There’s been a buzz about the Kinks lately, with talk of a reunion. The band’s singer and songwriter Ray Davies announced that he, his brother Dave and original drummer Mick Avory are making a new Kinks album. Whether the acrimony this band had surfed over the years will keep that album from seeing the light of day, or if the band will release it and tour, playing “local pubs,” as the singer quipped, we still have Ray Davies’ 2018 solo release Our Country: Americana Act 2. This sequel to 2017’s Americana, which was, in a way, a sequel to Davies’ 2013 memoir Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story, mines the same vein, with Davies’ take on his journey and life in the U.S.
From the opening gospel (with some cringe-inducing narration from Davies), to “The Invaders,” with a wry lyric linking Englishman Davies with movie monsters like “The Blob,” to the fun of “Bring Up Baby,” to the layered lush backing of one of “Oklahoma USA” (a new take on the Kinks’ version), it’s obvious we are in the hands of a masterful story teller, fully realized production and great musicians (once again, Davies enlisted The Jayhawks to help him here). As great a songwriter as Davies is still, six years away from his eighth decade, the problem with this record is that Davies is trying too hard to make the grade with every tune fitting the concept. Some of the tracks are just a little thin, unfortunately.
“March of Zombies,” a low-down blues, sees Davies narrating again, but this time it works, as he compares the man who shot him in New Orleans in 2004 to a flesh-eating ghoul, with organ and horns interplaying perfectly under. The acoustic ode with slide effects of “Epilogue,” and Davies revisiting direct Kink routes with “Muswell Kills” do lift the album up slightly. One can only wonder that if there is a new Kink album in the works, has Ray Davies got all this country, Americana-loving stuff out of his system? Hopefully, we shall see.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
