To my mind the Kinks have always excelled at short, simple pop songs, the best of which—like "Waterloo Sunset," "Autumn Almanac" and "Days"—have contained a warm, slightly old-fashioned sentimentality that cuts across any prejudices I have about the band's musicianship and general performance….

[Ray Davies] has sharp ears and eyes for the ways of a world that seems to lap at his doorstep while eternally he gazes, hand on chin, behind the upstairs window; and of course, that world is specifically British. However, observer though he may be, satirist he is not. His eyes may be sharp, but his pen draws no blood, essentially because he's too kindly and loveable when he should be savage, cranky and eccentric instead of incisive. The two albums in his "Preservation" drama proffer Davies' view of the way in which his world is being dragged into the mud, a dirty...