The Kinks State Of Confusion (

The Kinks were still riding high on a resurgence of popularity that started in the late seventies when this 1983 release hit the streets (and was followed by GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT, making for two albums in a row with covers featuring the album title spray painted on a wall). The album opens with several big-fisted guitar chord numbers, which translated perfectly to the arenas they were then playing regularly. It's also important to note that these riff-driven songs are from the band who practically wrote the book on riff-heavy songs when "You Really Got Me" came blasting out of radios seventeen years before. The album includes a couple of hit singles--"Come Dancing" and "Don't Forget To Dance"--both of which employ moderate volume and propulsion (in contrast with some of their other singles from the era). The album's title is apt, as these are some of Ray Davies bleakest looks at the world around him-and the songs are consequently full of lost love, disappearing circumstances, and dreams put on hold. "Property," for example, details the dissolution of a marriage in stark, sad simplicity.

• Genre: Rock
• Format: Vinyl