Lola Versus

Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One is the eighth studio album by The Kinks, one of the most influential rock acts of all time, and was recorded and released in 1970. A concept album, it is a satirical appraisal of the music industry, including song publishers, unions, the press, accountants, business managers, and life on the road. This classic album appeared during a transitional period for the Kinks, and was a critical and commercial success. 50th anniversary Digipack CD release contains the original album new remaster from original HD master tapes plus alternate mono track versions and two new Ray Davies mixes. Features the hit singles Lola and Apeman. Produced in association with The Kinks, with audio and visual content curated by Ray Davies.

"Lola" gave the Kinks an unexpected hit and its crisp, muscular sound, pitched halfway between acoustic folk and hard rock, provided a new style for the band. However, the song only hinted at what its accompanying album Lola Versus the Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One was all about…

This box set delivers both a little more and a little less than it promises – though the packaging is so cryptic that it's difficult to say precisely what it does promise. Billed as The Pye Album Collection, it contains ten nicely packaged mini-LP sleeves (each with an appropriate inner sleeve to protect the CD – are you listening, Sony Classical, Rhino Handmade, and Hip-O Select?) representing the group's ten original albums for Pye Records.

The Kinks were one of the most influential bands of the British Invasion. Early singles "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night" were brutal, three-chord ravers that paved the way for punk and metal while inspiring peers like the Who. In the mid-'60s, frontman Ray Davies came into his own as a songwriter, developing a wry wit and an eye for social commentary that culminated in a pair of conceptual LPs, The Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), that proved enormously influential over the years.

BMG follow up this years The Kinks The Journey release (from March this year), and continue the 60th anniversary celebrations, with Part 2, which will be available as a 2CD or 2LP package. Compiled by the band, this collection is curated “according to themes inspired by the trials and tribulations of their journey through life together as a band since 1963”.

Amidst rumors a reunion album, The Kinks have announced a 50th anniversary reissue of their seventh studio album, Arthur Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire.