Soap Opera

Starting out life as a 1974 teleplay starring Ray Davies for which The Kinks provided the music, The Kinks Present A Soap Opera was an ambitious conceptual leap even by Davies’ standard. Yet The Kinks’ 14th album is one of the most interesting and unfrequented records in their back catalogue. The central construct wherein a pop star switches places with a man called Norman to find out about lives of everybody people has proved eerily prescient in the era of reality TV, and while the overtly theatrical touches, including actress June Ritchie appearing as Norman’s wife Andrea, take some getting used to, the songs are sharp, witty and among Davies’ best of the decade.