Comments for Kinks, the, State of Confusion

Perhaps the best Kinks album for Arista. Harder edged than previous albums, and whilst not sounding like a recipe for a great Kinks album it proves to be very special. Wonderful Come Dancing and Young Conservatives are superb songs as is the manic Bernadette. Dave Davies sings it as his life depends on it.

CLICHE AND PROPERTY ARE TWO OF MY FAVORITE KINKS SONGS, ALTHOUGH THAT'S DIFFICULT TO SAY BECAUSE THERE'S BEEN SO MANY GREAT TUNES. I'VE PRETTY MUCH SEARCHED THE WORLD OVER FOR THIS ALBUM ON CD BUT HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO FIND IT. IF IT EXISTS, CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHERE?

All of the Arista records had different flavors to them, and they all, in retrospect, seem equally palatable. Where Low Budget's high-intensity guitar drives that album, and where satire drives deep through songs on Give the People What They Want, State of Confusion is probably their best 1980s album. It's my opinion that Ray Davies' songwriting in State of Confusion was the most honest it had been in a great number of years as the band degenerated and then re-emerged during the '70s. The Kinks were fortunate to get a second chance at breaking the American market through the Arista label. This album, incidentally, has probably the best first song on any of the Kinks albums, or so I'm inclined to think.

I found this CD at a Blockbuster Music in San Diego, in the import section (BMG Ariola Muenchen GMBH 255 275). My old casette had an additional track "Long Distance" that was very pretty.

I also found this CD at Blockbuster in Mishawaka IN but the store was going out of business at the time. The CD was made in Germany. Great album. I first saw the Kinks in DeKalb, IL during this tour. Excellent show!

The first Kinks album since Misfits that failed to earn agold record -- but it didn`t miss by much. Though much ofthis album features the heavy-metal guitar sound of therecent smash hits, the songs` point of view has shiftedmarkedly from the adolescent tone of songs like Around theDial. The narrator in most of these songs is 40-ish (oddlyenough, Ray Davies was 38 at this time!) and the tone issomething like retrospective melancholy ("It gets worse theolder that you get"). But although that might sound ratherdepressing, the album is surprisingly upbeat, with thehappy nostalgia of Come Dancing and the affirmation of Don`tForget to Dance offsetting the resignation of Property andthe somewhat sarcastic Labour of Love. Vintage Kinks!