SOMETHING ELSE BY THE KINKS

 

In this month issue of Mojo Magazine, you have a feature on John Cale's favourite records where he cites Something Else as one of the albums he listened to on loop with Stirling Morrisson when the Velvet Underground was playing a residency in Chicago in 1967. That album was the one that got me hooked on The Kinks. When i first heard that intro with  "This is the master ah, nice and sweet" followed by tape loop noises and fafafa's, I said that's it, I've found my favourite band. 

 

The record works as a kind of transition, linking the urban themed songs of "Face to Face" to the pastoral universe of "The Village green preservation society". It showcases the Kinks's only real dip into psychedelia with "Lazy old Sun" (even though they had slightly dabbled with it before with tracks like "Fancy"), a track that with its tempo changes and detuning of guitars mid song gives you the feeling that your witnessing autumn turning into winter. Even though the album features different musical styles (Bossa nova with "No Return", Crooning with "End of the season", R'n'b with "Situation's vacant" and "Funny face"...), it feels as a work to be taken in one piece rather than song by song. The quality of the songwriting is absolutely fantastic with songs that match melody and masterful lyrics ("David Watts", "Two Sisters", "Waterloo Sunset"). You also get

 

Brother Dave Davies is strongly featured compared to previous Kinks albums. Round 1967, Dave was being launched as a solo artist. A solo album was being planned and "Death of a clown" was put out as a solo single (followed by "Love me till the sun shines" and "Susannah's still alive"). Each single charted lower than the previous one and instead of being put out as an album, all of Dave's tracks were scattered as Bsides or ended on the "Great lost kinks album" that came out in 1973. It's amazing how many songs from 1967-1968 period were kept in the vaults, when you add them together you could have had another really good album that would have fitted in between Something Else and VGPS (most of these tracks are on the 3CD reissued version of VGPS).

 

The album is particularly consistent but compared to it,s predecessor "Face to Face", it's maybe a little less memorable. In a way it is a little bit like VGPS, you feel it's good as a whole but apart from "Waterloo Sunset", there's no "great" highlight. If you buy the album nowadays you get a couple of bomuses that weren't on the original LP. High point in them is "Autumn Almanach", fantastic song that went right up to no2 in the charts when it came out (Strangely considered by Ray Davies as a "silly song", he calls Lola "the faggot song"). You also get the flop single "Wonderboy" that was released during the recording of VGPS. A couple of Dave Davies singles complete the picture ("Susannah's still alive" and "Lincoln county") with their respective B-sides (including the rather great "There is no life without your love" that features harpsichord piano parts by Nicky Hopkins).