Muswell Hillbillies [CD]

If most people accept the Beatles and the Stones as the two greatest British bands of the 1960's then who should be 3rd? Many fine contenders exist - The Who, The Small Faces, The Moody Blues to name but three but I feel that accolade firmly rests with the Kinks. As they entered the 1970's they were riding high on the back of the massive hit 'Lola' and had just switched label to RCA. Surely another decade of uninterrupted success lay ahead.

We now know that was not to be, the endless stream of killer singles was to dry up and Ray Davies would take the band in a different direction towards music hall. However before that all happened the band produced one of their finest albums. There is no big hit single here but the songs are perfectly crafted pop/rock confections with a country tinge and a small nod to future music hall adventures to come. The thing is the album works as a whole, their most cohesive work since 'Preservation Green' and perhaps as such is greater than the sum of it's individual songs.

I had had this LP on vinyl from the 70's, and had forgotten all about it. The bizarre thing was that, as soon as the tracks started, I remembered them and pretty much sang along. For that to happen the songs must have made a stronger impression on me than I had thought. And this album is all about the songs: the genius of Ray Davies is that he writes real songs about real things - dieting (twenty years before it became fashionable), alcohol consumption (ditto), and urban dissafection, plus the wonderfully whimsical "Have a Cuppa Tea".

Possibly the most underrated songwriter the UK has ever produced, this 40-year old collection of Ray Davies' songs stands up remarkably well. Thoroughly recommended to anybody who likes to sit and listen to music.

Rating: 7.5/10

Best tracks: `20th Century Man', `Skin and Bone', `Holiday', `Complicated Life', `Alcohol', `Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues'

I would never go as far to call Muswell Hillbillies overrated - that would be crazy. There are loads of people whose knowledge of the Kinks formidable musical legacy doesn't extend much beyond the early hit singles and `Lola', and that's a crying shame. The band deserve to be appreciated for more than just being a second-tier sixties band (existing in the same decade as the Beatles and the Stones was never going to be easy) and their overlooked and misunderstood seventies output needs some serious critical re-evaluation.

Take albums like Everybody's in Show-Biz, the two Preservation albums, Schoolboys in Disgrace, even the ridiculed A Soap Opera - they're all great, fascinating, hugely enjoyable works, but they're usually dismissed as self-indulgent, unfocused, messy, embarrassing (well, to be fair, Preservation Act 2 could have done with some serious tightening), while Muswell Hillbillies gets all the praise from this era. Don't get me wrong, it's a remarkably solid, strong album, with at least three or four Kinks Klassics, but just as the band's other RCA's albums are nowhere near as bad as some critics would have you believe, Muswell Hillbillies is not quite as great as its `lost classic' reputation would have you think it is. It's simply just another very fine album from a band who always were very fine throughout the seventies, end of story. If you want to investigate the Kinks' commercially dark days, I'd recommend the absolutely crazy and delightful A Soap Opera and the wonderfully wasted Everybody's in Show-Biz just as much.

Here the band mix country, rock and music hall with consistently excellent, witty lyrics that cover modern society, booze, tea, prison, paranoia, old age, weight obsession and much more over twelve songs that range from rock solid to just plain rocking. The first half of the album is a consistent delight, occasionally brilliant, while the second half keeps the motor running without ever hitting top gear like before. So what are those Kinks Klassics I mentioned earlier? Well, if Muswell Hillbillies isn't quite a masterpiece all the way through, the first track is definitely is definitely masterly. `20th Century Man' might be the greatest opening song on any Kinks album, it really is that good. The band are tight, the guitars are on fire and Ray Davies gives us a vocal that alternates between sulky withdrawal and throat-shredding passion magnificently. It lasts around six minutes and flies by in a rush. The next best thing here is the wonderfully catchy and wry `Skin and Bone', which has this genius bit of stop-start guitar playing throughout that I can never resist. The song really bounces, the lyrics are terrific, the whole thing's a ball, definitely one of the all-time overlooked gems from this era.

Other gems are the wonderfully wasted and ramshackle `Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues', the woozily comic/tragic `Holiday' (with marvellously drunk-sounding vocals), the bar-room blues of `Alcohol' and the cheery sounding but ultimately grim `Complicated Life', with its misleadingly cheery anthem call of a chorus - everybody now, `life is overraaaateedd!'

The album's second half is perfectly enjoyable, but with the exception of the quietly powerful `Holloway Jail', nothing here matches anything from the first half. `Here Come the People in Grey' is a good, solid rocker, `Oklahoma USA' is a nice ballad, `Muswell Hillbilly' is a fun country pastiche and `Have a Cuppa Tea' is a funny treat. But as fine as these songs are, they do let the album down a little, reducing Muswell Hillbillies from a classic album to merely a very good one. There's a couple of cracking bonus tracks here too - the lean and catchy `Mountain Woman' and the lazy-eyed `Kentucky Moon' are both brilliant extras.