Something Else by the Kinks (1967)

By 1967 the Kinks were well into their hiatus from inventing rock (“You Really Got Me,” “Who’ll Be the Next in Line,” etc.) and on to the semi-twee songwriting exercises of the Davies brothers Ray and Dave, chiefly Ray. Music hall and other home sources were increasingly turned to for so-called “baroque pop,” with, for example, the nearly perfect scanning of “A Well Respected Man,” or the lesser-known “Most Exclusive Residence for Sale,” both of which are from their previous LP Face to Face. Something Else is the album where Ray took over from signature producer Shel Talmy, for better or worse. That’s a close call, as Talmy has impressive credentials just with the Kinks, let alone with the Who (“My Generation”), the Easybeats (“Friday on My Mind”), Roy Harper (Folkjokeopus), and many others. Arguably Something Else comes on as dreary and slow but the merits of all its songs eventually disclose, at least that’s how it has worked for me. The big hit here, though it missed the top 40 in the US, is “Waterloo Sunset,” perhaps the single most highly rated song by the Kinks at large critically. Rock critic Robert Christgau called it “the most beautiful song in the English language,” many others have explicitly agreed, and the 2021 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list lodged it at #14. I like it too, but for this era of Ray Davies’s songwriting still prefer “A Well Respected Man” and “Sunny Afternoon,” perhaps from the exposure, as they did make the US top 40. I had to work at Something Else a little, as I’ve said. The deluxe versions do little to improve it, with too many stereo / mono duplications that don’t do much for me. Dave’s contributions (“Love Me Til the Sun Shines,” “Funny Face,” and cowriting “Death of a Clown”) evoke some of the band’s rock inclinations to good effect, lending a nice bolt of it to the proceedings. There’s some interesting sense or awareness of the sun here. “Love Me Til the Sun Shines” is followed by “Lazy Old Sun,” which is a bit too droll for me, as is its follow-up, “Afternoon Tea,” even though I’m still singing along. “Funny Face” sets things right again at that point, rock-wise. I feel like I have ended up liking Something Else almost against my will, an unsettling sensation. But I’ll probably play it again one of these days soon.