The Wrap Up

Emily: What a journey this has been. Four albums, many months, and the one genre of classic rock. Well, kind of one genre. If this challenge taught me anything it’s that classic rock is rooted in and is the root of so many different breakout genres of rock music. With the Beatles, you have pop and some psychedelic influences, the Stones have blues, the Who are essentially proto-punk, and the Kinks are garage-ish. Each of these iconic bands and their equally iconic albums has left a lasting legacy on music history through this genre-bending prowess, but also by standing out on their own. Revolver and Aftermath showcase legendary bands at their peak, while Something Else and My Generation reveal burgeoning talent from which the best is yet to come. While I still dispute the validity of these bands as a “Mount Rushmore” of classic rock, each one at the very least deserves its own statue.
Ranking: Revolver; Aftermath; My Generation; Something Else

Matt: Which of the British Invasion albums is the best? My natural inclination would be to pick The Who, but to be realistic, the honor has to go to The Kinks. The Who is one of my all time favorite bands, but they were definitely a live act and a singles band until their third album (The Who Sell Out), certainly their fourth (Tommy). The Beatles are phenomenal and got the ball rolling for every other band in the British Invasion, but in my opinion, The Beatles could no longer maintain the size. The Rolling Stones were always for the “outcast” in the 1960s, as they were very crass and played a bit more on the wild side, as shown with Brian Jones dying in 1969. The Kinks were the perfect mix of the 3 big British bands. They had the grooves that The Stones had, the energy The Who had and the charisma of The Beatles. This album was beautifully written, best represents British culture and music, as well as a panorama of the musical transition of the mid to late 60s.
Ranking: Something Else; Aftermath; My Generation; Revolver

Zack: Let me just start by saying this was much harder than I thought it would be. When we set up this little ranking game, we didn’t establish particularly clear rules, preferring to let each writer figure out how to rank the candidates. Kind of like how the NBA MVP voting works. Of course, even in that arena this system isn’t always that effective, as evidenced by Joe Johnson getting a vote this year. For me, it always kept coming back to one question: am I ranking these four individual albums or the bands as a whole? It couldn’t be the latter, since that just isn’t reasonable. For instance, before we started this blog, I had listened to every Rolling Stones and Who album on the list but not a single one of the Beatles or Kinks (a fact I am rather ashamed to admit). Now, to be fair, I had listened to other Kinks albums and a few songs off the major ones here and there. And, of course, I had heard all of The Beatles big singles. But this can’t replace the intimate relationship I have with The Rolling Stones’ and The Who’s music. At the same time, how can I be expected to pass judgment on the four individual albums without positing Aftermath and My Generation in context with both bands development overall? If you look down to my reviews, you’ll even see I did it there. I mention that Aftermath is my favorite Stones album, as compared to three of my other favorites and I compare the Who of My Generation to The Who who made Tommy. I couldn’t separate my fandom there, so how could I possibly be expected to do so here? If you look at the rankings up top, you’ll probably conclude that I couldn’t do it. To some extent, you may be right. But I did try. At first, I thought about devising a ballot, ranking all four in categories like lyrics, concept, instrumentation, et cetera. But this isn’t a homework assignment, so I’m damn sure not going to put in that kind of effort. So, ultimately, I decided just to rank them in order of which album I enjoyed the most. I listened to all four within a span of 17 hours, and I have to say that I had the most run (re)listening to Aftermath. There’s no elaborate reasoning, no analogies, no backstory, and certainly no ballots. Just a shrug, point, and “that one.” And yes, it did take me over 400 words to get to that conclusion. Bite me.
Ranking: Aftermath; My Generation; Revolver; Something Else

#157: The Kinks - Something Else by the Kinks (1967)

We would like to start by apologizing for the long pause since that intro post. Unfortunately, one of our guest bloggers has run into some technical difficulties in getting us his posts. This has caused a bit of a logjam effect, so we've decided to post what we have now and retroactively go back and add his once we have them. So, without further ado, The Kinks!

Emily: I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical when Zack wanted to include The Kinks on this pantheon of classic rock. It’s not a name you hear very often compared with the epic likes of the Beatles, Stones, and Who, and I had very minimal exposure to the band beyond You Really Got Me and the other album we listened to by them. However, I trusted his musical judgment and agreed to add Something Else into this experiment of classic rock classification. Though I still don’t think the Kinks are quite as on par with the other three bands, I can see (rather, hear) the important influence they had. Some songs on the album have an ethereal, lilting, dreamy quality to them that doesn’t sound very rock but definitely sounds very ‘60s. Most of the second half of the album, however, is essentially proto-garage rock. It was a unique, almost revolutionary sound for the time and influenced one of the most large and important sub-genres of rock music. Now, that accomplishment is worthy of this musical pantheon.

Favorite Tracks: Afternoon Tea; Love Me Till the Sun Shines; Two Sisters

Matt Brune: The Kinks are the quintessential mod band of 1960s London. Though The Kinks would have limited success after the mid-60s, they would remain a fulltime band until 1996, longer than The Who, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles. But, back to 1966: This album has some precious gems amongst it. No Kinks fan could possibly overlook that beauty that is Waterloo Sunset. It is hard for me to pick favorites, as there are no bad songs on this album. It had a brilliant balance of songs that were reminiscent of the initial phases of the British Invasion, as well as the psychedelic tunes that were brewing and would eventually run out the mods. Two Sisters, Situation Vacant, and Waterloo Sunset were, in my opinion, the best tracks, but that is subject to change next I listen to this album.

Favorite Tracks: Waterloo Sunset; Two Sisters; Situation Vacant


Zack: From discussing my Mount Rushmore theory with other human beings, I have concluded that the most controversial of the four is easily the Kinks. It’s certainly understandable. As influential as the Kinks were/are, they’re being compared to the freaking Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Who. Obviously, part of the reason I included them is my previously discussed bias. If you’re too lazy to click the link, then I’ll just say that my dad is a HUGE Kinks/Ray Davies fan and I’ve been listening via osmosis for years. But even I have to admit that the Kinks sort of lack that clearly-identifiable trait that makes them stick out. The Beatles are pop-rock. The Stones are blues-rock. The Who are practically protopunk. The Kinks are…the most likely to write a song called Afternoon Tea? The most difficult to pigeonhole? All four of these bands change their sound to some degree as they progressed, but the Kinks make one of the bigger jumps. It’s easy to forget that they first burst onto the scene with the hard rock classic “You Really Got Me.” Years later, they were writing silly acoustic ditties about trannies. They, of course, had a psychedelic phase as well. If you had to give them a sub-sub-genre, I guess it would be pop-rock, but that seems to only cover about half their repertoire. After much thought, I’ve decided that their claim to fame is that they are the most conceptually sound. Not an easy task when you consider that they’re up against the band that made Tommy and the overall brilliance of the Beatles. But it’s definitely true. The Kinks simply do not make albums as songs; they make them as storybooks. While they definitely got better at it as time progressed, it’s just as true for Something Else, one of their earlier works. Maybe the subject material isn’t as united as you’d expect, but the tone of each song works to reflect a certain mood on the listener. Furthermore, they use the album as a palette to express their unique blend of hard rock, psychedelic, and pop brand. The execution on this technique is near flawless, making it a great example of the Kinks sound, both to someone whose dad has been pumping it into his brain from the time he was young and someone who has never checked them out before.
Favorite Tracks: Waterloo Sunset; Death of a Clown; Afternoon Tea