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Post by rose on Nov 23, 2007 8:29:29 GMT -5
MOJO-Dec Issue!!! WMC Review RAY interview (MAYOR of LONDON??? ) Full-Page Ad WMC
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Post by rose on Dec 23, 2007 7:42:13 GMT -5
FROM THE COURIERMAIL.COM.AU Davies unkinks creativityBy Noel Mengel December 21, 2007 11:00pm AFTER waiting until age 62 to deliver a solo album, Other People's Lives, Ray Davies has released the even-better Working Man's Cafe. Working Man's Cafe (V2/Shock) sounds exactly what his fans are hoping for, and that's a new Kinks record. A vintage one, at that. Davies has been making records since 1964, most of them with The Kinks, and here he hits a groove that sits neatly beside high-quality '70s albums like Sleepwalker and Misfits. Which is to say Working Man's Cafe is a rock 'n' roll record, guitars and drums pumping, Davies' voice sounding as lively and as confident as it did at his commercial peak. This outburst of creativity follows his 2004 experience when he was shot by muggers in New Orleans – Morphine Song describes the trauma of the emergency room with Davies' familiar mordant wit, plus New Orleans-style brass section. No One Listen, a diatribe about the frustrations of dealing with bureaucracy, might also be inspired by Davies' experiences after being shot, although you don't have to wind up in a hospital to concur with his sentiments. Of course, Davies has long been rock 'n' roll's poet laureate as an observer of everyday life – especially English life. It's been there in dozens of songs, from Dedicated Follower of Fashion through Waterloo Sunset and the nostalgia for a disappearing way of life on the Muswell Hillbillies album. It's here too on the title track, where Davies reflects on the decline of the English shopkeeper and culture ("Bought a pair of new designer pants/Where the fruit and veg man used to stand . . . Everything around me seems unreal/Everywhere I go it looks and feels like America.") It's Davies' best song in many years, and he delivers a beautifully resigned vocal performance to match. Curiously, two concluding "bonus tracks", Hymn for a New Age and The Real World, are among the best here, as Ray rages, questions, searches and eventually cheers himself up the way he always has, through writing songs. After all these years, it's too late to stop now.
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Post by Smiley on Feb 11, 2008 19:20:45 GMT -5
This was the back cover, to the UNCUT magazine, I picked up in November.
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Post by rose on Feb 11, 2008 20:11:29 GMT -5
niiiiice
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Post by Smiley on Feb 13, 2008 18:25:43 GMT -5
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Post by Smiley on Feb 14, 2008 23:43:39 GMT -5
jlhurst.blogspot.com/2008/02/ray-davies-working-class-cafe.htmlFrom The Un-Official Website.. Thanks Dave E! This Tuesday (the 19th) is the official release date for the US version of Working Man's Café, but I received mine (the CD/DVD version) today, which I had preordered from New West Records. I also ordered the vinyl, but received a letter in the package that said the vinyl is delayed 2 or 3 weeks due to "reoccurring problems with manufacturing and test pressings."
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Post by rose on Feb 17, 2008 8:05:32 GMT -5
KUWAIT : THE ARAB TIMES !!! Sports Kuwait Entertainment Business World Health Opinion Latest News Update Kuwait Crime Entertainment News Ray Davies goes Americana style Billboard CD reviews as presented by Reuters from New York. Artist: Ray Davies Album: Working Man’s Cafe (Ammal/New West Records) You can take the boy out of Britain – and, apparently, a good deal of Britain out of the boy. Ray Davies, the once (and future?) Kinks frontman, has long been among rock’s most strident social commentators, with a decidedly British flip to his observations. But on his second proper solo album, Davis drops any sense of UK jive and draws on a residential tenure in New Orleans earlier this decade for what is decidedly the most “American” work of his more than four decades of recording. “Vietnam Cowboys” bursts forward with a gritty shuffle and ruminations about the impact of the global economy on these shores. “Hymn for a New Age” is an Americana styled anthem calling for spiritual overhaul, while “Imaginary Man” has a rootsy richness that echoes Muscle Shoals. The effect is smart, personal and potent.
