Face to Face (The Kinks album)
| Face to Face | ||||
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| Studio album by the Kinks | ||||
| Released | 28 October 1966 | |||
| Recorded | 23 October 1965 – 21 June 1966 | |||
| Studio | Pye Studios, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 38:32 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Shel Talmy | |||
| the Kinks chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Face to Face | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | |
Face to Face is the fourth studio album by the English rock band the Kinks, released in October 1966. The album had marked the band's shift from the hard-driving style of beat music, catapulting them to international acclaim. Being their first album consisting entirely of Ray Davies' compositions, it has also been regarded by critics as rock's first concept album.
Ray Davies suffered a nervous breakdown just prior to the major recording sessions for the album. In contrast to the band's earlier "raunchy" sound, he had started to introduce a new, softer style of writing the previous year with compositions such as "A Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion". In July 1966, the single "Sunny Afternoon", also written in that style, reached #1 in the UK, and the song's great popularity proved to Ray and the Kinks' managers that the group could find success with this style of songwriting. The new album would follow this pattern, as would the group's recorded output for the next five years. The 1966–71 period inaugurated by this album would later be called Ray's and the Kinks' "golden age".
Rock historians have credited the album as arguably one of the first rock/pop concept albums, with the loose common theme of social observation. In the album's original inception, Ray attempted to bridge the songs together with sound effects, but was forced to revert to the more standard album format by Pye Records before the album's release. Some effects remain such as in "Party Line", "Holiday in Waikiki", "Rainy Day in June" and on songs not included on the final album ("End of the Season", "Big Black Smoke").
"I'll Remember" was the earliest track on the album, having been recorded in October 1965 during sessions for The Kink Kontroversy. Two other songs recorded during the Face to Face sessions – "This Is Where I Belong" and "She's Got Everything" – were eventually released as B-sides to singles released in 1967 and 1968, respectively. Both songs eventually appeared on the 1972 US compilation album The Kink Kronikles.Pete Quaife had temporarily quit the band before the June–July 1966 recording sessions, and his replacement John Dalton can be confirmed playing only on the track "Little Miss Queen of Darkness". Contractual issues held up the release of the album for several months after final recording, and Ray was also in conflict with Pye over the final album cover art, whose psychedelic theme he later felt was inappropriate.
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