Something Else by The Kinks

I just finished writing a short review of the fantastic Kinks album Something Else for RYM which contains one of the greatest pop songs ever.

Something Else might fool people to think this is some of in-between or conceptual album by The Kinks, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Something Else is in fact one of the groups best albums. B-side in particular is superb. Only "End of the Season" might sound out of place until you realise it's Ray Davies's way of giving the finger to the whole summer of love thing. He has never been one to follow suit. The album is of course capped of by one of the greatest pop songs ever written, "Waterloo Sunset" but "Afternoon Tea", "Love Me Till The Sun Shines", "Two Sisters" and "Situation Vacant" are great pop songs as well. The only song I would swap out from this album is "No Return".

This album was released almost simultaneously with Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band so it's interesting to compare the two. Sgt Pepper's is an excellent album as well but I think Something Else shades it. Overall quality is better and this sounds more like an album rather than a collection of songs. And this album has a more universal sound to it. If someone made an album that sounded like Sgt Pepper's it would just sound old or odd. An album sounding like Something Else wouldn't sound out of place. This isn't a dig at Beatles, White Album and Revolver are superb albums, Sgt Pepper's just is a bit over-rated and shades some other contemporary albums for no reason.