The Kink Kronikles

Disc 1
1	Victoria 3:40
2	The Village Green Preservation Society 2:49
3	Berkeley Mews 2:40
4	Holiday in Waikiki 2:46
5	Willesden Green 2:27
6	This is Where I Belong 2:26
7	Waterloo Sunset 3:21
8	David Watts 2:42
9	Deadend Street 3:26
10	Shangri-La 5:20
11	Autumn Almanac 3:15
12	Sunny Afternoon 3:36
13	Get Back in the Line 3:07
14	Did You See His Name? 1:55
Disc 2
1	Fancy 2:29
2	Wonderboy 2:49
3	Apeman 3:56
4	King Kong 3:26
5	Mr. Pleasant 3:01
6	God's Children 3:19
7	Death of a Clown 3:13
8	Lola 4:05
9	Mindless Child of Motherhood 3:13
10	Polly 2:51
11	Big Black Smoke 2:37
12	Susannah's Still Alive 2:22
13	She's Got Everything 3:11
14	Days 2:51

Barnes & Noble

The Kinks, Greil Marcus wrote in his classic study, Mystery Train, will be remembered as one of the best English bands of the '60s -- and one of the most peculiar. While The Kink Kronikles, a two-album retrospective originally released in 1972, is not the most definitive anthology of the band's early work, it is nonetheless the one that best illustrates Marcus's point. Along with the hits, like Ray Davies's glorious, ale-soaked illuminations of the vagaries of the British class system ("Sunny Afternoon," "Dead End Street," "Victoria"), this compilation also offers some pretty odd stuff, like "God's Children," a beautiful ballad originally written for a very bad movie about a penis transplant. Then there's the Proustian reminiscence "Autumn Almanac"; one of rock's earliest paeans to transvestitism ("Lola," a pre-PMRC radio hit); authoritative blues-based rave-ups ("She's Got Everything"); and "Mindless Child of Motherhood," an angry and lyrically impenetrable piece by the embattled Dave Davies that led some to think he was as much a genius as his older brother. A telling anthology filled with vastly rewarding material. Steve Simels

All Music Guide

Strictly speaking, the double-album compilation The Kink Kronikles isn't a greatest-hits collection. Covering the years 1966 through 1970, The Kink Kronikles may not be packed with hits -- out of the album's 28 tracks, only nine were hits in the U.K. or the U.S. -- yet it's a definitive overview of this era, which was one of Ray Davies' most productive (and influential) periods. Apart from the hits -- the lazy, sardonic "Sunny Afternoon" and the gorgeous "Waterloo Sunset," and the 1970 comeback hits "Lola" and "Apeman" -- there is a wealth of music that ranks among their very best material that isn't available on any other album. First off, non-LP British hit singles like the music hall raver "Dead End Street" and the wry "Autumn Almanac" are included, as are Dave Davies' two solo hits, "Death of a Clown" and "Suzannah's Still Alive." Then there are the wealth of non-LP singles and B-sides that didn't make the British charts, plus worthy unreleased songs, obscurities like "This Is Where I Belong" and "She's Got Everything," and album tracks that demonstrate another side of the Kinks' musical versatility and Davies' abilities. The key to the success of The Kink Kronikles is how the singles and rarities complement each other and, taken together, present a full portrait. It's the rare compilation that is equally valuable to the collector and to the neophyte fan. Stephen Thomas Erlewine