Track Listing

1. Days
2. Waterloo Sunset
3. You Really Got Me
4. Victoria
5. See My Friends
6. Celluloid Heroes
7. Shangri-La
8. Working Man's Caf�
9. Village Green Medley
10. All Day and All of the Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5297 in Music
• Released on: 2009-06-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds
• Running time: 53 minutes

CD Description
The legendary Ray Davis returns with all your favourite songs by The Kinks backed by the spectacular Crouch End Festival Chorus. This must-have album includes brand new renditions of "Waterloo Sunset", "You Really Got Me", "All Day and All of the Night", "Shangri-La", "Victoria" and many more phenomenal classics.

Customer Reviews

Simply beautiful!
If you thought that the classic kinks hits were outdated, or could never be innovative and impressive again, this album certainly proves otherwise. Some of the songs, such as "Waterloo Sunset" or "Days" were obviously going to work perfectly with a choir, as demonstrated live in 2007, but heavy metal songs like "All Day And All Of The Night" are certainly not the first thing you'd expect to work with choir backing-but they do, and sound amazing. Ray Davies has by no means come up with some B-rate cash-in effort, but has genuinely recreated these classics, with outstanding results. If you ever wished to hear god with his angels, then this is the closest thing you're likely to find anywhere!

Ray goes all choral - Kinks classics done differently!
Ray introduced us to choral arrangements at last year's Electric Proms and so it is no surprise that he has extended this first trial to develop an album of Kinks Klassics (sorry!) with the Crouch End Festival Chorus. The album starts with 'Days' and then 'Waterloo Sunset' which unfortunately are somewhat tepid or lame in their delivery. Both songs should be towards the end of such an album but at the start they just don't work very well. You also feel like you have died and been lucky enough to go to Heaven and upon walking through the Pearly Gates there's Ray with his choir singing Waterloo Sunset. Not a bad first day. The first gem is track 3, 'You Really Got Me'. This is a clever arrangement and works very well. If you think such a rock classic couldn't work with a choir, believe me, it does. 'Victoria' is again a bit lame and is 'singing by numbers' unfortunately. 'See my Friends' is a voices-only arrangement which works well. 'Celluloid Heroes' and 'Shangri-la' work very well with a choir because they are BIG songs, so both are strong arrangements. 'Working Man's Cafe' is a good rendition of a more recent song (from Ray's second solo album). The highlight of this album is without doubt the Village Green songs which work because everybody sounds like they are enjoying themselves rather than trying to sound like a serious church choir. And that's the issue here, the serious arrangements are too 'church choir-like' and the upbeat songs like the Village Green medley are just plain joyous to listen to. The album finishes with an average version of 'All Day and all of the Night' which is a shame. In summary, this album has a number of highs and lows. Where Ray detours from the 'paint by numbers' arrangements he does very well and where he doesn't it is just plain average to be honest. He could have been more adventurous. He hasn't got the voice of an early Meatloaf (neither has Meatloaf anymore) so his fragile voice struggles in some places against this big wall of serious voices. If you are a Kinks fan, you'll be happy with 52 minutes of Ray with a choir. If you were never a Kinks fan, this won't do it for you I am afraid. I love the guy and always will but this could have been less stuffy and a lot more fun than most of it sounds.

It's Different
Perhaps not the easiest CD to review. Some die hard Kinks fans may not take too warmly to this choral version. The second arguement? - are the tracks include the best choices, certainly there are some I would have liked to have seen on there.

The tracks are a mixture of acoustic, choral and electric, for me it works when taken for what it is - a reworking of some of Ray Davies's classic track with a different slant/take on the familiar. Some of the introductions/arrangements may catch you out or take you by surprise, but none of the tracks are that far removed from the sound and feel of the originals.