The Kinks – The Journey, Pt. 2 (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The Kinks – The Journey, Pt. 2 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:48:14 minutes | 2,08 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited

Experience the timeless allure of The Kinks with ‘The Journey – Part 2’, a double best of. A thrilling odyssey through the bands iconic hits, including the electrifying ‘Till the End of the Day’, the exuberant ‘David Watts’, the sun-soaked vibes of ‘Sunny Afternoon’, and the rebellious anthem ’20th Century Man’, plus many many more.

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The Kinks – Everybody’s In Show-Biz (1972) [MFSL 2003] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Everybody’s In Show-Biz (1972) [MFSL 2003]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 75:44 minutes | No Art | 3,13 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans missed | 1,52 GB

Everybody’s in Show-Biz is a double album with one record devoted to stories from the road and another devoted to songs from the road. It could be labeled “the drunkest album ever made,” without a trace of hyperbole, since this is a charmingly loose, rowdy, silly record. It comes through strongest on the live record, of course, as it’s filled with Ray Davies’ notoriously campy vaudevellian routine (dig the impromptu “Banana Boat Song” that leads into “Skin & Bone,” or the rollicking “Baby Face”). Still, the live record is just a bonus, no matter how fun it is, since the travelogue of the first record is where the heart of Everybody’s in Show-Biz lies. Davies views the road as monotony — an endless stream of identical hotels, drunken sleep, anonymous towns, and really, really bad meals (at least three songs are about food, or have food metaphors). There’s no sex on the album, at all, not even on Dave Davies’ contribution, “You Don’t Know My Name.” Some of this is quite funny — not just Ray’s trademark wit, but musical jokes like the woozy beginning of “Unreal Reality” or the unbearably tongue-in-cheek “Look a Little on the Sunnyside” — but there’s a real sense of melancholy running throughout the record, most notably on the album’s one unqualified masterpiece, “Celluloid Heroes.” By the time it gets there, anyone that’s not a hardcore fan may have turned it off. Why? Because this album is where Ray begins indulging his eccentricities, a move that only solidified the Kinks’ status as a cult act. There are enough quirks to alienate even fans of their late-’60s masterpieces, but those very things make Everybody’s in Show-Biz an easy album for those cultists to hold dear to their hearts.

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The Kinks – Low Budget (1979) [MFSL 2003] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Low Budget (1979) [MFSL 2003]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 59:18 minutes | Scans included | 2,4 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans included | 2,35 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,22 GB
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab # UDSACD 2008

Low Budget is the eighteenth studio album by English rock group the Kinks, released in 1979. Following the minor success of their 1978 album Misfits, the band recorded the majority of the album in New York rather than London. Unlike the more nostalgic themes of many Kinks albums prior to Low Budget, many of the album’s songs allude to current events of the time. Musically, the album is a continuation of the band’s “arena rock” phase, resulting in a more rock-based sound and more modern production techniques.

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The Kinks – Everybody’s In Show-Biz (1972) [MFSL 2003] SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Everybody’s In Show-Biz (1972) [MFSL 2003]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 75:44 minutes | Scans included | 3,06 GB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans included | 3 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,54 GB
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab # UDSACD 2010

Everybody’s in Show-Biz is the eleventh studio album released by the English rock group the Kinks, released in 1972. A double album, the first disc features studio recordings, while the second disc documents a two-night Carnegie Hall stand. Everybody’s in Show-Biz is often seen by fans as a transition album for the Kinks, marking the change in Ray Davies’ songwriting style toward more theatrical, campy and vaudevillian work, as evidenced by the rock-opera concept albums that followed it.

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The Kinks – Come Dancing With The Kinks (1986) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Come Dancing With The Kinks (1986) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 3,13 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 77:34 min | Scans included | 1,55 GB

Originally released as a double-album set in 1986, just after the Kinks had their last run at chart success, Come Dancing With the Kinks (The Best of the Kinks 1977-1986) does an excellent job of summarizing their stadium rock and AOR radio favorites on Arista. It leaves no single or radio favorite behind, while adding such terrific obscurities as “Long Distance” (originally only released as a bonus track on the State of Confusion cassette; the early ’80s were a completely different world than the late ’80s), the non-LP single “Father Christmas,” the wonderfully sentimental album track “Better Things” (a close, upbeat cousin to Dylan’s “Forever Young”), and the charming “Heart of Gold.” In addition to these, there are live takes of “You Really Got Me” and “Lola” taken from the fine One From the Road album. It winds up being a representative selection of the Kinks’ time as stadium warriors. They may have released some good albums during this period — and Misfits and Low Budget are close to great — but listeners looking for the bare essentials from this period will not be disappointed with this first-rate collection. [Three songs — “Catch Me Now I’m Falling” plus the title tracks to Misfits and Sleepwalker — were dropped from the CD reissue of Come Dancing in order to have it fit the running time of a late-’80s compact disc.]  ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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The Kinks – Word Of Mouth (1984) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Word Of Mouth (1984) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 2,16 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 53:17 min | Scans included | 1,09 GB

