Ray Davies continues to wear his English citizenship like a badge. The Kinks have often used American musical idioms … but Ray has regularly used his considerable songwriting talents to anatomize situations of class and culture that are peculiarly English…. His nostalgia for the afternoon of the Empire, and his interest in the music hall/vaudeville traditions of his youth, continue unabated. His early efforts at the stand-up crooner idiom were often exquisite, especially "Sunny Afternoon" and "End of the Season," and most recently he has shown ingenuity in adapting fashionable rock currents to his obsession….

Everybody's in Showbiz, a double album containing a studio and a live record, is Ray's first extended look at America. The new songs deal for the most part with touring, and with the difference between Hollywood stereotypes and American reality: the live record comprises hard rock and vaudeville material from recent Kinks albums...