The Kinks - Face to Face
(1966)
Tracks
1 Party Line 2:35
2 Rosie Won't You Please Come Home 2:34
3 Dandy 2:12
4 Too Much on My Mind 2:28
5 Session Man 2:14
6 Rainy Day in June 3:10
7 A House in the Country 3:03
8 Holiday in Waikiki 2:52
9 Most Exclusive Residence for Sale 2:48
10 Fancy Davies
11 Little Miss Queen of Darkness 3:16
12 You're Lookin' Fine 2:46
13 Sunny Afternoon 3:36
14 I'll Remember 2:27
Released in 1966 on Pye Records, and produced by the great Shel Talmy,
Face to Face by The Kinks represents a breakthrough for their output. Moving from the R&B roots that had been such a successful formula for the previous three years, the band moved to a more thought provoking and impeccable social commentary. It also saw the emergence of Ray Davies as the creative force for the band.
The album starts with the only Dave Davies assisted song on the original LP;
Party Line is a fine opener and is not a bad contribution from one of the most under appreciated songwriters of the sixties. The next highlight on the album is
Dandy, the tale of a Casanova like character who ages through the song only to find that time has caught up with him by the end, like so many Ray Davies songs it’s amazingly bitchy but so catchy it’s untrue.
There are also some very quaint under stated songs that do not do any harm to this album,
Little Miss Queen of Darkness, Rosie Wont You Please Come Home and
Fancy are gorgeous little numbers, not to mention the Dave Davies meets Benny Goodman effort of
Holiday in Waikiki, marvellous stuff.
I had almost forgotten about the crowning glory of this record, the mighty tale of deprivation and misery;
Sunny Afternoon is track thirteen, and after so many plays in life, it is easy to overlook the merits of this song. But let’s just be honest and say that this is one of the finest songs ever written.
In modern times, the album has been reissued to include some of the other Kink highlights from 1966, which didn’t quite make the original cut. These include the brilliant singles
Mr Pleasant and
Dead End Street, both of which show the real nature of Ray Davies’ observational and it could be said "bitchy" writing style, quaint but at the same time literally scathing. There is also a song added which was written by Ray and performed by Dave, it is one of my favourite Kinks’ songs;
I’m Not Like Everybody Else is the original two fingers record and is unremorseful for being so.
If
The Kink Kontroversy was a fitting way to draw a line under The Kinks’ R&B period, then
Face to Face was a splendid way to introduce the world to their new style of output.
Face to Face puts any previous Kinks’ album in the shade when it came to quality of writing and social commentary. It can be said that without this album, two years later The Kinks could not have ever conceived the idea of
The Village Green Preservation Society, and although it is not as good as the greatest album ever made, it does have its moments, a belting little album that fits very nicely into the classic category. A Must