Album Review: Ray Davies, Americana

In light of the recent Sunny Afternoon Kinks musical, and last November’s release of The Mono Collection – a vinyl box which restored the proper whack to their greatest work, Kinda Kinks and Village Green especially – do we really need a new Ray Davies solo album?

This is a concept album of sorts (yes, really), detailing Ray’s relationship with the US of A, from the days of the British pop invasion up to his time in New Orleans, where he took a bullet for trying to stop a mugging. Be warned, Spoken word pieces are also included.

Backing comes from The Jayhawks, which would usually prick up the ears, but two Karen Grotberg duets, on the melancholy ‘Message From The Road’ and the jaunty ‘A Place In Your Heart’, fall flat. The band’s chops do however add the kind of authenticity that Davies was probably after to the two album highlights, ‘Poetry’ and closer ‘Wings Of Fantasy’, which recall the road travelogues that Ian Hunter knocks off so easily.

Acoustic versions of ‘Set Me Free’ and ‘You Really Got Me’ are used as backing tracks for spoken sections, only prompting a desire to listen to those records instead, and there’s the problem. It’s not that this is bad work as such – it just kind of drifts by without grabbing you, and you know the man has done a lot, lot better.