Issue #52 - January/February 2015 - St. VincentThe Kinks
Muswell Hillbillies
Legacy
Jan 08, 2015
Issue #52 - January/February 2015 - St. Vincent
The lofty reputations of two masterful preceding concept albums—1968’s The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society and 1969’s Arthur—have long overshadowed Muswell Hillbillies, originally released to little fanfare in 1971. If Hillbillies’ gifts are modest relative to the sublimely esoteric Village Green or Arthur‘s epic sweep, the record remains a minor classic. It’s both acute exploration of working class London and wildly ironic exercise in genre hopping; sunny ragtime morphs into sly environmental commentary and jaunty New Orleans jazz scores a schizophrenic’s unraveling (though straightforward heartbreaker “Oklahoma U.S.A.” is the true highlight).
A live DVD and bonus cuts, including the awesome “Lavender Lane,” lend added texture to this little world, which was already rich with small-scale tragedies and motley beauty. (www.thekinks.info)
Author rating: 8.5/10
Average reader rating: 10/10
Most Recent
- Rain Age Release New Single Today (News) — Rain Age
- Premiere: Cameron Leahy Shares New Single “From The Infinite” (News) — Cameron Leahy
- Angel Olsen Announces Intimate Solo U.S. Tour Dates for This Fall (News) — Angel Olsen
- of Montreal Shares Video for New Song “Rude Girl on Rotation” (News) — of Montreal
- Belle and Sebastian Share New Song “What Happened to You, Son?” (News) — Belle and Sebastian
Comments
Submit your comment
There are no comments for this entry yet.