The ninety-seventh album: #97 The Kinks - Something Else By The Kinks
With the Kinks moving towards a poppier rock - without too much psychedelia or hard rock, this album feels inclined towards easier listening - we get a friendly list of songs with diverse, smart lyrics, somewhat of a variety of styles, but all staying within a 'normal' sound, aimed at a wider audience. I'm not sure whether this is intended or the sound they wanted just felt this way, but there's some good pop songs in here, even if they have a rock bend. Even then, Love Me Till The Sun Shines takes it the other way, mixing in more psychedelic sounds - I guess we get a lot of different influences here and Dave Davies seems to lean more towards that while Ray goes for the poppier songs.
I prefer these songs though. I've mentioned my appreciation of Waterloo Sunset before and it still is as good, and the other songs that draw on this are the ones that are best to listen to. There's some Beach Boys influence, but it keeps it simple, as much as it needs to be, and doesn't go too far. Here, this is where that approach works.