Lost/Forgotten Album #302

[Jon]

It's the thirty-first album in the series I thought all by myself and I realized that this series might go on longer than I assumed. Or expected.

Sometimes a group pops into my head and I have to run to the computer and check out RIAA and see if any of their albums would fall into the series criteria. I figured that latter day Kinks albums would fit the bill but what actually fit the bill surprised me in more way than one.

State Of Confusion was released in 1983 and is the followup to the gold certified Give The People What They Want which was released in 1981. That was the third album in a row to be certified gold, following the live One For The Road (1980) and Low Budget (1979). Those three albums, as well as a greatest hits album from the 60's, are the only albums from The Kinks to receive a certification in the US. Could just be me, but I found that to be a bit odd. 

To be honest, I wasn't a Kinks fan until I saw them in concert on the Give The People What They Want tour. For some reason I expected it to be a pretty mellow affair, but I was really, really wrong. They were LOUD. They ROCKED and ROCKED HARD. After that, I decided that they were pretty darn good.

Give The People What They Want is now (and has been) one of my favorite Kinks albums. So, when this came out, I was a bit excited. But when I listened to it, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. It seemed to be filled with ballads, none of that power geetar. I probably listened to it again a few more times and still didn't care much about it.

Then came the remasters on CD and I picked some up (GTPWTW, Low Budget, Misfits, One For The Road and a couple others) but stayed away from this album. Finally, I figured that I might as well add this to my collection so it's complete and when I listened to it, I found that I really liked it. Not as much as the previous album, but enough to spin this more often that not. Oh, and I was wrong about it being full of ballads. Kids are so stupid. 

This album reached #12 on the US charts with "Come Dancing" reaching #6 on the singles chart and "Don't Forget To Dance" reaching #29.  

As I listen to this album while I'm trying to type 1000 or more words in order to fill up space, I'm finding myself liking this album even more than when I liked it before. How interesting.......

Ok, enough of that. Allmusic.com went all out with their review on this one:

The Kinks' State of Confusion had its share of glossy hard rock in the vein of "Low Budget" and "Destroyer," but the record came to life on the quieter numbers, whether it's the elegiac "Don't Forget to Dance," the wistful pop of "Long Distance," or the buoyant nostalgia of "Come Dancing," which became the group's biggest hit since "Tired of Waiting for You."

State Of Confusion

1. State Of Confusion
2. Definite Maybe
3. Labour Of Love
4. Come Dancing
5. Property
6. Don't Forget To Dance
7. Young Conservatives
8. Heart Of Gold
9. Cliches Of The World (B Movie)
10. Bernadette

Availability: The remastered version with four bonus tracks (not included here) runs around $10 if you have Amazon Prime. Otherwise it's around $13 new or used.

[Scott]

Theres a lot to like here, the riffs are good, the new wave feel to a lot this is quite good as well.  Labour of Love is the first misstep, but Come Dancing gets it back on track.  That song was all over Mtv, all the time.  Its one that grows on you and from what I'm hearing here, it still sound good.

Property is quite nice as well.  So far that's the song I like best.  Young Conservatives, probably had a totally different meaning back when this was recorded, or maybe not as much as it could have been, seems they're making fun of yuppies, but its another misstep of a tune.

Side 1 is really very good, Property is in fact the best tune here, followed by Come Dancing.  But this falls off very quickly beginning with Young Conservatives and the closer Bernadette feels completely different than anything on here.  Not sure why that tune would have been included.

I know others on here are very fond of the Kinks and they're mostly a miss for me, but this was my favorite so far..  Nice post sir!