Ray Davies’ Choral Aspirations

The Kinks’ frontman and primary songwriter, Ray Davies, had the ambitious idea to collaborate with the 65-strong Crouch End Festival Chorus at the 2007 BBC Electric Proms in London to create The Kinks Choral Collection. The album is due out November 10 on Decca.

The BBC’s already heard it, and their reviewer Sid Smith didn’t like it one bit, saying of the songs, “the choral embellishments ultimately drag rather than lift.”

Still, I am most excited about a six-song suite that makes up the majority of the album’s back half, drawing from The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, a pastoral concept album that initially flopped. However, the album is now widely regarded as a classic, and it certainly opened my eyes to the music the Kinks did beyond “You Really Got Me” and “Come Dancing.” “Village Green” into “Picture Book” into “Big Sky,” along with “Johnny Thunder”? Goosebumps, people. Goosebumps.