I am listening to yummy!
I just got my new copy of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (here after VGPS). I gave my dad my old copy for Christmas because it has the "Picture Book" song that's used in all those HP commercials now (I won't talk about the probable irony of that song choice). I ordered this disc BEFORE Christmas, having chosen this version because it's a reissue/remaster with 3 discs instead of one with lots of alternate versions as well as most of the songs from "The Great Lost Kinks Album" (an album that was recorded but never released anywhere). I got an email just after Christmas saying it takes a long time to get anywhere from this island off the coast of Britain, so not to respond that I hadn't received it for 28 business days. So I called last week, and they tell me it shipped on 2/11. Why it took nearly 2 months to get it in the mail is beyond me.
Anyway, I have it now, and, as I said, it is very yummy. I am pleased. Quotes about it.
It "is Ray [Davies, the lead singer/songwriter]'s masterwork. It's his Sgt Pepper, it's what makes him the definitive pop poet laureate" -Pete Townshend (of The Who)
"It's the most successful failure of all time" -Ray Davies himself. (partially because it was a major departure and it was released at the same time as Electric Ladyland and The White Album.
"It's the best album we ever made." Pete Quaife (Kinks bassist)
I concur. It is the quintessential Kinks. They've grown up since recording the frat-rock of You Really Got Me but they haven't lost contact with the real world like the strange concept album period like Preservation or A Soap Opera, and it hasn't gotten bitter like later works UK Jive and Phobia. This album is one of the things that has made me love the Kinks as my favorite band of all time.
