Kinks
Low Budget - Arista 1979
1. Attitude / 2. Catch Me Now I'm Falling / 3. Pressure / 4. National Health / 5. Superman / 6. Low Budget / 7. In a Space / 8. Little Bit of Emotion / 9. Gallon of Gas / 10. Misery / 11. Moving Pictures / 12. Gallon of Gas [*] / 13. Catch Me Now I'm Falling [*] / 14. Superman [*]
Comments:
In 1979, when this album was originally released, The Kinks were my unquestioned number one favourite band. A few years earlier I had been fortunate to meet Mick Avory and John Gosling in the Marquee club, and I had a very interesting talk with John Gosling about "Schoolboys in Disgrace", which he thought was their best album so far.
The musical trends had changed quite dramatically during the last two years, so I was very pleased with the Kinks being able to follows these new punk/new-wave trends and adapt to them. In the beginning I loved this new album, "Low Budget"; especially the cool rocker"Attitude" and the lovely ballad "A Little Bit of Emotion".
Now, seen in retrospect, my feelings towards this album have changed, and I regard it as one of the weakest Kinks albums. For a Kinks album the number of real good songs is small, and the overall sound is monotonous and pretty dull.
Of course there are positive moments, and new favourites have come up. There is a lot of charm and humour in the single "Superman" and "Moving Pictures" flows pleasantly, sounding like an outtake from an earlier album. The title track was a live-favourite for many years, but on a studio album it doesn't really work, and it's more or less a drag. One of the few Kinks albums that has not aged very well.
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