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Post by rose on Feb 17, 2008 8:12:20 GMT -5
AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMIN' CD Review THE BOSTON GLOBE Ray Davies is working out the kinks He hits his stride with his second solo album Ray Davies brings wry social commentary to "Working Man's Café." By Geoff Edgers Globe Staff / February 17, 2008 "You Really Got Me." "A Well Respected Man." "All Day and All of the Night." Ray Davies wrote all those, and plenty more. His songs have been covered by everyone from the Black Keys to Yo La Tengo, sold computers and laundry detergents, and pumped life into hipper-than-thou soundtracks ("Juno," "The Darjeeling Limited"). But that's history, and Davies's long-awaited official solo debut, 2006's "Other People's Lives," didn't offer much hope for the future. Murkily written and overproduced, the record was as bland as a bowl of shredded wheat left out in the rain. So it's a welcome surprise to hear Davies on "Working Man's Café," a collection of twangy rock that might not stand up with the best Kinks work (what does?) but certainly marks his return as a maker of new music. Recorded largely over 16 days in Nashville, the album, which will be released Tuesday on New West Records, finds the 63-year-old Davies returning to one of his strengths, the wry brand of social commentary that set the Kinks apart from the Beatles and the Stones. At his best, Davies paints pictures with lyrical detail and a Cockney accent that he can flip out faster than a Diner's Club card. And he's as guilty as the rest of us. When, as Davies sings on the title track, he buys a "pair of new designer pants, where the fruit and veg man used to stand," Davies isn't just a nostalgic bystander. He's a participant. Sonically, "Working Man's Café" is also a triumph. Co-producer Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams) favors a live sound with limited overdubs. That helps on Davies's still-strong voice, as well, which was often buried on "Other People's Lives." In an interview, he says he pushed Davies to resist holing up for weeks of post-production (for excerpts, go to boston.com/ae/theater_arts/ exhibitionist). "He doesn't have the young toss-it-off attitude of early Kinks, but he still has the chops, attitude, and determination," Kennedy said. "The difference now is that he is very critical of his delivery and he does his best when he's not analyzing but just belting it out." Davies certainly does that on the album's opener, "Vietnam Cowboys," a rockabilly song that laments the spread of cheap, overseas labor. "You're Asking Me" is pure, '60s-inspired power-pop: jangly guitars, a rich hook, and soaring harmonies. The song also finds longtime Kinks drummer Mick Avory checking in on tambourine. (For those wondering, famously feuding brother Dave Davies did not participate, though Kennedy said he and Ray talked about him repeatedly during the sessions.) The battlegrounds on "Working Man's Café" aren't only economic. They are also romantic, political and, in a few songs, a little bit of both. On "Peace in Our Time," Davies uses the language of warfare to pick the bones of a broken relationship. Kinks fans will appreciate the way the chorus resolves, a descending guitar-line that sounds as if it could have been nabbed from a "Village Green Preservation Society" outtake. Even better is "One More Time," which links a failed courtship with a longing for the old ways. It is the prettiest song Davies has written in years, a ballad that stays in your head long after the music fades
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Post by Smiley on Feb 17, 2008 13:26:52 GMT -5
But that's history, and Davies's long-awaited official solo debut, 2006's "Other People's Lives," didn't offer much hope for the future. Murkily written and overproduced, the record was as bland as a bowl of shredded wheat left out in the rain.WTF? VERY POSITIVE REVIEWS -- TA, ROSE ;D #$%@@ Rolling Stone (The National Enquirer for the Moosic world )
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Post by rose on Feb 17, 2008 13:48:44 GMT -5
I so agree, Smiley! RS can make up for it by putting an Annie Leibowitz cover of RAY on the stands immediately! (She was at Carnegie Hall!) But I'm so happy to at least see WMC so well-received (even VNC in the ARAB TIMES/Kuwait!!!!)
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Post by Situation Vacant on Feb 17, 2008 17:27:00 GMT -5
I just bought a copy at a used cd store. I feel slightly guilty about buying it used, but since 75% of the cds I own were purchased used, I don't feel too guilty. I can only guess that a reporter who received an advance copy moved it to the used bin already?
