Customer Reviews

Word of Mouth

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4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
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How utterly frustrating and baffling it is to me when people try to say that Word of Mouth is just "OK." I am only twenty years old, so I am most certainly no Kink apologist from the 60's. I am, however, a kid who really does know his music, and a kid who loves great rock n roll. I know what great rock n roll is. I own about 50 Dylan albums, 30 Neil Youngs, many Tom Petty albums, Stones albums, Beatles albums. let's face it, if it wasn't born in the 60's, it just isn't really rock n roll, but rather an imitation or step-child of the genre's glory days.

On that note, I'd like to just ask: who in the world can honestly claim that they expected the Kinks to be consistently releasing albums in the early 1980's? The only man who thought it was possible for the Kinks-a 60's hard rock band whose most memorable music was recorded within a five-year span-to even garner anything close to that sort of recognition in a decade that seemed to make a point of forgetting rock music's past, was Ray Davies. Let's think, where were others in 1984? Neil Young was recording electronica and rockabilly records that sold about as well as the last Billy Idol album, Dylan was releasing born-again Christian rock albums and singing in a slurred, alcoholic drawl that seemed to alienate just about every one of his fans, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison were long-dead and forgotten, and The Rolling Stones were not just a shell of themselves, they were downright embarrassing to watch. Then there were the Kinks, and this brilliant, yes, I said brilliant, rock album of 1984.

There is absolutely nothing hyperbolic about saying that the Kinks did everything right on this record, they did everything within their power to deliver the most stunning collection of rock singles possible. They recruited producers who were able to coat the Kinks in an 80's-like rock sound while not overwhelming the record with the type of slick production of that era which is so laughable to look back on in the year 2000.

The Kinks have been around for nearly four decades now, so it is safe to say that they have compiled a list of about 20 to 25 phenomenal songs. The lyrically and musically masterful "Do it Again" as well as the gorgeous, ethereal rock ballad penned by Dave, "Living on a Thin Line," belong on that list. That is not just me axaggerating, that is unarguable fact. "Living on a Thin Line" is Dave Davies's best song since "Strangers," and he hasn't written anything since that even approaches that song's delicate power. The fun doesn't end there. In fact, the fun never ends on this album. The opening riffs on the title track conjure up memories of Dave's vicious guitar work of the Kinks mid-60's glory. "Sold Me Out" is a punk anthem whose chords and chorus sound too familiar to ignore. Dave's singing on "Guilty" is a bit too rough for my ears, but his guitar work, again, is nothing short of glorious. The album almost crumbles under its own weight with the aimless "Too Hot" and the hopelessly bland "Missing Persons," but then rebounds tenaciously with the golden single, "Summer's Gone," and the gorgeous closer, "Going Solo."

What more do you want from a band that was supposed to be forgotten by 1970? If you told The Kinks own record label in 1967 that they would be putting out albums in 1984, you would have been ushered out and sent off to the nearest mental ward. No one expected this band to endure so remarkably. "Low Budget" offers some great singles," "State of Confusion" contains some of the best rock n roll of the Kink's career, but no Kinks album since "Lola..." offers such a consistent thrust of really great, accessible rock music. This is a downright classic that every Kinks fan needs to own, and those among you who own hundreds of CDs and think your collection is respectable without owning "Word of Mouth" are purely delusional. This record is as close to flawless as the Kinks ever allowed themselves to be. Any debate as to that fact is purely false.

Seriously. This is one of the least attractive album covers I've ever seen. Why would anyone pick this up unless they were a Kinks fan already? Major misstep by the Brothers Davies.

The record itself is good, if not great. It boasts Dave Davie's second best song, "Living on a Thin Line," a paen to the middle class and poor stuck in an economy that increasingly favors the rich, and "Good Day," a bit of Ray Davies whimsy that is clever fun until the biting bridge ("So have a good day today, because it may be your last, make it last..."). Not to mention a bunch of good-but-typical Ray Davies social observations ("Too Hot," "Do It Again," "Sold Me Out," et al).

Musically, it's early '80's Kinks. Smooth, textured, with the most passion coming through in the vocals rather than the music. It's a bit keyboard heavy, but that's ok. I personally prefer a rawer sound, but that's me.

It's definitely worth your time if you're a budding fan, still worthy if you like good songwriting, but ultimately expendable if you're looking for something that will jump-start your psyche.

To be fair, I think that Ray Davies was trying to get on the radio, the bland medium that we all listen to too often (and I was a DJ for 7 years, so I know whereof I speak).

If you look past the slickness and the worst album cover in my collection, you'll find a nice bunch of songs. A couple are special, one or two are expendable, but this is mostly a nice little collection by a band pushing its way through middle age.

All that said, I still like it and it's a fun little rocker of an album...good pop sometimes, a couple of bits of should-have-been-rawer nastiness, but still pretty damn groovy. A worthy effort.

