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Product Description
Remastered reissue of the killer 1966 album. Includes 7 BONUS TRACKS.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
1966 was a great year, possibly the greatest year, in British Pop music. The Beatles released 'Revolver', The Rolling Stones released 'Aftermath', The Who released 'A Quick One', and the Kinks released 'Face To Face'. 'Face To Face' is one of the finest albums of the era, and showcases in Ray Davies a songwriter of genuine class and distinction. Ray always moaned that their record label at the time, Pye, never gave the band a real budget to fulfil his recording ambitions, but, in truth, I don't really see how the recordings could have been bettered. By '66, the band had outgrown the riff monster sound of their early 'You Really Got Me' era, and Ray had started in earnest to write his very British songs around the time of 1965's 'The Kink Kontroversy'. On 'Face To Face', Ray turns his acerbic eye on a variety of targets and subject matter, and hits bulleyes all the time. The opener 'Party Line' is a song that couldn't get written now. Who shares a party line in the digital age? It's a rambunctious opener, though, with a typically energetic Dave Davies lead vocal. Elsewhere, 'Too Much On My Mind' is a reference to Ray's nervous breakdown, where he actually had to quit a tour - and came back sporting a moustache (which didn't last very long), but is one of the finest songs about mental illness ever written. 'Rosy Won't You Please Come Home' is a heartfelt plea to Ray's sister, who had emigrated to Australia, but who in the lyric is transposed as having joined "the upper classes". Then there's 'Sunny Afternoon', a UK number 1 the week before England won the World Cup, and one of the greatest songs of the era (check out the promo clip they made on a snowy Hampstead Heath!). The entire album, and the non-album bonus tracks, is a multi-faceted gem of a record that sounds wonderful still, four and a half decades after its inception.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. J. Gould
Format:Audio CD
After a couple of years of singles chart succsess, Ray Davis longed for a change in direction in The Kinks sound, and this album is where he honed his song writing into what was to become one of the most respected in pop history. Gone are the rip roaring hard rock riffs of singles such as "You Really Got Me", this album supplies the listener with a mostly acoustic guitar driven sound, where the emphasis is on the lyrics rather than the music. But thankfully the music doesn't suffer. It's as enguaging as ever, with clever melodies interwoven through out. Unlike the album cover suggests, the tracks are not particulary pyschedelic. Most have dark content (well for the 60's anyway) such as "Rainy Day In June", which starts off with a thunderclap and then proceeds to discribe a sunny day turning grey. However the best track on the album is of course "Sunny Afternoon".
It's hard to see why this album didn't sell. Perhapse it is down to the sub-par production, or the aquired taste of Ray Davis' singing, or the fact that it came out around the same time as The Beatles fantastic "Revolver", but still this is a must buy for music fans.
It's hard to see why this album didn't sell. Perhapse it is down to the sub-par production, or the aquired taste of Ray Davis' singing, or the fact that it came out around the same time as The Beatles fantastic "Revolver", but still this is a must buy for music fans.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not A Great Album Perhaps, But It Contains A Number Of Indispensible Tracks
27 May 2007
By Jervis
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Audio CD
'Face To Face' is sometimes acknowledged as a Kinks classic yet i believe overall it's a rather average album which is well below the standards set by the Kinks contempories (for example The Beatles, Stones, Bob Dylan) in that same time period (1966) both in songwriting, use of instumentation and production. However, there are indications on a number of tracks that the Kinks were really advancing lyrically and occasionally musically with a sustained english flavour to many of their songs in addition to an occasional use of unusual instruments like the harpsicord.
'Rosie Won't You Please Come Home' is an autobiographical song which relates to Ray and Dave's sister's emigration to Australia and has some aristocratic references alongside some inspired use of the harpsicord and a bass refrain which so effectively runs in unison with Ray's vocal. This song alongside the popular single 'Sunny Afternoon' and the Herman's Hermits covered 'Dandy' are as enjoyable as any song from that era in addition to being occasionally inspiring in their use of instrumentation. 'Party Line', 'Too Much On My Mind' and 'Rainy Day In June' aren't too far behind.
