Background
Davies suffered a nervous breakdown just prior to the major recording sessions for the album. The new style of writing began gradually the previous year with compositions such as "A Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" and in May 1966 with the hit single "Sunny Afternoon", which reached no. 1 in the UK. This song's great popularity proved to Davies and The Kinks' managers that the group could find success with this style of songwriting. The new album would follow this pattern, as would the group's recorded output for the next five years. The 1966–1971 period inaugurated by this album would later be called Davies' and The Kinks' "golden age".
Rock historians have credited the album as arguably one of the first rock and roll concept albums, with the loose common theme of social observation. In the album's original inception, Ray Davies attempted to bridge the songs together with sound effects, but was forced to revert to the more standard album format by Pye Records before the album's release. Some effects remain such as in "Party Line", "Holiday in Waikiki", "Rainy Day in June" and on songs not included in the final album ("End of the Season", "Big Black Smoke").
Read more about this topic: Face To Face (The Kinks album)
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