Ray Davies and The Kinks returned during 1975 with another concept album. Soap Opera<\/i> was a more cohesive effort than their two previous Preservation<\/i> albums, and the music itself was just plain better. The lyrics told the story of a music star that changes places with an ordinary human in order to understand what a normal life was like; I have also seen it interpreted as a regular guy who reimagines himself as a superstar living an ordinary life. Whatever the fertile imagination of Ray Davies had in mind, the finished product tells the common stories of ordinary life.<\/p>\n
Another thing that sets it apart from Davies\u2019 previous releases of the same style was the return of his sense of humor, which, while campy in places, is always welcome. The hero making fun of his wife\u2019s tastes in \u201cDucks On The Wall\u201d is a witty treat. \u201cRush Hour Blues\u201d is his subtle but biting commentary on the banality of spending time traveling to and from the job each day. Add in his drunken wit of \u201cHave Another Drink\u201d and the wistful humor of a failed love affair in \u201cHoliday Romance\u201d and you have a good sense of his British intelligence and humor. <\/p>\n
The album\u2019s strongest point is the music. There are a number of beautiful ballads, plus some straight-ahead rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. The production is impeccable and more than makes up for the triteness of some of the stories.<\/p>\n
Throughout a large part of his career, Davies has celebrated ordinary life, but not so clearly as on Soap Opera.<\/i> In the past, he had visited and explored the pastoral side of life in the English countryside. But there is nothing idyllic about these songs. They explore the gritty realism of everyday life that is very familiar to tens of millions of people each day.<\/p>\n
There is also an autobiographical element to the production; Davies has often substituted his own name for that of the protagonist when performing the material live on stage. There is a continual attraction by him to the working person, but with the realization that he is a rock star and would never share their life experiences. These songs, meant to be performed, would be as close as he would get to doing that.<\/p>\n
The album ends when the star realizes that he is just another face in the crowd. The final track, \u201cYou Can\u2019t Stop The Music,\u201d is the realization that personal stardom will eventually fade but his creations will live on, which was a philosophical statement by Davies as he looked forward to, at least in his mind, an uncertain future.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s A Star,\u201d \u201cDucks On The Wall,\u201d and \u201cYou Can\u2019t Stop The Music\u201d are a near return to The Kinks\u2019 classic style of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. While the stories seem like a Ray Davies solo project, these tracks find The Kinks in full rock band mode. Elsewhere, \u201cNine To Five\u201d is a short but brilliant ballad where the gentle melody supports the boredom of the work place lyrics.<\/p>\n
Soap Opera<\/i> is not one of the upper echelon albums in The Kinks discography, nor is it a good introduction to their legacy. It is an album that looks into the creative mind of Ray Davies at a specific point in time. While there is some good music to be found, the album is best approached as a link in The Kinks\u2019 chain of music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":31579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6465],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-43284","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-kinks","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43284"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}