The Kinks - Victoria
The Kinks - Shangri-La
The Kinks' Arthur is the last album I heard playing in a record store (in this case Amoeba Records in Berkeley) that I immediately fell in love with. I'd never heard Arthur before, and I found it totally arresting--without knowing for sure if it was the Kinks, I went up and asked the guy behind the counter and he gestured to the CD with a sort of 'voila' movement. This happened in December and I've been listening to the album intermittently since then, and it continues to fascinate and thrill me. I'm not sure why it's so difficult (i.e. impossible) to find this in a digital version, especially considering that this is the Kinks, who are not exactly what you would call an obscure band (surely there must be some convoluted and bizarre rights issue with the album--maybe it has to do with the fact that it started off as the soundtrack to a TV show?). The CD is out there, though, plus there's a pretty fancy deluxe reissue you can buy (if you like expensive import CDs).[BUY Arthur]