Low Budget

Low Budget is the seventeenth studio album by the English rock group, The Kinks, released in 1979. It was a great success for the group, becoming their best-selling non-compilation album, peaking at #11 on the US album charts. Low Budget represented a major renaissance for the Kinks, especially in the United States. After a decade of concept albums and songs that recalled simpler times, Low Budget marked a new direction for the Kinks by addressing contemporary issues such as inflation, labor strife (which was especially severe in the U.K. during the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent), and the 1979 energy crisis. Songs such as "Catch Me Now I'm Falling", which was Davies' take on America's declining influence in the world, "(Which I Could Fly Like) Superman", "Low Budget", and "A Gallon of Gas", epitomized these themes. In another change for the band, the Kinks recorded Low Budget in the U.S. and launched an extensive concert tour in America to support the album. Six of the eleven songs from the album are included on the double-live album One for the Road which was recorded in 1979 and 1980 during the Low Budget tour.