Say Something About Give The People What They Want.

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like proust and his fucking cookie, some songs have the ability to yank me from the here and now and remind me of how pitiful i once was.today in the car they played "destroyer" on klassic rok radio and i thought about how much i used to love this album. every couple of years i'll throw it on.i still like it a bunch. in 1980, when i was 12, i bought One For The Road. that was my introduction to the kinks. i devoured that album. played it for months on end. i was already getting into the "nu-rock" as it was being called on my local college radio station, but i hadn't abandoned the oldies crowd entirely yet. so, i was really excited that my new favorite band was putting out a new album in 1981 and it had just enough of the "nu" sounds on it to keep me in Kinksland. I loved it. It was even kinda creepy! and pretty punk rock as well. ("look ma, there goes a piece of the president's brain!" I loved that shit.) I tried to stay faithful by buying State Of Confusion and Word Of Mouth but by then i had fallen too far down the newwavepunk rabbit-hole and they seemed like unfaithful reproductions of the album i loved (haven't heard them since then though. i always mean to grab some copies out of the dollar bins, but i chicken out every time.). plus, "Come Dancing" was all over MTV forever and it kinda bugged me.It just wasn't very cool, you know? plus plus, in the meantime, i had bought some 60's Kinks stuff and that was a whole other ball of wax that i became fascinated by. I searched for a thread but couldn't find one. does anyone still listen to this album? and what are people's thoughts on the band's MTV-era trilogy?

1. Around The Dial
2. Give The People What They Want
3. Killer's Eyes
4. Predictable
5. Add It Up
6. Destroyer
7. Yo-Yo
8. Back To Front
9. Art Lover
10. A Little Bit Of Abuse
11. Better Things

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

Far and away my favorite Kinks album. "Yo-Yo" is amazing, as is "A Little Bit of Abuse". "Destroyer" hasn't aged all that well to my ears, but I still digs it.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

I bought this the same day I picked up Concrete by 999 and Ghost in the Machine by the Police, at long, long gone Gimbel's on E.86th Street.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

"Art Lover" is also great.

"She can't see me staring at her/because I'm always wearing shades"

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

"Back to Front and I'm all uptight"

"All right?"

"ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT!"

"Are you listening?"

"NO!"

"Well, then, we'll have to do it all over again!"

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:06 (twenty years ago)

a middling hard-rock album at best, BUT "better things" is a pretty great pop song that comes out of absolutely nowhere to end it with a sweet, sentimental bang. the last really good kinks single.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

http://kinks.it.rit.edu/lyrics/regular/gtpwtw/lrg-gtpwtw.jpg http://www.musicfolio.com/modernrock/killingjoke_debut.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

"Do It Again" was a good single!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

Actually, "Come Dancing" and "State of Confusion" were, too.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

those were all ordinary-t0-slightly-above-average pop singles -- also-rans in the kinks katalog. "better things" had a hint of real magic.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 14 March 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

"Around the Dial" is one of my favorite album-opening tracks.

― BlastsOfStatic (BlastsofStatic), Monday, 14 March 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, actually I think you're shortchanging "Come Dancing," which has a bit of structural exquisite-ness, I think. (I mean, it's not "Waterloo Sunset," but it's not an average pop song either.) And the harmonic structure of "State of Confusion" isn't average, either.

I know what you're saying about the hint of magic in "Better Things" that's not there in either of those two songs, but I think it's there in "Do It Again" -- maybe even more so -- because "Do It Again" is just such an archetypal thing of joy.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 14 March 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

I had no idea "Better Things" was that late-era. I only know it from the Fountains of Wayne version on the Ryko Kinks tribute.

― Huk-L, Monday, 14 March 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

fcc otm. For not-quite-klassik Kinks, I prefer the uneven albums before their commercial revival, albums like Misfits and Sleepwalker.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 14 March 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

"come dancing" always makes me smile (in a GOOD way) whenever i heard it. ergo, it is classic.

and "do it again" is classic just for how it evokes "a hard day's night" (with that opening TWAAAAAAAAANG!) that was the last classic kinks song IMHO.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 14 March 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

"Better Things" is a great song.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Monday, 14 March 2005 20:05 (twenty years ago)

For not-quite-klassik Kinks, I prefer the uneven albums before their commercial revival, albums like Misfits and Sleepwalker.

i think that "jukebox music" is their best song from that period's kink records. and "(wish i could fly like) superman" (the kinks trying to sound like giorgio moroder).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 14 March 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

I caught the GTPWTW tour. Great show; it cost seven bucks or something. Years later I read Dave Davies' book and found out that he had some weird spiritual experience onstage there. Awesome!

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 14 March 2005 23:49 (twenty years ago)

Thanks, Scott. Hadn't thought about that concert in years.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 14 March 2005 23:50 (twenty years ago)

Either the title's wrong or I'm not people.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

Terrific terrific album, from the front cover with a paranoid Ray looking back over his shoulder at the mob/past/fear/uncertainty/doubt catching up to him to "Better Things" as the one of the great all-time Kinks tracks.

The video for "Predicable" is worth seeking out too.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 02:04 (twenty years ago)

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