Ray Davies - Working Man's Cafe (Ltd Ed Deluxe CD/DVD Combo)
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Free Music Notes for Working Man's Cafe (Ltd Ed Deluxe CD/DVD Combo)
Free Music Review: Ray's return to form in a terrific solo album
Hit: 5 Stars
Ray returns in top form on his fourth solo album (his first being "Return to Waterloo" even though it involved members of the Kinks). This isn't just his best solo album but holds its own with some of his best work with The Kinks. It's a pity it's NOT a Kinks album but I doubt that Dave and Ray will resolve their differences any time soon. Either way, Ray has come up with an album that is compelling in its subject matter with witty, insightful lyrics and melodies that match the quality of his best compositions of the past.
The CD/DVD comboversion is only worthwhile for the additional rocking track "I, The Victim" which doesn't appear on the CD available by itself. The DVD is interesting but its more like a glorified home movie of Ray's 2001 tour of the United States. Its interesting primarily for its glimpses of America post-9/11. It's also most interesting for the snippets we see of Ray working on his songs or performing from the tour to support X-Ray (his book).
I actually liked most of "Other People's Lives" but found "Working Man's Cafe" to be more consistent with no tracks that I would consider weak. In addition to the album and the bonus track "Angola" (which is really about Ray being shot in New Orleans during a purse snatching)we also get two demos and with the CD/DVD combo set the rough mix of "I The Victim" (it's on the CD as a bonus track) which, I assume, is from a forthcoming project. Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: One more voice in the chorus
Hit: 5 Stars
It is gratifying to see that so many others hear what I am hearing with this record. As another who unashamedly admits to loving Ray Davies even though I find most of his post-Warners/Pye work to be sub-standard, more downs than ups, this is the record we have been waiting for for years. Us fans knew it was in him.
This record is so much better than the previous one. The songs are better, the production is far more sensitive to Raymond Davies strengths. I have read he does not like his voice, well, I do not like mine that muich either, but this recording was made to capture this voice. Ray IS a great singer with a vast range of emotion and phrasing, and all of the other tricks of the trade. Here they represent sincerity in the service of art. The recording is first rate and voice is placed front and center where it belongs with a naturalness missing in too many recordings these days.
Ray's point of view might strike some as political, but it is of a subtle form, not as the activist with the histrionics associated with that tiresome pose, but as one who does care for human beings as individuals not as an abstract mass.
I have listened to the record over and over, probably twenty times since receiving it (I procrastinated, just got it in May) and I still am enjoying it. OK, it may not be (only time will tell) VGPS and SOMETHING ELSE but it is really close.
Free Music Review: a vital work
Hit: 5 Stars
Straight into Rayville with Vietnam Cowboys. Always observing, always chronicling, ever commenting; he's king songwriter. Mr. Davies was making killer records before you was goin' goo-goo. Well, most of you. And I don't mean just the four songs you play all the time. There's nearly fifty years of fascinating work beyond that. Working Man's Cafe, for instance. Fresh and bright. Got a lift in his step. A bite in his lyrics. Still the melody guy--move it along and say it. The bonus songs are rather stark pictures; anybody anywhere situations. The dvd is a unique look into his touring close after the nine-eleven time frame for his X-Ray book. Overall an excellent package. As always, wish there was some brother Dave guitar to ramp it up. It might seem frivolous to care enough to write in these dark fanatic years, but he's still here saying it. Even though we're stifled by the over-stimulation of the times, there's always room for more Ray Davies. It doesn't have to be the Big Stuff; it's a vital work.Free Music Review: A Fine View of the many Ray Davies!
Hit: 5 Stars
This latest CLASSIC by the greatest songwriter EVER hits the spot in all the right ways. Much better than the last one although next to everything else released that year it is a classic! If you love the later great underrated Kinks recordings like "Sleepwalker" you'll love this too. Ray Davies certainly is not running out of ideas after all these years and that is a wonderful thing to behold. There's instant classics on here in the mold of other great works of beauty (think Long Distance)ie.(The Real World and Imaginary Man), great songs that rock like hell(Hymn for a New Age)and storytelling like only Ray Davies can do, "Working Man's Cafe" and "Morphine Song". You better get this special edition while you can because the bonus tracks are incredible too. I,The Victim and Angola rocks the best of all! I haven't watched the free DVD yet but I am looking forward to it. Long live Ray Davies-for the world truly needs but certainly doesn't deserve him!Free Music Review: You Really Got Me, again
Hit: 5 Stars
The Kinks songwriter and main vocalist has released his strongest of only 4 solo albums following his recovery from being shot in New orleans several years ago, whilst living in that city.This has an influence on the recording,as does living in the U.S.,and it is a much more intense,intersting and vital record than any solo efforts by his '60's peers i.e Jagger, McCartney and Townsend.
Whilst not a Kinks album it is a modern album that reflects modern times and issues such as globalisation, peace and a yearning for those simpler times of the Kinks 1960's.
Of corse the best test, this album gets better each time it is played.
The additional DVD in this issues is similar to recent dvd's of Steve Earl and Wilco, a sought of home recording, behind the scenes glimpse of the artist.