However, many of the other tracks are mainly pretty uninspiring which often amount to little more than filler (A House In The Country', 'You're Looking Fine' etc).
There are a number of bonus tracks to this edition of 'Face To Face', however, which in the main are far stronger than many of the album's original tracks. 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else', 'Dead End Street' and 'Mr Pleasant' are truly outstanding and make up a little for some of the filler tracks.
Generally 'Face To Face' has a number of fine moments that find the Kinks achieving greatness yet these moments fail to be sustained long enough to make 'Face To Face' stand as a great album in its own right. However, the Kinks best moments here are as essential as anything in the Kinks catalogue and with the addition of the bonus tracks 'Face To Face' becomes a highly desirable Kinks purchase.
Worth 3.5 stars.
'Rosie Won't You Please Come Home' is an autobiographical song which relates to Ray and Dave's sister's emigration to Australia and has some aristocratic references alongside some inspired use of the harpsicord and a bass refrain which so effectively runs in unison with Ray's vocal. This song alongside the popular single 'Sunny Afternoon' and the Herman's Hermits covered 'Dandy' are as enjoyable as any song from that era in addition to being occasionally inspiring in their use of instrumentation. 'Party Line', 'Too Much On My Mind' and 'Rainy Day In June' aren't too far behind.
However, many of the other tracks are mainly pretty uninspiring which often amount to little more than filler (A House In The Country', 'You're Looking Fine' etc).
There are a number of bonus tracks to this edition of 'Face To Face', however, which in the main are far stronger than many of the album's original tracks. 'I'm Not Like Everybody Else', 'Dead End Street' and 'Mr Pleasant' are truly outstanding and make up a little for some of the filler tracks.
Generally 'Face To Face' has a number of fine moments that find the Kinks achieving greatness yet these moments fail to be sustained long enough to make 'Face To Face' stand as a great album in its own right. However, the Kinks best moments here are as essential as anything in the Kinks catalogue and with the addition of the bonus tracks 'Face To Face' becomes a highly desirable Kinks purchase.
Worth 3.5 stars.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
the best Kinks ever
It is difficult to select one album from my ever favorite band, but if I was forced to, it would have to be this. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nikolaos Oikonomidis
5.0 out of 5 stars
A neglected classic
In many ways my favourite Kinks albums , it has perhaps stood the test of time better than later more criticaly acclaimed albums such as Arthur and Village Green simply because the... Read more
Published on 17 May 2010 by I. Stuart
2.0 out of 5 stars
kinks of old
Unless you are a hard-core Kinks fan leave it alone. I love the old stuff so it works for me. Someone who just follows the radio stuff will be disappointed.
Published on 31 Mar 2010 by James Terpenning
5.0 out of 5 stars
Party Line
Released in 1966 on Pye Records, and produced by the great Shel Talmy, Face to Face by The Kinks represents a breakthrough for their output. Read more
Published on 26 May 2009 by The Mancunian Candidate
4.0 out of 5 stars
An overlooked gem
How do you sum up the appeal of this album? The production is often murky and at times the guitars sound out of tune. Read more
Published on 17 July 2005 by goldgreen
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Kinks, and maybe the first 'concept' rock album.
Some folks say the Kinks created the 'concept album' on Face To Face: there's a unity to the sound of the album, every song is is an original, and nearly every song is a wry take... Read more
Published on 14 April 2005
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not Like ANYBODY Else
After 40 years of listening to the Kinks, it's a little weird to see someone write that they were trying to fit in --- conform. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2005 by David Tomlinson
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bonus Material's better than the album
The Kinks were always a very unique band and had a very unique sound. Here however, I think they were guilty of trying to fit in with the other bands of the time here which is... Read more
Published on 2 Feb 2005 by Fugsy
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