The Kinks "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" [1968]

When the title of your album says more than all the lyrical content in the songs, you know you've got a problem. Doesn't stop Ray Davies, his brother Dave and the rest of this band of dysfunctional limeys from releasing yet another hit-less record. These guys crank out lukewarm Beatles and Who knock-offs like so many links of banger sausages. That the Kinks are relatively unpretentious and only dip their toes into the elfin magicness of 60s English music does win them points, but only that which brings them to the low-end range of mediocrity. Is there really an audience so existentially wounded that they need to have their every last banal gesture celebrated? If so, I guess it would help explain the overall preponderance of drug usage during the era. Perhaps "…Village Green…" provides a service, after all: there is no such thing as the "good old days," unless you fancy existing in the permeating drab, grey fog of a generic London winter wearing red velvet bell-bottoms.