State of Confusion gave the Kinks their biggest single in nearly 20 years, but they didn’t try to replicate the music hall-tinged pop of “Come Dancing” on its follow-up, Word of Mouth, preferring to concentrate on straight-ahead hard rock. Most of the material was well crafted, but only a few songs were distinctive, particularly the circular, synth-spiked minor hit “Do It Again.”  ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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The Kinks – State Of Confusion (1983) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – State Of Confusion (1983) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 2,46 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 60:14 min | Scans included | 1,19 GB

The Kinks’ State of Confusion had its share of glossy hard rock in the vein of “Low Budget” and “Destroyer,” but the record came to life on the quieter numbers, whether it’s the elegiac “Don’t Forget to Dance,” the wistful pop of “Long Distance,” or the buoyant nostalgia of “Come Dancing,” which became the group’s biggest hit since “Tired of Waiting for You.”  ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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The Kinks – Give The People What They Want (1981) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Give The People What They Want (1981) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,67 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 41:05 min | Scans included | 860 MB

Riding high on the success of Low Budget, the Kinks turned out another collection of hard-driving, arena-ready rock & roll with Give the People What They Want — in short, they delivered exactly what the title suggests. Throughout the record, the band kicks up a storm, rocking out with a surprising amount of precision, and although Ray Davies’ writing isn’t as strong as it was on the group’s two previous albums, he has contributed a set of professional hard rock that is distinguished by solid hooks and a clever sense of humor. After all, there’s a certain charm in hearing him rework “All Day and All of the Night” into the paranoid “Destroyer,” or his pure cynicism on the title track. But the minor masterpiece of the album is “Better Things,” a sweet piece of charming sentimentalism that is the only time Davies lets his guard down during the entire album.  ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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The Kinks – One For The Road (1980) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – One For The Road (1980) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 3,13 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 77:40 min | Scans included | 1,53 GB

The Kinks’ scattershot U.S. career never fully flourished like that of their British Invasion peers. The most quintessentially British of British bands — especially in the increasingly nostalgic songs of vocalist/rhythm guitarist Ray Davies — the Kinks enjoyed a spike in popularity in America in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The gold-selling 1980 double-live album One for the Road is a fascinating document of trailblazing elder statesmen who paved the way for heavy metal and punk, but never felt a glorious pop song was out of their grasp. It also proves that Dave Davies is a criminally underrated lead guitarist. Brothers Dave and Ray Davies, bass guitarist Jim Rodford, drummer Mick Avory, and guest keyboardists Ian Gibbons and Nick Newell recorded One for the Road at several concerts in 1979 and 1980. “Lola” is the best-known track from this album, and this live reading was a minor hit single; Ray Davies’ teasing intro shows his playful side. “The Hard Way,” “Low Budget,” a raw, stripped-down “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman,” “Celluloid Heroes,” and “You Really Got Me” are the other standouts.  ~~ AllMusic Review by Bret Adams

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The Kinks – Low Budget (1979) [Remastered 2006] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Low Budget (1979) [Remastered 2006]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,09 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 59:17 min | Scans included | 1,19 GB

Low Budget doesn’t have a narrative like Preservation or Soap Opera, but Ray Davies cleverly designed the album as a sly satire of the recession and oil crisis that gripped America in the late ’70s — thereby satisfying his need to be a wry social commentator while giving American audiences a hook to identify with. It was a clever move that worked; not only did Low Budget become their highest-charting American album (not counting the 1966 Greatest Hits compilation), but it was also a fine set of arena rock, one of the better mainstream hard rock albums of its time. And it certainly was of its time — so much so that many of the concerns and production techniques have dated quite a bit in the decades since its initial release. Nevertheless, that gives the album a certain charm, since it now plays like a time capsule, a snapshot of what hard rock sounded like at the close of the ’70s. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Davies’ songwriting fluctuates throughout the album, since it’s dictated as much by commercial as artistic concerns, but the moments when he manages to balance the two impulses — as on the disco-fueled “(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman,” the vaudevillian “Low Budget,” “A Gallon of Gas,” the roaring “Attitude” (possibly their best hard rocker of the era, by the way), and “Catch Me Now I’m Falling,” where Davies takes on the persona of America itself — are irresistible. Low Budget may not have the depth of, say, Arthur or Village Green, but it’s a terrifically entertaining testament to their skills as a professional rock band and Davies’ savvy as a commercial songwriter.  ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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The Kinks – Misfits (1978) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Misfits (1978) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 2,25 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 55:18 min | Scans included | 1,09 GB

