MASTERPIECE : THE KINKS' "WICKED ANNABELLA".......This track from the otherwise bucolic "The Village Green Preservation Society" is a bonafide scorcher, one that nearly replaces "Shangri-La" as my #1 favorite in THE KINKS' pantheon of top-drawer rock songs (a pantheon that you may remember I only seriously began exploring last year). "Wicked Annabella" just seethes with perverse delight, a tale of a crazy witch told by a cackling old codger to frighten his grandkids, but more importantly, it stomps like a mother. The chords that are aggressively hit in the chorus on the words "hair", "face" and "eyes" are just monstrous, and more reminiscent of The Kinks' early hard beat career than the rest of "Village Green....". And those drums! I don't know the name of the Kinks' drummer, Stu Stuart or Phil Phillips or Eric "Stumpy" Joe or something, but he sounds like Max Roach all beaned up on shermans on this one. Full of rolls and fills that just flat-out work. What a song. I can't stop punching the repeat on my yuppie music-playing device.

posted by Jay H. at 11:10 AM