█████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▓▓ ██████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▒ ████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▓ █████████████████████████████████████████ ░▒ ▒▒ ░██████████████████████████████████████▒▒▓ ▓ ███████████████████████████████████████ ▒░ ████████████████████████████████████ █ ██████████████████████████████████▒ █ ▓█████████████████████████████████ ▒ ████████████████████████████████ ▒▒ ▒██████████████████████████████ ▒█ █████████████████████████████ ▒█▓▒ ████████████████████████████ ░██░ ░█░ ███████████████████████████ ████ ██████████████████████████▒ ▓████ █████████████████████████▓ █████░ █████████████████████████▓ ██████░ ████████████████████████▓ ███████ ███████████████████████▓ ████████▒ ▓█████████████████████▒ ▓█████████ ████████████████████░ ░███████████▒ █████████░██████▓░ ▒█████████████▒ ██████▓ ██ ▒▒█████████████████▒ ░█████ ███ ░ ░▒████████████████████▒▒ ██████▒░█▒██░█ █▒ ████████████████████████▒ ████████▒ ▓███ ████▓█ ██████████████████████░ ███████ ▒ ░██░ █ ███ ▒███████████████████████ ███████░ ▒ ███ █ ░██████████████████████████ ████████▓ ▓█░ ▒██████████████████████████████▒ ████████░▒██▒██████████████████████████████████ ████████████ █████████████████████████████████▒ ████████████ ████████████████████████████████ ████████████▓░██████████████████████████████▒ ████ ██ ██ █████████████ █████████████████████████████▒ ██ ██ ██████████████████████████████████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████ █████████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ███████████████████████████████████████▓ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██ ████████████████████████████████████▒ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ ███████████████████████████████████▒ ▒ █████████████████████████████████ ▒▒░ ELITE RECORD PLAYERS ███████████████████████████████ ▒▒ █████████████████████████████ ▒ ▒▒ ██████████████████████████▓ ▒▒▒ ████████████████████████ ░▒ ████████████████████ ░▒▓▒ ░ ███████████████▒▒░░▒░█░ ░ ┌────────┐ ────┤ Info ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ Artist | Ray Davies Title | Americana Genre | Rock Format | Album Source | CDDA Time | 58:26 Label | Sony Music Store | 2017 Catalog | 88875102362 Rip | 2017 Bitrate | 233 kbps Size | 104.15 MB Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4 ┌────────┐ ────┤ Tracks ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ 01. Americana 4:02 02. The Deal 5:03 03. Poetry 5:05 04. Message From The Road 2:57 05. A Place In Your Heart 5:03 06. The Mystery Room 3:51 07. Silent Movie 1:12 08. Rock N Roll Cowboys 4:21 09. Change For Change 3:23 10. The Man Upstairs 1:37 11. I've Heard That Beat Before 4:03 12. A Long Drive Home To Tarzana 5:00 13. The Great Highway 4:43 14. The Invaders 3:47 15. Wings Of Fantasy 4:19 ┌────────┐ ────┤ Notes ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘ Ray Davies was the lead singer, chief songwriter, and rhythm guitarist in The Kinks, one of the most long-lived of the British Invasion rock groups of the 1960s. In effect, The Kinks had always been merely a backup group for Davies, who wrote and sang nearly all their songs with only the occasional contribution from his brother Dave, who played lead guitar in the group. At various times, Ray Davies made noises about dissolving the group and going solo, but for years the closest he came to it was taking solo credit for the soundtrack to his 1985 film, Return To Waterloo (which he wrote and directed), even though the music sounds as much like the Kinks as that on any regular Kinks record. Davies published a memoir chronicling his life-long affair with America in 2013. Naturally, it was called "Americana", and that's also the title of this 2017 musical adaptation of the book. Davies plays a little fast and loose with his facts, which is perhaps a detriment in an autobiography but suits the condensed nature of songwriting. He doesn't tell a story with "Americana" - it's not a song cycle along the lines of "Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire)" - but rather offers a series of vignettes, some torn from the pages of his book, others expanding upon its themes. Images of highways, cowboys, and movies dance through the songs, as do sly allusions to the Kinks. It's not just that there's an echo of "All Day And All Of The Night" on "The Man Upstairs", either: "Poetry" recalls the pastoral jangle of Village Green Preservation Society and "The Great Highway" stomps like a Low Budget outtake. This is the key to understanding "Americana". While there are a few nods to classic American music - "A Place In Your Heart" rambles like an old country & western tune - "Americana" is Davies examining how America has changed him, so it fits that his own work is threaded into the album. Backed by The Jayhawks - an Americana band raised on the British Invasion - Davies manages to skillfully pull off such subtle shifts in tone. Collaborating with a working band enlivens him - there's snap and muscle here that were missing on the otherwise fine "Working Man's Cafe" - and for as good as the songs are, what's initially so absorbing about "Americana" is this limber musicality. What makes it last are the songs, which are wry, moving, and truthful, which wasn't always the case in his book. ┌────────┐ ────┤ Group ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── └────────┘