Review: "Arthur" by The Kinks

This record was a fully intentional and independently inspired concept album. Its songs, though varied in content, support a unifying theme and a progressive narrative. In content Arthur combines an epic reach in terms of lyrics and music with an emerging personal story that communicates with the regular struggling person that resides in each of us. The exultation and nostalgia of belonging to a once mighty nation coexists here with the simple gratitude of living in a stable and free society, no matter how humble one's circumstances. These positive feelings are offset by an expression of grief and sense of waste that comes of war, and an awareness of the gratuitous pleasure some people take in playing with human lives in the constant recycling of martial conflict. The album begins to grapple with the more general contemporary condition in Western society of the long struggle of the average person to achieve financial stability, while at the same time postponing their sweeter dreams for what such people hope will be an idyllic retirement -- but which all too often turns out to be a state of sterile isolation for all the security and amenities it has promised. The then new bass player for The Kinks, John Dalton, adds a strong mellifluous but unaffected voice to the vocal palette of the band, which happily still includes the inimitable and different singing qualities of Ray and brother Dave Davies. The orchestration of the ensemble's musicians reach a peak of grandeur in this album, and their individual instrumental contributions to the greater (and beautifully disciplined) whole reflect a sense of virtuoso elation never again so ambitiously achieved.