Album Review: The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One

14 August 2014 | 8:33 pm | Ross Clelland

Centrepieces are the timeless gender-confusion of 'Lola'

First offering in a reissuing of The Kinks’ often-great (and sometimes rubbish) 1970s output. Banned from America since the mid-‘60s, this was a something of a comeback record: Ray Davies wistful-to-cynical on a concept album tearing at the show-business in which he considered himself trapped. Centrepieces are the timeless gender-confusion of Lola, and Apeman – an escapist English music hall muse on escaping it all. This double-disc includes trainspotter bait such as mono mixes, but can be taken as a listen to see where many – Bowie to Albarn – appropriated some musical ideas.