and Gentle" and Dave Davies' "Lincoln County." The other three bonus tracks are "There's No Life Without Love" from The Great Lost Kinks Album, "Polly" from The Kinks Kronikles and an unreleased stereo alternate take of "Lazy Old Sun."

The Kinks' late 60s and early 70s output deserves a closer look by a wider audience. After you pick up on this and the other three albums mentioned above, move on to Lola vs Powerman and the Moneygoround and Muswell Hillbillies and find out why Ray Davies should be mentioned in the same breath as John Lennon, Paul McCartney or Brian Wilson.

This truly is an incredible album that rivals Village Green and Face To Face in my opinion. I believe what others think to be a mastering problem with this reissue, is actually the fact that the tracks are in mono. There is no spaciousness to the music as a result of this. To prove my point, the remastering of the first disc is the same on the new deluxe edition of VGPS, but is in stereo, and sounds incredible. Why this album is not presented in stereo is beyond me. But fortunately I have a mono movie surround mode on my receiver that can help to overcome this dilemma until they do.

Instead just go for the standard Warner Brothers version (which warrants FIVE stars). The reason I say this is because the comments others have made about the terrible remastering job on this album are all correct. I had downloaded MP3s of almost the entire album before I purchased it, and I own the Kink Kronikles, which contains eight of the songs on this disc if you include the extra tracks. In all cases, with the possible exception of "David Watts," the songs on this CD sounded inferior to the other versions I had. Somehow, this version sounds dull and sterile compared with other the old Warner Brothers CD, with particular sabatage done to "Lazy Old Sun," "Waterloo Sunset" and "Love Me Till the Sun Shines." Furthermore, on top of the other negative developments just listed, this CD contains all mono tracks! There's a stereo version out there -- why not use it?

And don't let the bonus tracks trick you into buying this version, either. To be sure, there are some great songs added to the end of this album, but the best of them are on the Kink Kronikles, which you probably own already if you're looking at this review (if not you ought to buy it). As far as the others, "Lincoln County," "Act Nice and Gentle" and "There's No Life Without Love" are all OK, but none is outstanding enough to warrant the purchase of this CD. And the stereo take of "Lazy Old Sun" sounds basically the same as the regular version, there's just an extra vocal track.

This is one of the four-in-a-row run of unblemished Kinks albums of the late '60's. Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green and Arthur. This was the creative pinnacle of their career. They still produced good (and certainly more profitable) songs into the 70's but never as solid as this. When Ray Davies started writing about the woes of being a rock star on Lola vs Powerman it started fraying around the edges.
This UK produced remaster is awesome. They chose to follow Ray Davies desire and release them in the original (and preferred) mono. Like The Beatles and their other British contemporaries, The Kinks didn't give much thought to the stereo mixes before late 68 since stereo ownership was so limited in the UK. They lavished all of their attention on the mono mix.
Only the reissue of Village Green included the stereo mix and, by comparison, the mono blows it away!
A previous reviewer complained that they didn't have the 8 bonus tracks on the disc. If that happens then you got the wrong reissue. This one definitely has the bonus tracks.
Make sure you get the import edition. The Reprise U.S. edition is NOT remastered and sounds crummy.

Reading all of these reviews can be confusing. I was lucky enough to get an English mono copy of this album when it first came out, thanks to my wonderful nan, who sent it over from the jolly old UK. THIS IS THE MONO VERSION, and if you are okay hearing the album without the stereo separation, this is about as good as it gets. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE REMASTERING!! And now this is getting to be a hard to find CD. Note: this review is about the English 'Castle/Essential' version from 1998. I don't know what version is on the 'Sanctuary' 2004 version. The American versions are usually stereo, which is also good.

The US stereo budget Warner release is nice...but so is this,...there is an added punch in mono...the bonus tracks are great for the completist...listen to them both back to back and you won't be wasting your time...especially for those fine liner notes and photos gracing all these Pye remasters...

Kinks 1967 Classic. Filled with great songs, Ray Davies' songwriting in top.

Great bonus tracks; mostly singles tracks from 1967.

"David Watts", "Death of a Clown" and "Waterloo Sunset" are well-knowns classics that were included on the original 1967 PYE album. But there's much more here; the moving "Two Sisters" has always been a favourite of mine.