In the 1980s, the Kinks became a singles band, even if many of the singles were not huge hits. Starting with the breakthrough album "State of Confusion," they surrounded two or three of these singles with a lot of (sometimes interesting) filler material. "Word of Mouth" is no exception to this pattern. It features the fine would-be hits "Do it Again," "Good Day," and "Living on a Thin Line," the latter written by guitarist Dave Davies rather than his brother Ray. The rest of the songs are neither truly memorable nor truly awful. Overall, this is a solid album from the Kink Katalog.

Of all their 70's and 80's work Word Of Mouth and State Of Confusion both stand up well to their classic work. Do It Again opens with the same crashing guitar chord as The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, but ventures into a completely different direction. There are witty musical references to The Beatles throughout the album both lyrically and melodically.

That said, this album would be great without the Beatles references. The songwriting is consistent and strong. Dave turns in two of his best songs for the album. Living On A Thin Line was originally written for Ray to sing, but Dave, in excellent voice (and singing in a lower register) does a terrific job. Kudos guys! Thanks for making this available again!

The "Word Of Mouth" era was a tension-filled period for the Davies brothers Ray and Dave. Ray was coping with his breakup from Chrissie Hynde, Dave was greatly frustrated at the lack of promotion by Warner Brothers for his 1983 solo album "Chosen People", the relationship between Ray and Dave was on shaky ground, and Dave was growing increasingly intolerant of drummer Mick Avory.

Three of the songs here--"Sold Me Out", "Missing Persons", and "Going Solo"--were written by Ray for the film "Return To Waterloo" (which Ray also directed and wrote the script for), and each of them would subsequently reappear on its soundtrack album the following year (with "Sold Me Out" appearing in an edited version); these are the three songs on "Word Of Mouth" that Mick Avory appears on, and not so coincidentally, Dave Davies wasn't present when the basic tracks for these were laid down and it seems that he doesn't play on them at all. With the relationship between Mick and Dave having come to a head, Avory was fired from the band and replaced by Bob Henrit who drums on all of the remaining tracks. Henrit's arrival to the Kinks reunited him with bass guitarist Jim Rodford who had formerly been band members in the group Argent.

"Word Of Mouth" was originally released in November of 1984, and it's extremely good. This time around, the track listing includes two Dave Davies-penned songs, and Dave's also credited as the album's associate producer. Of course, Ray is credited as the main producer and wrote the rest of the songs.

There's lots of great stuff here. The rocked-up pop-rocker "Do It Again" is undeniably crafty and catchy, with an introductory ringing guitar chord a la "A Hard Day's Night", and a chorus melody that's highly reminiscent of Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open The Door". The title track is an infectious rocker with a highly-distorted opening riff that's rather reminiscent of the Stones' "Start Me Up". "Good Day" is a splendidly tuneful pop-rock tune with an upbeat feel to the music and an optimistic chorus that contrasts with the bleak lyrics on the verses, and notice Ray's superbly elegant vocal inflections on the verses. The main album portion ends with the wonderfully catchy and bittersweet pop-rocker "Going Solo". The main song portion of "Massive Reductions" totally kicks--a cathartic, synth-spiked rocker with a "Summertime Blues"-ish riff about being laid off due to decreasing budgets and increased technology. Both of Dave's songs are gems as well--"Living On A Thin Line" is a wistful, anthemic ballad with an understated lead vocal from Dave and terrific counterpoint backing vocals from Ray on the choruses; and "Guilty" is an exciting fast-paced rocker stuffed with ultra-catchy hooks, with cautionary lyrics that condemn greedy power hogs and plead for an increase in the consciousness of people.

Unfortunately, the album is problematic enough that it just can't quite be ranked as a masterpiece. The fast-paced punky rocker "Sold Me Out" is fun, but somewhat thin. The aforementioned "Massive Reductions" is frustratingly watered-down, with an overlong sound collage-ish intro and an even draggier coda. "Too Hot", with its sarcastic yuppie workout-themed lyrics and a music hall-tinged arrangement a la "Come Dancing", is annoying--it feels forced, with strained attempts at humor. The ballad "Missing Persons" has a tediously disjointed arrangement, and beyond that, it's too melodramatic and underdeveloped. "Summer's Gone" is another botch job--the music is disappointingly slight, with a sugary party-time feel it, and the reflective lyrics are badly out of place in this context.

I also kind of question the very idea of including the three songs written for "Return To Waterloo"--I mean, they were written specifically for that project, and it's easy to see how they fit the thematics of the film. The film was totally Ray's baby, and the soundtrack album would be credited to him alone opposed to The Kinks. When you take the "Word Of Mouth" and "Return To Waterloo" albums in conjunction with one another, plus the closeness of their respective original release dates, the redundancy of songs is kind of head-scratching, especially considering that the versions are all either identical or only mildly different. Maybe Ray was uncertain if the "Return To Waterloo" soundtrack was even going to see a proper release, and in that case, I can understand, especially in the case of "Going Solo" which admittedly does make for a great album closer for "Word Of Mouth".

