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Ray Davies Other People's Lives Review

Album. Released 6 February 2006. Discography information comes from MusicBrainz. You can add or edit information about Other People's Lives at musicbrainz.org.

BBC Review

It feels a little unfair to judge this against the majesty of The Kinks, but anyone...

Chris Long 2006-02-17

It's hard to believe, but Other Peoples Live's is Ray Davies' solo debut. Who'd have thought there'd be such a milestone left for a man with such a long musical career?

It's hard for an artist with Davies' history to escape comparisons with the past and it feels a little unfair to judge this against the majesty of The Kinks, but inevitably, anyone hoping for another "Waterloo Sunset", "Autumn Almanac" or "Lola" will be disappointed.

There's little that stands out from a disturbingly average collection which can only be compared to a mid-Atlantic version of Del Amitri. For a songwriter of Davies' calibre, Other People's Lives is nothing short of a failure.

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    • 1. At 7:23pm on 21 Sep 2009, timeyer wrote:

      I've been a Kinks fan since the early sixties and I disagree with this review. The first two songs are very good, while "Run Away from Time" and "The Getaway" are outstanding. And Thanksgiving Day is again Ray at his everymans very best!

      Also please try to get the titles of the songs correct I believe the fourth song is titled "All She Wrote"! This leads me to believe the author t really wasn't very attentive to this collection of songs.

      Tim Meyer

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