[.ca] Other Peoples Lives

From Amazon.com:
As the leader of one the most vital and volatile bands of the British Invasion, Ray Davies may also have been one of the genre's most underappreciated, often playing second fiddle to the likes of Lennon, McCartney, and Jagger, but never failing to reignite the flame on a now-legendary songwriting caldron. More than a decade since the Kinks' last release, Davies makes his virgin foray into solo artistry with 13 songs that reverberate with the wistfulness and introspection that have forever been his trademark. It doesn't take long to detect, as the guitar/bass crescendo and tomorrow-will-be-better lyrics make "Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)" a singalong halfway through its 4:21. And then the world once again is put under Davies's uncanny surveillance: his pal Mr. Brown in the country-singed "Next Door Neighbour," "The Tourist" hobnobbing in New Orleans (where Davies makes an American home), and eras of lost acquaintances in "All She Wrote," a Kinks-ish acoustic rocker. They are reminders of what we've missed--and hopefully what's yet to come--from a remarkable artist whose return is undoubtedly being celebrated from the streets of a restored Big Easy to the barstools of Muswell Hill. --Scott Holter More Ray Davies The Storyteller The Kink Kronikles Come Dancing with the Kinks The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society Arthur: Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire Muswell Hillbillies

Ray Davies isn't trying to prove anything:
Ray Davies has claimed that he delayed completing this album for so long because he went through a crisis of confidence. This is surprising because the album comes across as a confident work of a man who isn't trying harder than he should. None of the songs make me want to push the skip button on my personal CD player--the album is paced and ordered brilliantly. The melodies are memorable. I've listened to the album through only 3-4 times and I've already got it on re-wind in my brain. The album is certainly better than the 1993 Kinks album _Phobia_ (a poorly ordered work that maxed-out the CD length time by including tunes that distracted attention from the stronger songs). _Other People's Lives_ clocks in at just over an hour, and what a lovely hour it is. "Is There Life After Breakfast?" is classic wry Ray. "Thanksgiving Day" sketches a realist scene that shows that there is more to the family gathering than meets the eye. Every song on the album feels like Davies means it and that he's actually bothered to think about what he is saying. Where he uses cliche, he twists it for effect. This is a more-focused album than _Misfits_, for example, so a comparison with RCA-period Kinks makes the most sense here, as the arrangements recall that era more than any other in the Kinks's recording career. Ray Davies's great strength as a songwriter is his ability to write unpretentious lyrics that come to resonate as they become more familar. Artful simplicity is one of his trademarks. Tunes like "Creatures of Little Faith," "After the Fall," and "The Tourist" actually say something. In Davies's "unauthorized autobiography," _X-Ray_, he reveals a lot about his aesthetic when he takes a swipe at Bob Dylan and Picasso on the same page. _Other People's Lives_ is infinitely better than Bob Dylan's baroque, self-important and plagiaristic _"Love and Theft"_, an album that Dylan shamelessly cut-and-pasted from the annals of traditional country and blues (not to mention a biogaphy of a yakuza criminal), as if he was challenging us to call him a crook so he could rub our faces in it. Many of us have stopped caring if the real Bob Dylan is ever going to stand up. It's a pity. Davies betrays no such contempt for his audience on _Other People's Lives_. Davies's style has allowed him to mature as a writer. This album suggests that his talents have endured longer than those of some of his peers. I hope he has a few more albums in him yet.

• Things Are Gonna Change
• After The Fall
• Next-Door Neighbour
• All She Wrote
• Creatures Of Little Faith
• Run Away From Time
• The Tourist
• Is There Life After Breakfast?
• The Getaway (Lonesome Train)
• Other People's Lives
• Stand Up Comic
• Over My Head
• Thanksgiving Day