Dave Davies contributes 5 songs to this album-reissue ( including 3 among the bonus tracks ) , and they're all very strong. He was planning to do a solo album around this time which unfortunately never came to be. Some songs were released as singles such as "Lincoln County" and "There's No Life Without Love".

3 more single hits, "Autumn Almanac", "Wonderboy" and "Susannah's Still Alive", are included as bonus-tracks, as well as the terrific B-side "Polly"

Although not conceptually tied together like the albums surrounding it ("Face To Face", "Village Green", "Arthur"),
"Something Else" stands as an extremely solid and diverse
platter from a group who was reaching its artistic peak just
as its album sales swandived into oblivion. Musically, it is a combination of the class-conscious Kinks of '66, the perfect
pop group of '67 and the nostaglia-crazed band of '68, and in
that sense it offers a little bit of everything; some have
claimed that the album seems a little *too* piecemeal, but
the quality of the songwriting is so consistent that there seems
little need to complain.

Lyrically, Ray Davies pushed his songs to a new level, with
the wry wit and graceful observations of masterpieces "David Watts", "Two Sisters", "Situation Vacant", "Lazy Old Sun" and the all-time classic "Waterloo Sunset". The arrangements--a baroque harpsichord here, an acoustic bossa-nova, psychedelic horns, music hall, Irish jig, organ jam--are uniquely appropriate for each and the production is cleaner than the curiously muddy mix on "Village Green". Brother Dave weighs in with another classic single, the Dylanesque "Death Of A Clown", as well as the Swinging London rocker "Love Me Till The Sun Shines" (an even better, faster version appears on the BBC sessions disc). There are a couple of tracks which tread water like "Tin Soldier Man" and "Funny Face", but even these are listenable. Overall, the album provides the template for an entirely original, uniquely British brand of Brit-pop that would later be resuscitated in the 90s on Blur albums like "Parklife". It is curious that an album which featured two top 5 hits charted so low in its homeland when originally released, although today it is a recognized masterpiece and stands equal to the other major works released during that heady year.

The import CD contains the non-LP singles from the period, including another charming top 5 hit "Autumn Almanac" and the
deceptively simple "Wonderboy" (which was purportedly John Lennon's favorite Kinks song). Several Dave Davies solo singles
are collected here as well, although the one LP outtake--a stereo version of "Lazy Old Sun"--sounds pretty much identical to the mono. Actually, the whole album should've been remastered in stereo; it is the first Kinks album that sounded better in that format although the CD remaster series does not
feature it until the following album "Village Green". In spite of this quibble, the album is absolutely brilliant and a must own for any fan of The Kinks, 60s rock, Britpop or just plain great music in general.

Being a big kinks fan, I think every song on this booger has got "the stuff". But I must admit, the first time I ever listened to it, the song that really reached out and grabbed me by the nads was "Love Me Til The Sun Shines"... It's great! Even non-Kinks fans, listening to the album straight through as you should, get strange looks on their faces when the song comes on. "Who are we listenin' to?" They will say. "This is pretty cool!" And I agree. The only thing is, whoever remastered this disc got it all flubbed up as far as I'm concerned. No longer does the song jump out of the speakers at you at the start...it fades in!? I don't know whoses bright idea that was...That's why I give it four stars.

Finally, SOMETHING ELSE gets the respect it deserves. Now recognized as one of the best Kinks(and 60's)albums, SOMETHING ELSE gets deluxe treatment with extensive notes on the making of the album, info on the recording of the songs and a lot of bonus tracks. However, there are a few minor problems with this reissue.

The most interesting bonus tracks are a couple of unreleased Ray & Dave Davies tunes tacked on at the end of the cd and the final appearence of some of Dave's solo singles(which were, afterall, really recorded by the Kinks). The sound varies from decent to so-so. What's odd is the fact that Castle opted to release the mono version vs. the stereo version of the album. Perhaps Ray and Dave consider this the definitive version. Either way, the Japanese stereo import sounds superior to both this and the American edition issued by Reprise. One can't argue with the bonus tracks, though as many of them are minor classics (including a clutch of Dave's "solo" singles).

The liner notes and photos are outstanding (although I have to disagree with some of Pete Doggett's observations). SE is every bit the classic that Village Green and FTF are and, although there is a bit of filler, the bulk of the album has stood the test of time very well.