THE KINKS Muswell Hillbillies : Super Deluxe Box Set Review

THE KINKS Muswell Hillbillies : Everybody’s In Showbiz Everybody’s A Star (6LP/4CD/blu-ray/book, box)

THE KINKS
Muswell Hillbillies / Everybody’s In Showbiz Everybody’s A Star (6LP/4CD/blu-ray/book, box)
BMG

And when this box landed, my first thought was “Wow”.
BMG have produced some very fine reissues of late, and while some (Slade, Sabbath) have been excellent but missed an opportunity or two, others like the mammoth Nazareth box have really been the proverbial Mutt’s Nuts. This falls largely into the latter.

With their roots fall firmly in the early 60s rock/pop/blues/mod, the Kinks were part of the British Invasion alongside The Who, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, although with their Ray Davis finely crafted songs later moving in a pop direction, their influence is renowned. And some of their early riffage surely an influence on hard rock and metal.

But come 1971, were the Kinks still relevant? Well, yes. Not just because of their legacy, but 71’s Muswell Hillbillies was an excellent and widely acclaimed album. Sold sod all at the time, but a damn fine release all the same. The following year’s Everybody’s In Show Business maybe a little less so, as it saw a change in the song writing direction, which would become more theatrical and vaudevillian.

Muswell Hillbillies, named after Muswell Hill, an area of London where Davis brothers grew up, opens with the single 20th Century Man, which looks at modern life (not all rosy), and has a blues and country feel. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues also has a blues feel, and features some horns. Holiday is equally wonderful. Typical of the album, and of the Kinks in general, tracks that draw you in and become instantly memorable. Listening to this for the first time, 50 years after release, there are some wonderful tracks here. The Kinks had a way of sticking 2 fingers up at trends and saying “Here’s a well crafted song anyway”.

Everybody’s In Show-Biz opener Here Comes Another Day is a definite shift, a bigger production with keyboards and brass. Likewise You Don’t Know My Name is a bright and uplifting song with layers, piano and lot of additional touches.
The original LP was a double, disc 1 new studio material, the second a live set from Carnegie Hall, New York, 1972.

Whatever the trends and changes in direction, these are two excellent albums with excellently crafted songs, overlooked criminally at the time.

Now onto the box. Do two albums warrant a box of this size? Some may question that, but given the packaging and the bonuses (completeness of bonuses aside), it’s been done so well that you’d have to say yes.

Era wise, these albums go together, and they won’t have been subject to the same reissue attention of the 60s material, however they have been issued with plenty of bonuses. Moving on to the box, it’s a heavy 12” x 12” box that must be close to 2” thick, and it weighs and feels like it looks – hefty.

First out is a brown envelope with memorabilia inside, and a fold out map of Muswell Hill.
Then we get the two albums, Muswell Hillbillies over 2LPs, Everybody’s In Showbiz over 3. Both are on coloured vinyl, gatefold sleeves, insert, and bonus tracks. Some of these extras match up with previous CD remasters, some don’t, but I can’t go into it too deeply as I’m not a Kings expert. But the look and feel of these are amazing, The vinyl at least is heavyweight
The last vinyl instalment is a black vinyl LP of remixes, 11 tracks from across both albums.

Next up is a hard back book, which although it doesn’t contain a sleeve essay, it does feature a plethora of photos, including period press cuttings and rare records from around the world, as well as detailed recording information
And to finish, 4 CDs (each in gatefold card sleeves), which replicate the two original albums, the bonus remixes and a CD of a travel montage from the 1971 tour.
And to finish, a blu ray of audio and visual footage from 1971.

I’m pretty certain that there is material from previous remasters not included here, but even so there are lots (and I mean LOTS) of both audio and visual extras, and it’s a wonderful package. Hefty in every sense, at every level.
Lovely music too. I feel it just needed another disc per album to round up the extras.

But my only concern is, do two albums combined justify this? I’ll let you decide. Still, well put together and lots to enjoy.

Joe Geesin | Now Spinning Magazine 

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