Mojo gave it 1 star and  calling it a "travesty". Was looking forward to it as well.
Meanwhile, what happened to the supposed Kinks reunion I read about ?

> Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:56:39 -0500
> From: bholmes_fm@msn.com
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Ray Davies duets album
> 
> I'm a Kinks fan *and* a tribute fan and was looking forward to this 
> album, but this UK review is pretty brutal - ouch! Hopefully the truth 
> lies in the middle.
> 
> ---
> 
> Following on from 2009’s The Kinks Choral Collection, on which Ray 
> Davies rearranged his back catalogue with the Crouch End Festival 
> Chorus, See My Friends finds him sifting through his songbook once 
> again, only this time he’s brought Bon Jovi along.
> 
> Yes, it’s a duets album, of the type that veteran artists produce when 
> they’ve nothing left to prove. Such ventures seldom serve much point 
> beyond flattering the star with attention from fellow musicians, who in 
> turn are honoured by association. Plus they sell well.
> 
> Ray Davies doesn’t need to record a soporific version of Tired of 
> Waiting with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, any more than Bruce 
> Springsteen needs to trample the bittersweet Better Things with his 
> wholly unsuitable bombast. But both were doubtless thrilled by the 
> opportunity to record with Davies. And that’s just it: these all-star 
> gatherings are more fun for the artists than they are for the listener.
> 
> Try as one might, it’s impossible to resist comparing these duets 
> against the hallowed originals, especially when their arrangements 
> barely differ. The likes of This is Where I Belong with Frank Black 
> (billed as Black Francis) and Long Way From Home with Lucinda Williams 
> are pleasant recordings of wonderful songs, but what is their point? 
> Jackson Browne may be in simpatico with Davies’ unweathered voice on 
> Waterloo Sunset, but will anyone ever reach for this version over the 
> magical original? Will they even remember it exists?
> 
> For better or downright ghastly, the most memorable tracks are those on 
> which the guests imprint themselves. The undoubted highlights are 
> Mumford & Sons’ folk-gospel medley, Days / This Time Tomorrow, its 
> arrangement madly ambitious compared with its companions, and Spoon’s 
> shoegazing treatment of the proto-psychedelic title-track. The late Alex 
> Chilton sounds genuinely enthused on ‘Til the End of the Day, a song his 
> old band Big Star covered during the Third/Sister Lovers sessions. 
> Recorded in 2009, it was the spur for these sessions.
> 
> But the tenderness and wit of Davies’ songs and singing is smothered by 
> his blunter collaborators. However sincere, Springsteen’s bellowing 
> simply doesn’t work. Paloma Faith’s Lola is a wretched, over-sung X 
> Factor throwaway. Metallica’s drilling of You Really Got Me is bar-band 
> bad. And Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora’s overwrought stadium-rock 
> assault on Celluloid Heroes is a laughable abomination.
> 
> It’s testament to Davies’ legacy that he emerges from this inessential 
> project with his dignity intact.
> 
>