Album Review: Ray Davies - Americana

Kinks frontman Ray Davies' deconstructions of American music are thorough and sincere.

Much of what's on offer is charmingly direct, from Irish-inflected Message From The Road to A Place In Your Heart's honky-tonk hijinks. Davies' contemporaries and influences crowd close, imbuing the road trips and supplications to open spaces with an elegiac, confessional spirit. Glammy Poetry channels Lou Reed; Silent Movie, a eulogy to Alex Chilton, segues into Rock 'N' Roll Cowboys, a folk-croon tribute to all of rock's rebels. At 72, Davies knows his way around a good song, and Americana is a late-career classic.