Muswell Hillbillies and
Everybody's in Show-Biz, the first two albums
the Kinks released under their contract with
RCA Records, are paired in this super-deluxe box set from 2022. The two albums have been remastered, and there's a host of new bonus material, too. None of the bonus tracks from previous reissues of
Muswell Hillbillies -- a 1998 single disc with "Mountain Woman" and a demo of "Kentucky Moon," then two similar editions from the early 2010s: a 2013-double-disc deluxe and a 2014 Legacy edition -- are on CD, nor are the additions to the 2016 double-disc edition of
Everybody's in Show-Biz. What's here is an album containing 11 new
Ray Davies remixes, then a disc of "The Kinks 1971 US Tour Travel Montage," which also has some new
Davies remixes. There's also a Blu-ray containing 15 minutes of restored footage from 1971 home movies of
the Kinks on tour, a hardback book, memorabilia, and a map of the band's "London Roots," plus colored vinyl pressings of the two albums --
Muswell Hillbillies now spans two LPs,
Everybody's in Show-Biz three, with the bonus LPs covering the extra material from previous CD reissues -- and a heavyweight black vinyl pressing of the new
Ray Davies remixes. The decision to shuffle the bonus material onto vinyl only is a bit odd; it's the kind of material that plays better on CD, not LP. The point of this Super Deluxe edition is the forest, not the trees, though: this is how the two albums play off each other, illustrating how
Davies balanced soul-baring with the grand theatrical tendencies that would soon come to fruition on the
Preservation project. If
Muswell Hillbillies may be a stronger, leaner album, the overblown
Everybody's in Show-Biz is also quite appealing, particularly when
Davies leans into camp recitations of the excess of the road -- plus the band sounds lithe and loose on the live set. As attractive as the package may be -- and it's quite impressive -- forcing concentration to consider these two albums a matched set is the real value of this super deluxe edition. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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