Your Top 5 is spot on in my book ! I am weak at rankings. I would need a couple of weeks for listening and study to do justice to my own personal Kinks ranking ! Therefore.. I like yours Richard . 😊
Great ranking! Glad to see some of the RCA concept albums rated high on your list. I did a Kinks ranking on my channel last year and your bottom 10 are almost identical to mine. God save the Kinks!
I enjoy your ranking videos so much Richard. This one prompted me to Google some of their albums. I was shocked to discover that this quintessentially British band had almost no success in the UK charts. Unbelievable really.
I’m a huge Kinks fan but I never understood the love for VGPS. It has grown on me a bit but not enough to crack my top 10. Something Else and Lola would definitely be near the top for me.
Excellent ranking video Richard. My very first Kinks album was Soap Opera, I loved it then and still do - feel it deserves more love than it gets. Well done...Pete
That was great Richard & a lot of surprises. I have all of the 60’s & early 70’s albums, but have been informed by PC31 that I should get those late 70’s RCA “rock” albums too. Cheers….Ben
@@CookieMusic43 Ok now that you two, who’s music taste I very much respect (except Abba 😂) have given the double thumbs up, I will definitely endeavour to hunt those Kinks albums down. Cheers…Ben
Nice collection there, Mr Richard. Not many people come close to a complete set, I know I don't. There really are times when I feel that the Kinks are perhaps best band of all time. Good stuff
Interesting ranking. My personal favorite is ‘Give The People What They Want.’ You’re right, it did well in the US. American radio gave The Kinks another chance after Van Halen’s successful cover in ‘78. I like GTPWTW because, to me, it sounds like what some great, American underground rock started to sound like by the mid 80s (i.e. The Replacements). Very underrated.
Great rundown Richard. My favourite line in this video was 'They're good songs, but they're about food'. I must admit I struggle a bit with The Kinks albums. There's so many of them and most of the post-RCA ones (I really like Word of Mouth' though) blur together for me - it doesn't matter how many times I hear them I can never remember which songs are from which albums or even how they go until I actually hear them. The RCA albums are easier to absorb and I'm generally a fan of them. I agree that 'Soap Opera' is underrated - I remember Joe at Tastes Like Music putting that one at the bottom of his list(?!) and I couldn't for the life of me work out why. By the way, I think you meant 'communist', not 'socialist' when you described a dystopia with curfews and no TV (so speaks the grizzled old socialist, lol).
I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed the Arista & beyond years even though most fell in the bottom half. Soap Opera is often slated unfortunately and I don't understand why.
My favorite band, and I agree - even the worst album is good. I think Soap Opera is a great album. I'm glad you ranked Preservation higher than most people - it is underrated.
I like the song “State Of Confusion” but maybe because I really liked the video. “Celluloid Heroes” is my favorite Kinks song. Great ranking. Arthur may be my favorite but I love your number one as well.
Im one of the very few kinks fans who loves the 80s albums UK jive, word of mouth, state of confusion and the very underrated think visual are fantastic albums in my opinion also im an 80s child so i came to know the kinks through their music videos on MTV
@@CookieMusic43 think visual has some great songs that have grown on me welcome to sleazy town, how are you, the video shop and the title track are some of my choice cuts
Thank god The Kinks couldn't get visas to travel to the US in 1968, otherwise we would never have had the brilliance of 'Village Green'..100% agree with your choice as top spot, and it is one of a handful of classic albums that genuinely deserves all the praise heaped upon it..' I Remember Walter' is my all time favourite Kinks song. Great to hear you appraise some of their 80s output that I'm unfamiliar with Richard, those that you've given kudos to I will endeavour to check out. For me, ' Percy' would have been higher, whimsical and quirky Davies at his best but also some genuinely poignant moments. I too love Celuloid Dreams from ' Showbiz' ..I've recently bought Muswell Hillbillies and still getting into it, so for me it's not yet a top flight Kinks album. ' Something Else' is magnificent and on some days could be on par with ' Village Green'...Two Sisters is a wonderfully thinly veiled confessional about Rays' relationship with Dave. I could go on and on here Richard, but you've done a sterling job as always and I'll leave it at that..hugely enjoyable video on one if of my all time favourite bands.
