(Credits: Far Out / KRLA Beat/Beat Publications, Inc.)
Sun 26 October 2025 12:00, UK
By the start of the 1980s, The Kinks had all but unwittingly destroyed all previous semblance of a commercial stock, and were struggling to hold the attention of the mainstream in the same way that they had previously managed to.
This was nothing new for the band, as they’d fluctuated between being immensely popular and commercially bereft before, and they’d always bounce back by proving their brilliance in shapeshifting. Several of their records have now experienced a reevaluation in their quality since release, with the public finding it hard to latch onto some of their more experimental works, but audiences now recognise that this is among their finest output.
Ray Davies was adept at writing in different styles and was always looking to experiment with genre in ways that sometimes paid off and other times would leave listeners confused at their sudden change of direction. That being said, it was ultimately the way that Davies wanted to work, and if it meant that people would perceive him as flippant and unfocused, then so be it – he was still convinced by the art he was creating, and that was all that mattered.
Despite this proclivity for altering their sound on a regular basis and a refusal to play by anyone else’s rules but their own, one thing that they had seemingly established as a house rule for each of their records by this point is to end the record on an uplifting and jubilant note. It had been done on previous occasions on Sleepwalker and Misfits at the end of the 1970s, but the way in which they managed to do it on Give The People What They Want perhaps dealt up one of their greatest one-two punches of their discography.
By this point of their career, they’d adopted something of a power pop style akin to the work of Alex Chilton, someone who is often considered to be the American equivalent of Davies for his love of melody. However, the way they went from the dark and raucous ‘A Little Bit of Abuse’ into the jaunty and vibrant ‘Better Things’ is a marvellous way to end a record by anyone’s standards, and for The Kinks, who had struggled for success during this period of their career, it proved that there were still flashes of genius that drove the band towards gold every once in a while.
“It’s just a change, a musical trick,” Davies would later explain to Creem. “I really like the song, ‘Better Things’. It gives me hope, and after a song like ‘A Little Bit Of Abuse’, you need some hope.”
Davies and the band play with expectations and make you think you’re in for a big climax, but it turns out that they want to give the calm after the storm and let people go away without a feeling of dread and despair, and while neither of these songs, nor the album that they originate from, are among their best-known works, it’s still a fantastic closing duo that deserves far more attention than it got upon release.
Related Topics