The Kinks roared onto the scene amidst the British Invasion, kick-started by The Beatles in what is the second great invasion of the US after the War of 1812. The Kinks were louder, noisier, and backed by the bright pop mind of Ray Davies. Even with this tempting rock image, the Kinks found themselves lagging behind The Beatles and the blues-oriented Rolling Stones - made even worse, a group by the name of The Who had just released a debut single with "I Can't Explain," inspired by the noisy and aggressive sound of The Kinks, and in time they would steal their thunder. Their second album was quick to capitalize on the group's increasing stake in rock off of newer hits like "All Day and All of the Night" and the chart-topping "Tired of Waiting for You," with the album being rush-recorded after a tour in Asia. The result left the band (mainly Ray Davies) unsatisfied, but to the credit of Kinda Kinks, this is a massive improvement over their spotty debut.
The immediate first kudos that I want to bestow upon Kinda Kinks is the fact that, even just performance-wise, this is leagues above the inconsistent and sometimes slapdash sounding debut record. The group sounds proper tight on a lot of these numbers, such as the soaring "Come on Now," which is a great and energetic rock number, even if it's one that I don't have a whole lot of desire to hear again. "You Shouldn't Be Sad" also demonstrates their increasing skill as musicians, pulling out clean harmonies amidst clean guitar punches and Mick Avory's simple-yet-effective drumming, perfectly melded for the Kinks sound. Speaking of the Kinks sound, they also mix things up a whole lot more on this record than on their debut. A few songs have a pure acoustic sound to them, such as "Nothin' In the World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl," which instrumentally has little outside of Ray Davies' acoustic guitar playing and soft Dave Davies flourishes. It's an excellent track, and one that pretty easily takes home the gold as the best song on the record.
Now, even with all this in mind, there's something The Kinks can't do - covers. Now, in comparison to Kinks where half the record was covers, only two songs on this are covers, but they are easily the worst songs here (surprise, surprise). "Naggin' Woman" is a sleepy blues number, complete with a lackluster and even somewhat annoying Dave Davies vocal - surprising, as moments like "Got My Feet on the Ground" showcase that he can, in fact, sing well. Side B opener, a rendition of "Dancing in the Street," shows that, if nothing else, The Who were the superior group when it came to covering Motown - at least they had energy. Some songs are fine, but ultimately it's the delivery or performance that kind of shoots them in the foot for me - "Don't Ever Change" is a fine slower moment on the album, but I'm not huge on Ray Davies' rushed vocal delivery style on these kind of songs. It's the same issue I had with "Stop Your Sobbing" in essence, albeit I still think that "Don't Ever Change" is a little more interesting. Luckily, most of the major issues with their debut are ironed out on this release. Even the flow of the album is better, moving from song to song in a really natural and filling way - ending the album on "Something Better Beginning" was a brilliant choice.
The Kinks were able to take the good ideas from their debut album, and tighten and expand those ideas on Kinda Kinks. I'm sure that band feels otherwise, but I largely feel like this is a major improvement over what they had done on their debut - more energetic, varied, and a far tighter sound throughout than anything on their debut. A far better encapsulation of their early days - take this and the "You Really Got Me" single, and you've got yourself textbook early Kinks.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Kinda Kinks.
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