Brilliant video Richard! I always maintain that if a George Martin, Gus Dudgeon or Visconti type producer had produced their albums, they would have been more successful. I found myself nodding along to most of what you said, and had to titter at the ‘come to Daddy and I’ll give you some spangles’, that’s always made me cringe as well 😁 Good to see your love for the concept/ theatrical phase, to be honest I still struggle with it apart from Schoolboys. I must re listen in depth. Since I did my ranking, and I really appreciate your shout out that was very kind of you, my order has inevitably changed. But I think my top three are still Muswell, Village with Arthur at the top, although Lola has moved up for me. I also really love the Arista (Clive Davis), Sleepwalker and Misfits, I play them a lot. Great ranking Richard with a very worthy top five. Now let’s go and find some Spangles 😂 Mike🎸
The irony is Mike, I used to HATE Spangles apart from the lemonade ones lol. I think you could be right about the producer but it still baffles how the singles did so well and the albums completely bombed
@@CookieMusic43 you’re right Richard. I guess the strength of writing with those 60’s singles was just exceptional. Another thought, imagine if Days and Wonderboy had been included on Village Green…wow, it would have been even better! But I guess same argument for Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane regarding Sgt. Pepper. But it’s nice to speculate 😁 Mike🎸
@@pc31thevinylpoliceman Funny you say that Mike, I had the same thought but forgot to mention it but the age old question would be, what do you take off? Even Polly would have been a great addition. Come to think of it, some of The Kinks B sides were just so good like Act Nice & Gentle, Big Black Smoke, Berkley Mews, Mr Pleasant etc etc
I mostly know Kinks' hits and a few others. I once read someone's opinion that Preservation Society is the greatest album of all time. Saw them in concert in the early eighties.
Hi, I'm Chris, I share an email address with my wife. I am 72 years old and have just discovered how great the Kinks are in the last few months. I had the Golden Hour of the Kinks on vinyl and the Ultimate Collection on CD so I knew the famous tracks but I have now bought CDs of all 24 albums. Being a Beatles, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young fan in my younger days I never realised that Ray Davies wrote so many great songs. I would have put the stadium rock albums much higher than you, indeed every album from Sleepwalker on is a stonker. But of course Village Green must come first. Thanks for a terrific video, even if you are wrong about Art Lover.
Thanks for the great comment Chris. I'm delighted you are now aware of the jewels in Ray Davies' songwriting catalogue. He is definitely one of the best songriters of the 20th century.
Great ranking. Ranking The Kinks is tough. I love the Arista years more than many people. I'll do my Kinks ranking soon over on my channel (Amity Tracks).
Great job Richard, loved your rankings. You talk about a lot of albums that I'm not familiar with, but what they did between 1966-71 is phenomenal. 1. Lola 2. Village Green 3. Something Else 4. Arthur 5. Face To Face 6. Muswell Hillbillies
Him Lola vs the powerman is my favourite Kinks album, followed by Arthur then face to face and muswell hillbillies, Village Green 5th, I also like Misfit and sleepwalker a lot. I'm not a great fan of something else apart from david watts and waterloo bridge
George, The Kink Kronikles is a brilliant place to start. It's U.S. double album that features A sides, non album B sides and LP tracks. You'll be surprised how good the B sides are. It should be easily found in the states, as it received an RSD release a couple of years ago.
Hi Richard, i think i only own four or five Kinks album and i know i should own more so at least i have a starting point for the ones i do not own thanks to your video. did you ever get the "americana" albums Ray Davies released a few years ago? Regards Lloyd
@@jamesgriffithsmusic Hi James, actually my account got hacked and someone deleted not only my videos/YT account but email addresses around three weeks ago and i cannot recover them sadly. i have also just moved house, changed job etc etc, so lots of changes all at the same time. i have a new TH-cam account and will start posting videos again shortly mate. - Lloyd.
