The Kinks – Something Else By The Kinks

The numbering on almost all of the Spanish Zafiro listings is totally erroneous.. They show the number "NSPL 18193" which is a Pye records numbering, and is NOT printed anywhere on any of these Zafiro issues. What is correct is ZL 500 for LPs. and CAZ 500 for cassettes, and, furthermore, these are the ONLY numbers that appear on any of the Spanish releases.

Something Else by The Kinks is the Kinks moving further and further away from their contemporaries.
Ray wasn't tied to the flippant, shallow, sixties culture, he had a vision that looked deeper and reflected more personally the things going on in the world.
This album is yet another masterpiece, and inspired bands as far afield as the Velvet Underground, The Jam, Madness ...

This album is not initially an easy listen in some ways. It is less directed towards making the pop charts of the day happy, and goes a little deeper .... with a few of listens this album reveals itself to be something different ... it certainly is something else...

We have the wonderful David Watts bringing us into the album with the schoolboy jealousy and rivalry, and in a manner that easily accessible, with the style and sound hooking us from the very start.
Then we have Dave showing his maturity as a songwriter, with his Dylanesque Death Of A Clown... but even though the stylistic inspiration for the song is quite obvious, Dave reveals himself to have a firm grasp on his writing here, and the track is a real winner.
Two Sisters is a remarkably beautiful song, again rivalry is the theme, and Ray writes a song so far beyond his years... a young man of 23 years perfectly exploring the emotional world of two sisters, one married and living the life of a housewife and mother, the other single and free, living a frivolous life of parties and fun .. a remarkable song for a young man in the sixties to write. Particularly when one considers most songs of the era lean towards lust and misogyny.

We have a series of wonderful songs that crescendo into the magnificent Waterloo Sunset ... truly one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and again like most Kinks songs, there is so much going on under the surface, that a cursory listen just won't do.

I highly recommend the 2 cd deluxe edition with the extra tracks.... This album moves on another step from Face To Face, and the band should have been revered for their forward thinking, independent thinking and sheer brilliance of these albums.

An essential album for any serious fan of music from the sixties

Why this is so expensive , huh ? 650 Euro ? Seriously ?