Give the People What They Want [SACD]

What genre name should we use to describe "Give the People What They Want"? Heavy new-wave? It's one of those rare '80s artifacts: an album that sounds completely of its time but hasn't aged at all. "Give the People" marries the grittiest music of the Kinks' career to nimble, intelligent songs and some of Ray Davies' sharpest lyrics. Dave Davies' guitar cuts like a buzzsaw, synth sizzles menacingly underneath, and Mick Avory brings the most punishing drum attack of any Kinks album.

Ray's songwriting was on fire. From the surreal punk-hoedown title track to the bleary "Predictable" to the gleefully deviant "Art Lover," his songs are inventive and engaging. Each one is a snapshot of lost characters in bleak situations, a glimmer of hope not appearing until the bouyant closer "Better Things." But despite the gloomy material, the album's cumulative effect is invigorating, thanks to Ray's wit and the band's bracing performances.

"Give the People What They Want" endures as the Kinks' finest album of the 1980s and one of the best hard rock albums of that decade. Don't miss it!

I'd have to agree with the other review. This is the best kinks album, I've had 2 cassettes and the album version and will definatly pick up this new SA CD. I dont know why the kinks havent put around the dial on thier greatest hits albums. I think the other reviewer below Patrick only thought there were two types of music Country and Western But then again he picked it up at a flea market.

While the albums preceding "Give The People What They Want" were both solid, neither "Sleepwalker" nor "Low Budget" prepared us for this. Ray Davies not only brings The Kinks squarely into a new decade, he takes the time to acknowledge his past. "Destroyer" revives the the propulsive two-note drive of "All The Day and All Of The Night," quotes "Lola" and marries it all to Reagan era paranoia that is quintessential Kinks.

Nostalgia aside, Davies usual delivers his typical skewed vision to the instability of relationships ("Yo Yo" and "Add It Up" featuring a then Mrs Davies, Chrissie Hynde), topical; ("Killers Eyes") and statements on the state of rock (the terrific "Around The Dial"). "Give The People What They Want" was a moment of rock and roll acknowledgement; that Davies and company were spiritual forebears to the raving punk rock that was peaking at the time and that The Kinks were legends that necessitated homage.

But homage aside, "GTPWTW" ends with one of the singular most beautiful songs Davies has ever written, "Better Days."

"Here's wishing you the bluest skies and hoping something better comes tomorrow,
Hoping all the verses rhyme and the very best of choruses to
follow all the doubt and sadness.
I know that better things are on their way."

It's delivered in the most humble of voices with a simple melody, without dipping into a maudlin sound. Davies himself recently admitted on an NPR interview that this was one of The Kinks' songs he regrets isn't better known, and frankly, makes me give this CD an essential rating. The following "State of Confusion" yielded the hit ("Come Dancing"), but "Give The People What They Want" is the superior album.