Soap Opera is my least favourite. I will put that out there right away. Its boring and unmemorable in my opinion. You cant stop the music is the only song I really remember. I think Give The People what they want and Everybody’s in Showbiz are way better for me. I’d have them both top 10 or close to it. State Of Confusion id have higher too. You had that one surprisingly low. But this is your video not mine and I still respect it. My favourite is Lola V Powerman then the underrated Muswell Hillbillies.
I just can’t stand the 80’s Les Paul arena rock Dave Davies heavy guitar sound, no matter how good the songs. Compared with the Jimmy Page Tele sound on the early singles, there’s no comparison.
Your Top 5 is spot on in my book ! I am weak at rankings. I would need a couple of weeks for listening and study to do justice to my own personal Kinks ranking ! Therefore.. I like yours Richard . 😊
Thanks JT
Great ranking! Glad to see some of the RCA concept albums rated high on your list. I did a Kinks ranking on my channel last year and your bottom 10 are almost identical to mine. God save the Kinks!
Thanks, I'll check out your ranking now
Excellent rankings. Love the 60s and early 70s Kinks albums the most. Arthur and Lola are my 2 favourites.
Thanks Larry, I can't argue with your two choices
I enjoy your ranking videos so much Richard. This one prompted me to Google some of their albums. I was shocked to discover that this quintessentially British band had almost no success in the UK charts. Unbelievable really.
Thanks Paul, it is inexplicable why only the very early 60's albums had chart success
The kinks are my favourite band too. They have to many classic albums and songs and continue to influence and inspire bands today
100% agree!
I’m a huge Kinks fan but I never understood the love for VGPS. It has grown on me a bit but not enough to crack my top 10. Something Else and Lola would definitely be near the top for me.
Excellent ranking video Richard. My very first Kinks album was Soap Opera, I loved it then and still do - feel it deserves more love than it gets. Well done...Pete
Thanks Pete, Soap Opera is probably their most underrated album.
That was great Richard & a lot of surprises. I have all of the 60’s & early 70’s albums, but have been informed by PC31 that I should get those late 70’s RCA “rock” albums too. Cheers….Ben
I agree with Mike, especially Misfits & Low Budget. Hope you are keeping well, Ben
@@CookieMusic43 Ok now that you two, who’s music taste I very much respect (except Abba 😂) have given the double thumbs up, I will definitely endeavour to hunt those Kinks albums down. Cheers…Ben
@@benrankins4446 and if you don't like them, blame Mike lol
@@CookieMusic43 😂
Nice collection there, Mr Richard. Not many people come close to a complete set, I know I don't. There really are times when I feel that the Kinks are perhaps best band of all time. Good stuff
Thanks Adam
Interesting ranking. My personal favorite is ‘Give The People What They Want.’ You’re right, it did well in the US. American radio gave The Kinks another chance after Van Halen’s successful cover in ‘78. I like GTPWTW because, to me, it sounds like what some great, American underground rock started to sound like by the mid 80s (i.e. The Replacements). Very underrated.
It was great to see them get success in America around that time
I agree. Very good album. He had it too low
Great rundown Richard. My favourite line in this video was 'They're good songs, but they're about food'. I must admit I struggle a bit with The Kinks albums. There's so many of them and most of the post-RCA ones (I really like Word of Mouth' though) blur together for me - it doesn't matter how many times I hear them I can never remember which songs are from which albums or even how they go until I actually hear them. The RCA albums are easier to absorb and I'm generally a fan of them. I agree that 'Soap Opera' is underrated - I remember Joe at Tastes Like Music putting that one at the bottom of his list(?!) and I couldn't for the life of me work out why. By the way, I think you meant 'communist', not 'socialist' when you described a dystopia with curfews and no TV (so speaks the grizzled old socialist, lol).
I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed the Arista & beyond years even though most fell in the bottom half. Soap Opera is often slated unfortunately and I don't understand why.
Hi Richard - Strongly agree 👍 with you're # 1 & glad to see Misfits & Low Budget so highly ranked. A proper British band they are !
I agree with you 100%, David!
