--- In audities@yahoogroups.com, matty karas <mkaras@m...> wrote:

> "sleepwalker," "misfits," "low budget" and "give the people what they
want" are big lumbering classic-rock radio albums, which represent the kinks
at their most commercially popular but not at all at their best. but they're
perfectly decent big lumbering rock records, with  the ofter-humorous "low
budget" standing half a head above the others.

I actually like Sleepwalker and Misfits quite a bit, and never really saw
them as big or lumbering.  The most straight-ahead classic rock records, to
be sure, but very melodic and not without that Davies whimsy.  At the time
of the albums' release in the late '70s, I heard them played quite a bit on
WNEW-FM, and they seemed like a great alternative to Springsteen, Seger,
Billy Joel, and everyone else they were playing incessantly on that station
(don't get me wrong, I especially liked The Springsteen and Billy Joel stuff
from that period, but was getting thoroughly sick of hearing them played to
death, as well as listening to the obsequious WNEW DJs fawning over those
artists every day).

Anyway, I would rank Sleepwalker and Misfits as not the best of The Kinks
canon (I agree with Matty that Something Else and Village Green are the Kink
Grail), but not too far below.
--
Pop Rules!!!!!
Take Care,
David