The Kinks became arena rockers with Sleepwalker, and its follow-up, Misfits, follows in the same vein, but it’s a considerable improvement on its predecessor. Ray Davies has learned how to write within the confines of the arena rock formula, and Misfits is one of rock & roll’s great mid-life crisis albums, finding Davies considering whether he should even go on performing. “Misfits,” a classic outsider rallying cry, and “Rock and Roll Fantasy” provide the two touchstones for the album — Davies admits that he and the Kinks will never be embraced by the rock & roll mainstream, but after Elvis’ death, he’s not even sure if rock & roll is something for mature adults to do. Over the course of Misfits, he finds answers to the question, both in his lyrics and through the band’s muscular music. Eventually, he discovers that it is worth his time, but the search itself is superbly affecting — even songs like the musichall shuffle “Hay Fever,” which appear as filler at first, have an idiosyncratic quirk that make them cut deeper. Although Ray would return to camp on their next album, Misfits is a moving record that manages to convey deep emotions while rocking hard. The Kinks hadn’t made a record this good since Muswell Hillbillies.  ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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The Kinks – Sleepwalker (1977) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Sleepwalker (1977) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 2,44 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 59:54 min | Scans included | 1,17 GB

Arista had made it clear they would not accept any concept albums from the Kinks, and Sleepwalker, their first effort for the label, makes good on the band’s promise. Comprised entirely of glossy arena rockers and power ballads, the album is more of a stylistic exercise than a collection of first-rate songs. Ray Davies contributed a handful of fairly strong songs, highlighted by the exceptional “Juke Box Music,” which sees him in a shockingly resigned frame of mind, claiming that rock & roll is just rock & roll, and nothing more. Unfortunately, he chose to illustrate that fact by loading the rest of Sleepwalker with competent but undistinguished mainstream rock. While that might have made the album a hit at the time, its processed sound and weak songs sound dated today, especially compared to the lively arena rock the Kinks later released.  ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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The Kinks – Celluloid Heroes (1976) [Reissue 2007] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – Celluloid Heroes (1976) [Reissue 2007]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 74:40 minutes | Scans included |  3 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,53 GB

Although they weren’t as boldly innovative as the Beatles or as popular as the Rolling Stones or the Who, the Kinks were one of the most influential bands of the British Invasion. Like most bands of their era, the Kinks began as an R&B/blues outfit. Within four years, the band had become the most staunchly English of all their contemporaries, drawing heavily from British music hall and traditional pop, as well as incorporating elements of country, folk, and blues.

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The Kinks – The Kinks Present: A Soap Opera (1975) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – The Kinks Present: A Soap Opera (1975) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 2.16 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 52:37 min | Scans included | 1,04 GB

If there ever were a testament to Ray Davies’ stubbornness and ornery perversity, it’s Soap Opera. Released after the draining, two-part, hopelessly muddled rock opera Preservation, Soap Opera is the grandest concept album the Kinks ever made. Davies’ tackled a topic that seemed manageable compared to Preservation — how “Ordinary People” escape the doldrums with dreams of stardoms — but conceived the production as a bit of a radio play, with prominent guest vocalists and narration. Improbably, it feels larger, campier, more excessive than Preservation, even if it’s considerably more focused and consistent. The main problem is, its presentation is so damn silly that it’s hard to hear individual songs. Nothing here works as well as the best of Preservation, Act 1, but it holds together better as a record. Even so, Soap Opera winds up rather unsettling. Not only is it hard to get the gist of Davies’ narrative, but there’s not enough, musically or lyrically, to make it compelling. Then, there’s the nagging feeling that this isn’t really a Kinks album, but rather a Ray Davies solo project in disguise; the songs are certainly Ray’s, but there’s little that sounds like the Kinks, largely due to that ludicrous production. This isn’t just an outsider’s suspicion, either — Dave Davies and Mick Avory both mention this unease in Peter Doggett’s liner notes to the 1999 reissue of the album, but the true indication of the extent of Davies’ Soap Opera indulgence is that he never was allowed to go this far over the top again.  ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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The Kinks – The Kinks Present: Schoolboys in Disgrace (1975) [Remastered 2004] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Kinks – The Kinks Present: Schoolboys in Disgrace (1975) [Remastered 2004]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,49 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 36:18 min | Scans included | 730 MB

Ray Davies had indulged himself one time too often with Soap Opera, and his bandmates, namely brother Dave and founding member Mick Avory, revolted, insisting that their sixth RCA album sound more like a Kinks album (certainly, that’s something RCA wanted too). So, Davies designed their next album as a return to a simpler, band-oriented sound. Of course, he didn’t jettison his love for conceptual works, so Schoolboys in Disgrace was born. Working under the presumption that a return to simple rock demanded a simple theme, Davies constructed the album as a nostalgic trip through childhood, reviving ’50s rock & roll (including the occasional doo wop harmony) for the album’s foundation, then turning the amps up high. There’s no actual story per se — it’s a series of vignettes, like a coming-of-age film. As such, it’s intermittently successful, on both the hard rock (“Jack the Idiot Dunce”) and ballads (“The First Time We Fall in Love”), but it’s way too campy for anyone outside of the dedicated. And that campiness is all the stranger when married to thundering arena rock; at least with Preservation, the vaudeville made sense in context, but here, the Kinks are pulling in two separate ways, and Schoolboys winds up as one of their least satisfying albums as a result. [Koch released an SACD edition in 2004.] ~~ AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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