The Journey Pt. 2

今年デビューから60周年を迎えるTHE KINKSの記念アンソロジー・シリーズの第2弾!
イギリスの偉大なロックグループであるThe Kinksは、輝かしい音楽の旅の60周年記念を、彼らのキャリアをアンソロジー「The Journey」シリーズで振り返ります!!

今年3月にThe Journey - Part 1("You Really Got Me"、"Waterloo Sunset"、"All Day And All Of The Night"、"Supersonic Rocket Ship"、"Dead End Street"などのヒット曲を収録)がリリースされ、さらにこのバンドによる編纂シリーズとなるThe Journey - Part 2は、2枚組CD、2枚組LPでリリースされる。フィジカルリリース作品にはバンドの写真と、オリジナル・メンバーであるRay Davies、Dave Davies、Mick Avoryによる曲ごとのメモが含まれており、彼らが当時の思い出を共有し、それをThe Kinksの信じられないほどのストーリーに織り交ぜている。

The Journey is a collection of tracks chosen by The Kinks' Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Mick Avory that reflect the trials and tribulations of their journey through life together as a band since 1963. The albums are split into themed sections created by The Kinks.

The Kinks continue their series of plus-size overview anthologies with 2023s The Journey, Pt. 2, in which the great band takes a look back at its career and the themes and ideas behind its songs. While this album is sequenced thematically rather than chronologically, for the most part its devoted to the period when their string of brilliant but commercially overlooked albums like 1967s Something Else by the Kinks and 1969s Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) was broken by the smash hit "Lola in 1970. After signing a new record deal with RCA, Ray Davies next occupied himself with overblown rock operas such as 1973s Preservation: Act 1, 1974s Preservation: Act 2, and 1974s The Kinks Present a Soap Opera, which derailed the momentum theyd gained. While there are plenty of great singles and superb album tracks included in The Journey, Pt. 2, most fans and critics regard the bands (or at least Ray Davies) fascination with unsubtle narrative pieces in the 70s as the nadir of their catalog, and its hard not to feel like Ray wanted to use this compilation as an opportunity to prompt a re-examination of those albums. This set cherry-picks most of the best songs from the two Preservation albums and Soap Opera, and while "Scrapheap City," "Money Talks," and "Where Are They Now" are better than most folks remember, their inclusion makes it obvious that they were written as part of a larger narrative, and their insistence on establishing ongoing characters weighs them down. That said, any album that includes "David Watts," "See My Friends," "A Well Respected Man," and of course "Lola," is going to be worth hearing, and the remastering makes the tracks sound as good as they deserve. A few relevant Dave Davies solo sides are also included (including "Susannahs Still Alive" and "Lincoln County"), and three previously unheard tracks from a 1975 concert show that the Kinks still knew how to deliver on-stage even if their albums of the period were lackluster. (The set also includes song-by-song notes from Ray Davies, Dave Davies, and Mick Avory, though they usually seem to be going out of their way not to reveal anything interesting.) A large portion of The Journey, Pt. 2 is dedicated to exploring a fallow period in the story of a truly great band, but the Kinks were truly great, and even their lesser material was smarter, more interesting, and more ambitious than what nearly all their peers were doing, and that is made clear on this album. ~ Mark Deming