The Kinks' sixth studio album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society was released in late 1968 in the UK and early 1969 in the USA. Although it was not commercially successful upon release, it received positive reviews in America and has since been considered the Kinks' best album as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. It is a concept album revolving around a fictional town, Village Green. Its main themes lament the modernization of the idealized, old-fashioned small town.
Though certainly not an achievement in the world of literature, Ray Davies's first full-blown concept album is a mastery of pop lyricism--the lyric sheet is thin on imagery but the words are excellent to simply listen to. Nostalgia and idealization are Davies's main vessels and he appropriately uses them to build up his best lyrics "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" and "Big Sky." The eclectic musical influences of the band blend so seamlessly that the combination only appears obvious in retrospect and the production, from the crisp sound to the subtle use of mellotron and orchestration, is simply superb. Two duds--one about a cat and one called "Wicked Annabelle," a clunky number which just don't fit musically--keep it from an A (at least for now) but otherwise a remarkable record and a pleasant trek down a weirdly familiar dirt road. A-
