Oh, honey, get out the good speakers. This Kink disk has more hit singles and "rather lovely bashings of the guitar" to satisfy the most vicious rock and roll appetite. It's cold, hard MOD served with delicious guitar licks and moody chords, with edgy voices as the desert.
There are so many Kink fans out there, that I dared to write a full review. A blurb will have to do. But what is a blurb? "An informal paragraph length review". The Kinks' The Ultimate Collection is kind of like a blurb then, because it features a steady stream of rock and roll, set to no particular order. "Tired of Waiting for You" comes right after "All Day and All of the Night".
You've got "Till the End of the Day", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" and "Sunny Afternoon" in a row. This lunch has turned into a buffet; the two disk package got a whole assortment of MOD songs to chose from. There are songs you'd want to dance to, and others you'd sit with while they play, "blazing on a sunny afternoon" no doubt.
And darling it's got flavor. The tunes are assorted so magnificently, that they showcase the many references and influences the Kinks consumed in their music. They're easy influences from R&B and blues, but you also get reggae ("Dedicated Follower of Fashion" - what else could inspire that waning voice? and "Everybody Got to be Happy")
While Disk 1 features most of their well known songs (including the two canon songs “You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night"), Disk 2 is no exception to pure Kink style. The tunes are hand picked, and they're assorted; melodic songs are catchy and made to jam to, and the rougher tracks show the Kinks taking the whole Mod culture (which emerged from the British Invasion) to new places.
Buy this record. If you like anything from the original British Invasion (and that includes The Who, The Rolling Stones, the Beatles...), this record is ESSENTIAL. They're songs that either defined the early sixties British music scene, or plucked it with a hammer. Lovely composition.
