1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 130. The Kinks – Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)

 

This album is run through with nostalgia for a by-gone age that may never have existed. The title track (gorgeously covered by Kate Rusby) is all about “protecting the old ways from being abused”, as well as “preserving the new ways for me and for you”, an eclectic mix of things from strawberry jam to Sherlock Holmes, but also weirdly laced through with Americanisms like Donald Duck. The theme is revisited in Village Green, which is a more direct paeon to a simpler way of life. Do You Remember Walter is about an old friend, Last of the Steam-Powered Trains is again about a vanishing facet of life, but also feels like a metaphor. Told from the point of view of the train, the narrator feels abandoned by the modern world, a relic of a bygone age.

Musically, this album is more varied compared to earlier Kinks, heading more to their music-hall style songs (All of My Friends Were There), a calypso number (Monica), and the weird mix of psychedelia and a children’s story that is The Phenomenal Cat (not a million miles from The Small Faces’ story of Happiness Stan). Sometimes the tracks remind me of Pink Floyd’s Fat Old Sun, other times they are classic Kinks, always witty and entertaining lyrics with good tunes to match. The final track, People Take Pictures of Each Other, could be applicable today, satirising people who need to make records of all that they do to in order to feel validated.

Like writing about one’s experience listening to the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Oops.