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.
Best moments: From the stubborn defiance of “20th Century Man” to the slurring mopery of “Alcohol”, the wistful backwoods twang of “Uncle Son” to the barebones country-blues of “Holloway Jail” – Muswell Hillbillies is full of them.
A lone and insignificant weak moment: The only weak spot is “Oklahoma USA”, and only because, unlike every other song on the album, it is a comparitively bland and generic ballad that based on sound alone almost doesn’t fit.
1998 CD reissue: The remastered version features two similarly excellent bonus tracks, including “Mountain Woman”, which could have easily been substituted for “Oklahoma USA”