Track Listing

1. After The Fall
2. Vietnam Cowboys
3. Next Door Neighbour
4. Working Man's Café
5. You're Asking Me
6. The Tourist
7. Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)
8. One More Time
9. No One Listen
10. Thanksgiving Day
11. In A Moment
12. Imaginary Man
13. Morphine Song
14. London Song
15. The Getaway (Lonesome Train)
16. Storyteller
17. Yours truly, confused

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3436 in Music
• Released on: 2009-10-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds
• Running time: 72 minutes

CD Description
Though best known for the seminal and lengthy Kinks discography, Ray Davies has also released five solo albums: the 1985 release Return to Waterloo (which accompanied a television film he wrote and directed); the 1998 release The Storyteller; Other People's Lives in early 2006; and Working Man's Café in October 2007. Collected pulls together the best songs from Davies' illustrious solo career.

Customer Reviews

Collected. The best of Ray Davies in one place.
As I have mentioned in previous reviews, Ray Davies - to me and many others - represents one of the finest modern songwriters this country has ever produced. Anyone who can write 'Waterloo Sunset' in his very early twenties (21) has got to be somebody very special indeed. The fact that The Kinks had over 20 hit singles during the sixties right through to the early eighties and have influenced many artists over the years says a lot about them and their lead singer and songwriter.

However, when we get to the 'post-Kinks' phase of Ray's career, things are not quite so consistent. I still feel that he let go of The Kinks ten years later than he should have done. He always had solo possibilities because of his dominance in the band he was a member of for over 30 years. The irony is that without The Kinks he has seemed weakened. 'Collected' brings together some of his best solo material from essentially 3 albums - 'Storyteller', 'Other People's Lives' and 'Working Man's Cafe'. The last two albums have only appeared in the past three years and are therefore fairly new.

'Collected' is an inconsistent journey through these three albums. Too many tracks suffer from weak production and lacklustre melodies. Don't get me wrong, some Ray is better than no Ray but tracks like the opener 'After the Fall', 'Vietnam Cowboys' and 'Next Door Neighbour' are not that great. Things only take off with 'Working Man's Cafe' on track 4; the title track from his last album of new material. Ray Davies is at his best when he creates a tune and lyrics that make you smile. This track does just that; it is very clever. So are tracks like 'The Tourist', 'Imaginary Man' and 'Morphine Song'. However, tracks like 'London Song' are pretty awful - noisy and cluttered. The closing track 'Yours Truly, Confused N10' suffers from massive overproduction (Jools Holland) and voluminous lyrics. It sounds like he is reading from a book. The great 'Stand Up Comic' is missing from this album which is a shame.

I have given this 'Best of' 4 stars because of the half dozen great songs on this album rather than the fact that 10 or so of these tracks are of variable quality. If Ray ever reads this review or someone who knows him ,reads this review I would implore them to offer the great man two pieces of gentle advice from someone who has followed Ray's music for the past 45 years - please hire an independent producer for your next album (you need an objective view of your music) and please hire some young, fresh musicians to play with you who sound like they care. Too many of these songs sound like they are being played by average session musicians who don't really care too much. This problem is even more abundant on the recent Crouch End album where some guitarist plays 'All Day and All of the Night' like he was playing in a pub in Swindon. Shockingly bad.

So, that's the best of Ray Davies as a solo artist. 6 or so great songs. With the right producer and some decent musicians who actually care, he can and will do a whole lot better. If you are a Ray Davies fan, you will buy this album. If you are not a fan, I would recommend a Kinks 'Greatest Hits' album as a better place to start.