Music Review: "Other People's Lives"

I don't know if this is old news to some of you already, but I've just given a once through of the new Ray Davies solo disc "Other People's Lives" and I'm impressed. I find that too often too many of our favorite artists either don't age well (The Rolling Stones certainly come to mind but for more recent bands I would list The Strokes), or lose touch with what made them special (oh so many bands here), or try to recapture their youth with embarrassing results (again Rolling Stones). Not so here -- In fact the opposite is true in all three cases. Davies somehow manages to recapture his 70's Kinks heyday while updating his material and production to not sound dated or out of step.

Now, this is not to say that supermegaconsolidatedconglomerate radio is going to play much of this, but they should.

I was a little apprehensive about this disc. But after just one listen, I found it quite interesting and enjoyable. And I do not often come to that point of view with music these days. I want to give it more time, but it did sound like Ray had been making music all along, growing with the times, but staying true to who he was. How often can we say that about a musician?

The only other album I can think of recently that I'd put in this catagory (60's/70's Artist comeback) would be Ian Hunter's 2001 release "Rant." Much overlooked that one. At any rate, here's hoping that people give "Other People's Lives" a chance.