The Village Green Preservation Society [Box set, Original recording remastered, Special Edition]

The album sounds as great as it ever did, available here in both a mono-version (compete with it's definitive UK track sequencing) and also in a stereo-enhanced release created for US audiences, which was trimmed and re-shuffled and also included the hit-single Days. Both versions are of historical interest, though I'd imagine it's the UK version that will get the most play from fans, as it is this version that most closely resembles Ray Davies' initial creative vision. So, here we had classic single Waterloo Sunset (one of the very best English pop songs of all time, as I'm sure you'd agree) being used as the foundation, on top of which Ray and the Kinks employ elements of 60's chamber-pop (ala Scott & the Walker Bros) as well as Blues guitar rock, Beatles pop (think tracks like Here, There & Everywhere, Paper Back Writer, And Your Bird Can Sing and Eleanor Rigby), psychedelic dream pop (Syd Barrett style) and, of course, that classic Kinks sounds, circa Something Else.

It all comes together to create a great pop sound and a great sense of cohesion, brining to mind images of small villages, local post offices, tree-lined streets, fields, footpaths, china-shops, pubs and obviously, steam-powered trains. All these themes and evocations can be seen in the song titles and are ably set up in the opening title song, in which Ray opines "we are the skyscraper condemnation affiliate, god save Tudor houses, antique tables & billiards", and so on. It's a great introduction to the album, and was the track that really grabbed my attention when heard late one night on a BBC2 radio slot (I can't remember which one)... sounding timeless, retro and really, like nothing else imaginable. There's far too much to go into in the space of this review, with The Village Green Preservation Society being one of those albums that works best with repeat listening, ideally on sunny summer days with the window open and the sounds of nature swirling in. True, not every song is a masterwork, but the majority are, and others becomes stronger with time... with the band instrumentation taking on all manner of different styles and textures, from sea-side show-tunes, carnival harmonising, straight-pop, twee pop & vaudevillian buffoonery all merging with the already eclectic mix.

For me, the best songs are the ones that best capture that evocation of summery innocence undercut by stark melancholy and wayward romanticism. Do You Remember Walter has interweaving vocals from Ray and brother Dave, Picture Book is a close cousin to some-thing like Autumn Almanac, Sitting by the Riverside is gentle and ethereal Beatle pop, Phenomenal Cat pre-empts Belle & Sebastian songs like The Fox in the Snow and Judy & the Dream of Horses, the Village Green acts as a precursor to the kind of hermetically-sealed word-views expressed by Neil Hannon on his records Liberation and Promenade, whilst All of My Friends Were There remains, perhaps, the greatest thing Ray Davies has ever written. For me, each of these tracks could be included in the greatest British pop songs of all time list, as well as furthering the legacy of both the Kinks and this great piece of work. The other songs are all fine, though for me, they are less immediate. Like later records by Pink Floyd, or stuff like Astral Weeks, you really have to listen to this album from beginning to end. And when it's over... go back to the start & listen again.

However, it must be added, that although this new deluxe triple-disk box-set does offer great value, for the most part the extra tracks on disk three propose very little to anyone besides the most devoted of Kinks fans. True, there are some interesting versions of the track, Village Green, the composition that gave birth to this whole concept, but personally speaking, many of these demos and alternative takes pale in comparison to the versions features on the actual finished album. Still, at this price it's hardly anything to complain about and instead, should act as the icing, to a particularly delicious cake.