1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 166. The Kinks – Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire (1969)

 

After exploring one strand of Englishness in the nostalgic Village Green Preservation Society, the Davies Brothers and Co take a lightly satirical look at the British Empire in a loosely connected set of songs that, if you read the synopsis, was originally going to be a musical broadly inspired by the Davies’ sister’s emigration to Australia.

The character Arthur is an everyday suburban man living in an unremarkable suburban house pretentiously called Shangri-La, and the family entertainment is to go Drivin’ (probably the jauntiest track on the album). Meanwhile, his brother died in the War, as told in the bitter yet humorous track Yes Sir No Sir and the not-comic-at-all Mother’s Son.

Best known off the album is Victoria, a classic Kinks sounding song that seems like a celebration of Britishness but in context feels more ironic.

Australia is a lengthy piece that parodies adverts for moving to Australia (the Ten Pound Poms), and features an unusually long instrumental jam at the end – probably my favourite track on the album.

In the end, the throughline is visible as a theme even though the story is not, but this isn’t a problem, the album works better this way I think. I’m surprised nobody has turned it into a juke-box musical though.