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Post by cooldad98 on Feb 17, 2008 19:16:32 GMT -5
But that's history, and Davies's long-awaited official solo debut, 2006's "Other People's Lives," didn't offer much hope for the future. Murkily written and overproduced, the record was as bland as a bowl of shredded wheat left out in the rain.WTF? VERY POSITIVE REVIEWS -- TA, ROSE ;D #$%@@ Rolling Stone (The National Enquirer for the Moosic world ) I just can't believe it? One of the very best CD's of the year, "After the Fall" Creatures of Little Faith", "Over My Head", "Next Door Neighbor", "Things are Gonna Change", "All She Wrote" I just don't get it. A lot of great songs that will of course stand up to the test of time.
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Post by cooldad98 on Feb 17, 2008 19:23:25 GMT -5
Did we post this yet?
Ray Davies Sends One to the Working Man Posted by Kevin O'Hare, Playback February 17, 2008 06:00AM
By Kevin O'Hare
Ray Davies, "Working Man's Cafe" (New West/Ammal Records) 2.5 stars. Allison Moorer, "Mockingbird" (New Line) 3.5 stars. Kula Shaker, "Strangefolk" (Cooking Vinyl) 4 stars. Roomful of Blues, "Raisin' a Ruckus" (Alligator) 3 stars. Nick Lowe, "Jesus of Cool: 30th Anniversary Edition" (Yep Roc) 4 stars. Kurt Cobain, "Kurt Cobain: About a Son" (Shout! Factory - DVD) 2.5 stars.
Ray Davies, "Working Man's Cafe" (New West/Ammal Records) 2.5 stars.
You probably never thought of rapper 50 Cent and former Kinks' frontman Ray Davies as having a lot in common. Associated PressListen to a clip of Ray Davies' "Working Man's Cafe"
However, both have the dubious distinction of having survived being shot. Davies didn't take as many bullets as 50 Cent, but in January 2004 the guy behind hits like "Lola" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," was shot in the leg in New Orleans when he tried to chase down a mugger who had stolen his partner's purse.
It was quite a heroic episode actually, though it nearly cost Davies his life, when the wound became infected. He spent several weeks in the hospital, and chronicled some of his experiences on his official solo studio debut in 2006, "Other People's Lives."
There are still a few relatively oblique references to the event on "Working Man's Cafe" - especially on one of the album's best tracks "Morphine Song," which is set in a hospital - but in general Davies seems intent on just getting back to business here.
Recorded in Nashville and mixed in North London, the disc is definitely the British songwriter's "American" album, detailing his life far from home, most effectively on the provocative, grass-ain't-greener closing ballad "Real World." He sings of the perils of globalization in the rockin' "Vietnam Cowboys," and wanders through a shopping center, lamenting the loss of a simpler time in the title track.
Anyone hoping Davies might take a spin back to his Kinks' heyday may be in for a disappointment, and while there are a few definite high-energy songs, such as the cranky blast at a useless prosecutor in "No One Listen," and the richly organic take on faith, "Hymn For a New Age," most of the disc is designed with a more moderate sonic approach.
What's most unfortunate is that there are very few cuts that generate the kind of heat one might have hoped for from one of the best songwriters of the past 40 years. Davies' voice still sounds superb, but it's tough to get excited over pure filler like "Voodoo Walk," or the cliche-filled "Peace in Our Time."
It took Davies four decades to emerge with his first solo studio album, and now he's released two in three years. In many ways, it sounds like he's just getting warmed up, and if that's not incredibly exciting news, it is at the very least, evidence that he's heading in the right direction.
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Post by Smiley on Feb 17, 2008 20:48:38 GMT -5
What a great way to end the review "Sounds like he just getting Warmed Up!"
TA, Cool-Daddy-O
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Post by Situation Vacant on Feb 17, 2008 20:53:00 GMT -5
I'm listening to it now and I like Peace in Our Time! I'll be listening to the cd all day at work tomorrow and will give my review later in the day.
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