The Kinks Album: “Word Of Mouth [Digipak] [Remaster]”

Seriously. This is one of the least attractive album covers I've ever seen. Why would anyone pick this up unless they were a Kinks fan already? Major misstep by the Brothers Davies.

The record itself is good, if not great. It boasts Dave Davie's second best song, "Living on a Thin Line," a paen to the middle class and poor stuck in an economy that increasingly favors the rich, and "Good Day," a bit of Ray Davies whimsy that is clever fun until the biting bridge ("So have a good day today, because it may be your last, make it last..."). Not to mention a bunch of good-but-typical Ray Davies social observations ("Too Hot," "Do It Again," "Sold Me Out," et al).

Musically, it's early '80's Kinks. Smooth, textured, with the most passion coming through in the vocals rather than the music. It's a bit keyboard heavy, but that's ok. I personally prefer a rawer sound, but that's me.

It's definitely worth your time if you're a budding fan, still worthy if you like good songwriting, but ultimately expendable if you're looking for something that will jump-start your psyche.

To be fair, I think that Ray Davies was trying to get on the radio, the bland medium that we all listen to too often (and I was a DJ for 7 years, so I know whereof I speak).

If you look past the slickness and the worst album cover in my collection, you'll find a nice bunch of songs. A couple are special, one or two are expendable, but this is mostly a nice little collection by a band pushing its way through middle age.

All that said, I still like it and it's a fun little rocker of an album...good pop sometimes, a couple of bits of should-have-been-rawer nastiness, but still pretty damn groovy. A worthy effort.

Of all their 70's and 80's work Word Of Mouth and State Of Confusion both stand up well to their classic work. Do It Again opens with the same crashing guitar chord as The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night, but ventures into a completely different direction. There are witty musical references to The Beatles throughout the album both lyrically and melodically.

That said, this album would be great without the Beatles references. The songwriting is consistent and strong. Dave turns in two of his best songs for the album. Living On A Thin Line was originally written for Ray to sing, but Dave, in excellent voice (and singing in a lower register) does a terrific job. Kudos guys! Thanks for making this available again!

"Word of Mouth" is a great album (the last great Kinks album, in fact) that for some reason is consistently overlooked in favor of the Kinks' other Arista efforts. Sure, there are a couple of throwaways here ("Too Hot," "Massive Reductions"), but the highlights more than make up for them. "Do It Again," "Good Day," and "Summer's Gone" are some of Ray's very best '80s compositions, and "Living on a Thin Line" is, in this Kinks fanatic's opinion, the best song Dave Davies ever wrote.

The album gels together wonderfully, and it has an upbeat, summery mood in stark contrast to the hyper-bleakness of "State of Confusion" and "Give the People What They Want." If you are new to the Kinks' '80s output and have been scared away from "Word of Mouth" by bad word of mouth, I'd urge you to give it a chance. It's one of the most underrated albums in the Kinks kanon.

This Japanese mini-lp replica version of Kinks album is simply a work of art! Very beautifully designed with all the lyrics included and with a sound quality remastered to perfection.

This 2007 JVC reissue is by far the best version of this album that is out there; great sound quality, great packaging, great songs! A must have in any CD collector's library.

"Word of Mouth", which is probably one of the most overlooked albums by the Kinks, was recorded at a very difficult time for the band. Both Ray and Dave were very much involved with their own solo projects - "Return to Waterloo" and "Chosen People" - and the band-members had personal disagreements which led the the firing of original drummer Mike Avory during the recordings.

Surprisingly they managed to come up with one of their most satisfying albums of the 1980's.

First impression may be that the album comes close in feel and mood to their previous 3 albums; hard-rocking with more or less desillusioned lyrics, blended with a few beautiful / melodic ballads.

The opener, the single "Do it Again", shows the rocking side of the Kinks, but still melodic and clearly among the most viable of Kinks rockers of this period. "Summers Gone" belongs to the same category, perhaps even better. Great lyrics and vocals from Ray Davies. "Too Hot" is also great - perhaps a little too much like "Come Dancing" from their previous album.

The next single "Good Day" shows the softer side of the band. Catchy tune with dark desillusioned lyrics, clearly written at a time when the nuclear threat was very much present. Dave's "Living on a Thin Line" is more or less of the same theme. Slightly folkish tune, and one of Dave's strongest contributions to a Kinks album. His rocker "Gulity" is also a fine track.

3 songs come from Ray's "Return to Waterloo" soundtrack. The heartfelt "Missing Persons", and the extremely catchy "Going Solo" both describe the difficulties of accepting your children growing up to live their own lives. Both favourites of mine. "Sold Me Out" is as close to "punk" music as the Kinks ever came.

The title track and the re-recording of "Massive Reductions" are the weakest tracks on the album, both quite forgettable.

The two bonus-tracks are extended versions of "Good Day" and "Summer's Gone" - a typical feature of that period was to release maxi-singles with extended mixes of album tracks. I remember buying both "Good Day" and "Do it Again" as maxi-singles at the time - great covers, both shown in the booklet.