Arthur (or The Decline and Fall of the British Empire)

I'm generally a fan of concept albums and this is one of the best. "Village Green" usually gets most of the attention in this regard, perhaps because it came first, but I think "Arthur" is much more focused and holds together more consistently as an album. Some of the songs are almost mini-operas or song suites on their own, particularly "Shangri-La" and "Mr. Churchill Says." The former being my favorite track on the album by far. But the entire album flows effortlessly. Only weak spot might be that the jam at the end of "Australia" goes a bit too long.

Victoooooooria! Victoooooooria! Victoria. Victoria.

I love the Kinks. I've always loved their songs, but their back-catalogue was always a bit intimidating, so I never really ventured into it beyond the (admittedly still quite large selection of) greatest hits. So thank you 1001 albums generator for making me do just that!

There's lots of really good songs in here, with tons of personality and charm. Everything is top class - songwriting, musicality, instrumentation, the sheer variation on display.

I am loving the brass on here! I'm loving how upbeat it is! I am loving the extended instrumental moments! I'm loving the boldness, the chucking lots of different ideas at it, the range of instrumentation! The different styles! The lyrical content!

They're just an all-round class act.

Finally stopped to listen The Kinks. Nice finding.

"Give the scum a gun and make the bugger fight. And be sure to have deserters shot on sight. If he dies we’ll send a medal to his wife.”

For some reason I've struggled to describe the album or what I think about it. It's excitingly novel in a lot of ways but also chaotic and seemingly unconcerned with its moderately shabby presentation.

What's clear is this is an album where the lyrics and the topics they cover are meant to take front stage. The album is lyrically sharp and poignant at points ('Some Mother's Son') and tongue-in-cheek at others ('Yes sir, No Sir', 'Platic Man'), which makes it hard to figure out how to take other tracks ('Drivin').

For their part, the arrangements are floating along merrily, but they feel so far in the background that it's hard to focus on them long enough (over the singers) to gather a clear impression. Tracks like 'Mindless Child of Motherhood' and 'The Man He Weeps Tonight', give some of the clearest pictures of the groups' cohesion and power.

It is a powerful and ironically complex and it's one that I'm definitely going to be coming back to again and again.

This is cool as a museum piece. Like looking at a fossil of rock and picking out elements in it that would be refined over and over. The songs themselves are fine but I'm pretty full of this kind of sound. the fact that its in mono is also a bummer. Shangri-La is a good track. This would be a fun concert.

I know the kinks hits, but first time listening to this album. This is a masterpiece brilliant musical story telling through out the album, up there with the best concept albums.

The Kinks are just fun, and this album is no exception.

An absolute classic rock album in the vein of The Beatles. Dig the lyricism and the instrumentation. '69 was such a great year for music.