Les Kinks sont les Kinks rien de comparable.
Excellents pour toujours.
☀️☀️☀️☀️
Very good Richard. I am not familiar with many of these, but I will keep this list in mind.
Thanks Bryan
My favorite band, and I agree - even the worst album is good. I think Soap Opera is a great album. I'm glad you ranked Preservation higher than most people - it is underrated.
Cheers Kris and thanks for stopping by.
I like the song “State Of Confusion” but maybe because I really liked the video. “Celluloid Heroes” is my favorite Kinks song. Great ranking. Arthur may be my favorite but I love your number one as well.
Thanks Randy
Great ranking, Richard. I only have a couple of CDs but I love their style. Need to add to the collection.
Thanks Peter
Im one of the very few kinks fans who loves the 80s albums UK jive, word of mouth, state of confusion and the very underrated think visual are fantastic albums in my opinion also im an 80s child so i came to know the kinks through their music videos on MTV
Hi George, I admit that I appreciate the 80's albums much more than I used to. I'm surprised how good I thought Think Visual was this time around.
@@CookieMusic43 think visual has some great songs that have grown on me welcome to sleazy town, how are you, the video shop and the title track are some of my choice cuts
Thank god The Kinks couldn't get visas to travel to the US in 1968, otherwise we would never have had the brilliance of 'Village Green'..100% agree with your choice as top spot, and it is one of a handful of classic albums that genuinely deserves all the praise heaped upon it..' I Remember Walter' is my all time favourite Kinks song.
Great to hear you appraise some of their 80s output that I'm unfamiliar with Richard, those that you've given kudos to I will endeavour to check out.
For me, ' Percy' would have been higher, whimsical and quirky Davies at his best but also some genuinely poignant moments.
I too love Celuloid Dreams from ' Showbiz' ..I've recently bought Muswell Hillbillies and still getting into it, so for me it's not yet a top flight Kinks album.
' Something Else' is magnificent and on some days could be on par with ' Village Green'...Two Sisters is a wonderfully thinly veiled confessional about Rays' relationship with Dave.
I could go on and on here Richard, but you've done a sterling job as always and I'll leave it at that..hugely enjoyable video on one if of my all time favourite bands.
Thank you so much for the detailed comment Rob, I really appreciate it!
Good documentary
Brilliant video Richard! I always maintain that if a George Martin, Gus Dudgeon or Visconti type producer had produced their albums, they would have been more successful. I found myself nodding along to most of what you said, and had to titter at the ‘come to Daddy and I’ll give you some spangles’, that’s always made me cringe as well 😁 Good to see your love for the concept/ theatrical phase, to be honest I still struggle with it apart from Schoolboys. I must re listen in depth. Since I did my ranking, and I really appreciate your shout out that was very kind of you, my order has inevitably changed. But I think my top three are still Muswell, Village with Arthur at the top, although Lola has moved up for me. I also really love the Arista (Clive Davis), Sleepwalker and Misfits, I play them a lot. Great ranking Richard with a very worthy top five. Now let’s go and find some Spangles 😂 Mike🎸
The irony is Mike, I used to HATE Spangles apart from the lemonade ones lol. I think you could be right about the producer but it still baffles how the singles did so well and the albums completely bombed
@@CookieMusic43 you’re right Richard. I guess the strength of writing with those 60’s singles was just exceptional. Another thought, imagine if Days and Wonderboy had been included on Village Green…wow, it would have been even better! But I guess same argument for Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane regarding Sgt. Pepper. But it’s nice to speculate 😁 Mike🎸
@@pc31thevinylpoliceman Funny you say that Mike, I had the same thought but forgot to mention it but the age old question would be, what do you take off? Even Polly would have been a great addition. Come to think of it, some of The Kinks B sides were just so good like Act Nice & Gentle, Big Black Smoke, Berkley Mews, Mr Pleasant etc etc
I mostly know Kinks' hits and a few others. I once read someone's opinion that Preservation Society is the greatest album of all time. Saw them in concert in the early eighties.