The bonus tracks on the Velvel reissues from 1999 and 2004 add virtually nothing to the proceedings--we get an "extended edit" of "Good Day" which gets dragged out with a needlessly extended fade, and an insignificant "extended edit" of "Summer's Gone".

All in all, "Word Of Mouth", despite the gripes, is often terrific--it's another must-have for any Kinks fan.

(P.S. One gripe I have with the 1999 Velvel reissue is with the printed lyrics for the song "Guilty" which, appallingly, contain a handful of bracketed question marks and even go so far as to mockingly print the words "mumble mumble" at one point. Geez, couldn't they have just had Dave clarify the lyrics in question??)

"Word of Mouth" is a great album (the last great Kinks album, in fact) that for some reason is consistently overlooked in favor of the Kinks' other Arista efforts. Sure, there are a couple of throwaways here ("Too Hot," "Massive Reductions"), but the highlights more than make up for them. "Do It Again," "Good Day," and "Summer's Gone" are some of Ray's very best '80s compositions, and "Living on a Thin Line" is, in this Kinks fanatic's opinion, the best song Dave Davies ever wrote.

The album gels together wonderfully, and it has an upbeat, summery mood in stark contrast to the hyper-bleakness of "State of Confusion" and "Give the People What They Want." If you are new to the Kinks' '80s output and have been scared away from "Word of Mouth" by bad word of mouth, I'd urge you to give it a chance. It's one of the most underrated albums in the Kinks kanon.

word of mouth-orig-released in 1984 seemed to have been overlooked. As many other kinks albums-there were songs played but never heard of again. With the reissue(velvel) word of mouth (kinks) stands to hold a fair amount of ground. The title track"Do it again" showcases a brilliant piece of craftsmanship-both lyrically and musically. and ray davies leads the chant "here we go round again" playing homage to their rebounding sucesses and hardships. Dave Davies shows he too has "done it again" giving us listeners "living on a thin line" a very british theme with a kinks sound. Word of mouth is a very good cd..er album. the kinks also added a new line up-drummer bob Henrit. Klassic Kinks!

A year or so into my Nitty Gritty record cleaning machine revitalization of my long neglected lp collection , I rediscovered this gem. It really is one of the most overlooked lps in the Kinks Kataloge. I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't listened to this in forever and a day. Call meself a Kinks fan.....It really is one of the last great Kinks lps. $$$ well spent then and now.

"Word of Mouth", which is probably one of the most overlooked albums by the Kinks, was recorded at a very difficult time for the band. Both Ray and Dave were very much involved with their own solo projects - "Return to Waterloo" and "Chosen People" - and the band-members had personal disagreements which led the the firing of original drummer Mike Avory during the recordings.

Surprisingly they managed to come up with one of their most satisfying albums of the 1980's.

First impression may be that the album comes close in feel and mood to their previous 3 albums; hard-rocking with more or less desillusioned lyrics, blended with a few beautiful / melodic ballads.

The opener, the single "Do it Again", shows the rocking side of the Kinks, but still melodic and clearly among the most viable of Kinks rockers of this period. "Summers Gone" belongs to the same category, perhaps even better. Great lyrics and vocals from Ray Davies. "Too Hot" is also great - perhaps a little too much like "Come Dancing" from their previous album.

The next single "Good Day" shows the softer side of the band. Catchy tune with dark desillusioned lyrics, clearly written at a time when the nuclear threat was very much present. Dave's "Living on a Thin Line" is more or less of the same theme. Slightly folkish tune, and one of Dave's strongest contributions to a Kinks album. His rocker "Gulity" is also a fine track.

3 songs come from Ray's "Return to Waterloo" soundtrack. The heartfelt "Missing Persons", and the extremely catchy "Going Solo" both describe the difficulties of accepting your children growing up to live their own lives. Both favourites of mine. "Sold Me Out" is as close to "punk" music as the Kinks ever came.

The title track and the re-recording of "Massive Reductions" are the weakest tracks on the album, both quite forgettable.

The two bonus-tracks are extended versions of "Good Day" and "Summer's Gone" - a typical feature of that period was to release maxi-singles with extended mixes of album tracks. I remember buying both "Good Day" and "Do it Again" as maxi-singles at the time - great covers, both shown in the booklet.

I have been waiting forever for this CD to come out (I've nearly worn out the LP!!) Includes great classics like "Do it Again" and "Living on a Thin Line". Though "Sold Me Out" is my favorite, a great rockin' track, this album contains some awesome softer moments, such as "Missing Persons". FANTASTIC!!!