Word of Mouth

This 1984 album came near the end of The Kinks tenure with the Arista label. Though the band had enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success of their career on Arista, WORD OF MOUTH sank with nary a trace upon release. Ironically, the record is now quite clearly seen as their finest work of the decade. For the most part, WORD OF MOUTH is toned down from the volume and pace of its predecessors (STATE OF CONFUSION, GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT), and there's a calm and quiet that pervades the whole album. This actually stands in marked contrast to the tumult and chaos the band was in the midst at the time this was recorded.
The rich, warm production is perfectly suited to some of Ray Davies' finest songs, "Good Day" and "Summer's Gone," while "Too Hot" would have sounded right at home on MUSWELL HILLBILLIES, and "Sold Me Out" out-Stones the Rolling Stones. For anyone skeptical about The Kinks post-seventies output, this album will be a revelation.