They were my very first concert Bill. I saw them in 1981 and they blew me away
Hi, I'm Chris, I share an email address with my wife. I am 72 years old and have just discovered how great the Kinks are in the last few months. I had the Golden Hour of the Kinks on vinyl and the Ultimate Collection on CD so I knew the famous tracks but I have now bought CDs of all 24 albums. Being a Beatles, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young fan in my younger days I never realised that Ray Davies wrote so many great songs. I would have put the stadium rock albums much higher than you, indeed every album from Sleepwalker on is a stonker. But of course Village Green must come first. Thanks for a terrific video, even if you are wrong about Art Lover.
Thanks for the great comment Chris. I'm delighted you are now aware of the jewels in Ray Davies' songwriting catalogue. He is definitely one of the best songriters of the 20th century.
@@CookieMusic43 Another Ellis !
@@davidellis5141 Are you the guy who really buys vinyl for the artwork? If so I like your videos.
@Carolyn Ellis No ... Sounds like a fun thing to do ! Thanks though.
Great ranking. Ranking The Kinks is tough. I love the Arista years more than many people. I'll do my Kinks ranking soon over on my channel (Amity Tracks).
I'll check out your video Walter when it is uploaded
@CookieMusic43 I did your Last 10 Questions thing recently on the channel. That was fun!
@@walterevans5658 I'll take a look at it now Walter
Good Ranking Richard I am not giving mine away just yet lol
I look forward to seeing your ranking, Iain
@@CookieMusic43 round about September
Great job Richard, loved your rankings. You talk about a lot of albums that I'm not familiar with, but what they did between 1966-71 is phenomenal.
1. Lola
2. Village Green
3. Something Else
4. Arthur
5. Face To Face
6. Muswell Hillbillies
Can't argue with your Top 5 ... would maybe have 'Arthur' ahead of Lola!
For me, Lola sms to just get better and better. Oh, steak, medium tonight please lol
Him Lola vs the powerman is my favourite Kinks album, followed by Arthur then face to face and muswell hillbillies, Village Green 5th, I also like Misfit and sleepwalker a lot. I'm not a great fan of something else apart from david watts and waterloo bridge
Good choices
Hi Richard, do you have any recommendations for a early kinks comp on lp? Looking to get into them and not sure where to start
George, The Kink Kronikles is a brilliant place to start. It's U.S. double album that features A sides, non album B sides and LP tracks. You'll be surprised how good the B sides are. It should be easily found in the states, as it received an RSD release a couple of years ago.
@@CookieMusic43 thanks! I’ll look into finding a copy!
Hi Richard, i think i only own four or five Kinks album and i know i should own more so at least i have a starting point for the ones i do not own thanks to your video.
did you ever get the "americana" albums Ray Davies released a few years ago?
Regards Lloyd
I did get the two Americana albums and they are surprisingly really good although I haven't played them in a while
Hi Lloyd. I see you've taken all your videos down...have you decided to leave us? Hope not!
@@jamesgriffithsmusic Hi James, actually my account got hacked and someone deleted not only my videos/YT account but email addresses around three weeks ago and i cannot recover them sadly.
i have also just moved house, changed job etc etc, so lots of changes all at the same time.
i have a new TH-cam account and will start posting videos again shortly mate. - Lloyd.
Soap Opera is my least favourite. I will put that out there right away. Its boring and unmemorable in my opinion. You cant stop the music is the only song I really remember. I think Give The People what they want and Everybody’s in Showbiz are way better for me. I’d have them both top 10 or close to it. State Of Confusion id have higher too. You had that one surprisingly low. But this is your video not mine and I still respect it.
My favourite is Lola V Powerman then the underrated Muswell Hillbillies.
I know that many people rate Soap Opera as their least
@@CookieMusic43I actually wasn’t aware of that. I’m generally in the minority most of the time.
I just can’t stand the 80’s Les Paul arena rock Dave Davies heavy guitar sound, no matter how good the songs. Compared with the Jimmy Page Tele sound on the early singles, there’s no comparison.
The first Dave Davies solo album is like a heavy metal album, a tough listen for me.