Opinz

Ray Davies – Kinks Choral Collection

It’s a concept so out there it has to work – Ray Davies leading the Crouch End Festival Chorus in versions of Kinks (and Davies solo) music arranged specifically for a choir, and it sounds exactly like that – a choir singing Kinks songs…but for those imagining a junior choir painfully and cluelessly hacking through “Ice Ice Baby” or a high school marching band butchering “Black Dog” beyond recognition, keep in mind that this is a choir with actual talent, and while it is inaccurate to call these “updated” versions of Kinks hits, it certainly is a fresh take on the band (and made even more of a curiosity  considering the Kinks contributions to punk and heavy metal).
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Tags: choral, ray davies, the kinks

Various Artists – War Child Presents Heroes

War Child’s newest compilation – benefiting children affected by war – is structured around a premise that legendary artists pick modern day artists to cover their classics: Beck does a rousing, bluesy rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”, Lily Allen does a soft and ironically sweet cover of The Clash’s “Paper Planes”-sampled “Straight to Hell”,  Hot Chip dance-pops up Joy Division’s “Transmission, and TV on the Radio manages to make the first good cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” that this reviewer has ever heard; despite a few low points, (The Kinks clearly picked The Kooks to cover “Victoria” because of the similar names, and the results are quite boring, and Peaches’ can’t hold a candle to the badassness of Iggy Pop’s “Search and Destroy”) the whole thing paints a more promising portrait of the state of popular music then you’re likely to get from most sources and besides, once again, it’s all for a good cause so you should buy it anyway.

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Tags: adam cohen, beck, blondie, bob dylan, brian wilson, bruce springsteen, compilations, david bowie, duffy, elbow, elvis costello, estelle, franz ferdinand, hot chip, iggy pop, joy division, leonard cohen, lily allen, paul mccartney, peaches, roxy music, rufus wainwright, scissor sisters, stevie wonder, the clash, the hold steady, the kinks, the kooks, the like, the ramones, the stooges, tv on the radio, u2, war child, yeah yeah yeahs

The Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies

The Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies

November 24, 1971
RCA
Rating: 4.99 / 5

The Music Rag One Sentence Review: You will not find a more perfect blend of country, pop, and rock than Muswell Hillbillies; Ray Davies has created what is close to the perfect album, with a stripped-down-but-not-simplistic sound, the best lyrics he’s ever writen, and matching sound to subject sublimely, doing an even better job than the supremely underrated The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society at throwing back to the old old school.

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Tags: dave davies, ray davies, rca, the kinks