The Kinks want to have a word with you back at the main page ... Think Miserable Overall Album Score: 7.4 out of 10 I love love. Love puts babies on smile's faces. Love makes the world go round (hate makes the world go square). Love is the freaking best!!!! Love is not this album. Nor did Ray Davies love the songs. And they're not bad-lookers, either! Most of these song were fairly well written. Many of them feature a decent melody and a good, derivative gimmick ... but most of these songs never rise above mediocre, and they certainly had the stamina to do so! He finally did something that I've been asking him to for ages reviewing these albums, though. He returned to form ever so slightly. He's sort of back to his Lola days here, most of these songs being somewhat straightforward rock tunes (that are WAY too cheeky ... but such was the nature of mainstream 80s rock, anyway). There's only two or three real 80s-pop songs ... But he failed to turn this into a good album ... I guess he must have been despondent about the lack of critical/popular/humanity success that Word of Mouth brought to him, and that's why these songs are so dang underdeveloped. I don't know. It seems like it so easily could have been another good late-career Kinks album, but ... it was just a lost opportunity. Overall Album Score: 7.4 out of 10 (Sure as women are attracted to men with money, this is MUCH better than Word of Mouth. The material is better! ... But there's no heart in this. There's not even heart to gain another radio classic.) Average Song Score: 7.8 (Most of these songs never rise above the level of good, and are merely passively enjoyable. The only one I totally enjoy is "How Are You.") Album Tilt: 7.5 (Fairly consistent, quality speaking ... It doesn't flow to well as an album, however.) Artist Rating: 7.0 (Ray Davies sits on some decent melodies here ... he just didn't spend the heart to develop them properly.) Track Reviews Working at the Factory 8/10 The Kinks are back to writing songs about social classes and stuff!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!! And, this is a nice little song. It's hardly, memorable, but ... this is a far cry from half of the stuff we saw in Word of Mouth, thank goodness. Lost and Found 8/10 Whew. This song's rather on the lengthy side (at five minutes) and it trudges along smoothly through the whole thing. ... Um ... The melody's catchy enough ... it just doesn't leave much of a lasting impression. Repetition 7.5/10 Eh. Not too crazy about this one, even though the melody and instrumentation are completely inoffensive to the ears. I kind of like the chorus, though. It's got a good melody, donchaknow. Welcome to Sleazy Town 8/10 This is way too of a polished song to actually be a sleazy song! Give a little more distorted guitar, and ... Eh. They didn't want to be sleazy! This was the 80s! Sleazy didn't exist with these mainstreamers. ... This song, again, isn't bad. It's listenable, but it doesn't actually do anything that's memorable (except for that slightly memorable but dumb chorus). The Video Shop 6/10 Ooohhh, geezzzzzzzz... This sounds like a song they wanted to use in Word of Mouth, but it didn't fit on there. Yeah ... this is asinine 80s pop. The melody, while existent, is dumb. And the song production here exhibits everything that was bad about 80s pop music. Cheesy and stupid. Rock 'N Roll Cities 7.5/10 More of an old-timey rock song ... maybe more along the lines of Lola vs. Something or Other. It's too polished'n'cheesy to be confused with the real thing, but ... this is kinda fun to listen to. How Are You 9.5/10 This is a pretty good song. I really like the exchange of Ray's vocals with that guitar-thing. The song has a nice rhythm to it (though a bit too slow to be danceable). This is really, a highly pleasant and satisfying Kinks song ... It sort of came out of the blue, though! ... Everything else on this album is just fair and then here's track #7. Think Visual 8/10 ...This song is weird... And it might have been a particularly good one if it wasn't so ... weird. I like the riff, even though it grows tiresome. Some of the stuff he adds here, such as a ragtimey piano and synthesizer noises, is pretty good at times ... but other times, it's just too much. Natural Gift 8/10 Sounds more 80s pop instead of pseudo-classic rock, but ... this particular song isn't bad ... It's just missing everything that makes songs wonderful other than melody and competent band members. Killing Time 7/10 A slightly annoying song, but ... again, it's not bad. Davies doesn't really give a crap about these songs, it seems, but the melody is certainly formidable. ... He's being like Paul McCartney! Melodies come natural to this guy, but the songs only sound great if he bothers working on them. ... Eh, he's rich, he's old ... etc. When You Were a Child 8.5/10 This sounds very, very much like a Smiths song. And ... I like The Smiths! But this song? ... Ehhhhhh! Easily, this is one of the better melodies on the album, and the production was done fine. But, it seriously could have been excellent had there been just a little fine-tuning. Umdelumdelehhoe here.

All reviews are copyrighted by Michael Lawrence. He thinks residual.