11 tracks · 39 min
"Preservation: Act 1" is a 1973 concept album by the English rock group The Kinks. It is the eleventh studio album by The Kinks. Preservation was not well received by critics and sold poorly (peaking on the Billboard 200 at #177), though the live performances of the material were much better received. Many hardcore Kinks fans were alienated by Ray Davies' melodramatic songwriting during the Preservation project era, resulting in albums that played more like the soundtracks to a piece of musical theatre than rock albums. However, more recent reviews of Preservation: Act 1 have been more sympathetic to its ambitions.[citation needed] In particular, AllMusics Stephen Thomas Erlewine has declared "Sweet Lady Genevieve" to be the "real candidate for Davies' forgotten masterpiece". The 1991 CD reissue on Rhino was a 2-CD set combining Preservation: Act 1 with its 1974 follow-up Preservation: Act 2, but with no bonus tracks other than an extended mix of "Money & Corruption / I Am Your Man", featuring an extra instrumental break. The 1998 CD reissue of Preservation: Act 1 on Velvel includes the single versions of "Preservation" and "One of the Survivors", neither of which are available on …
