Since suffering a stroke in 2004, founding guitarist of The Kinks, Dave Davies, has not only fully recovered but also managed to record a few solo albums, his latest titled Rippin' Up Time. Long time Kinks fans who love his mighty riffs & exciting solos will be quite pleased with the guitar work on display throughout Rippin' Up Time, as many of these songs fall squarely into the hard rock realm, Davies firing off a wide assortment of distortion laced riffs that show he still has plenty of gas left in his tank.
Dave is legendary for being one of the creators of heavy rock riffing for a reason, and he dips into his bag of molten riffs quite often here. The title track, "Semblance of Sanity", "Johnny Adams", and "Nosey Neighbors" are all crunchy hard rockers, with Davies' fuzz soaked riffs front and center, while the catchy "Mindwash" mixes roots rock with proto-metal guitar mayhem. Those looking for Kinks styled pop ditties will love "Between the Towers", "In the Old Days", and "Front Room", while "King of Karaoke" is probably the cleverest tune on the CD, a real hook laden pop rocker that anyone who has been to a karaoke night at your local bar will instantly relate to.
As good as much of this is, there is one striking pain point throughout Rippin' Up Time, and that's Dave's vocals. Most of the time he's straining, out of key, and in spots it's almost painful to listen to. A fun, melodic rocker like "Through My Window" is sadly brought down a notch due to the weak vocals. While Davies has so many great guitar ideas, and can still write some damn good songs, he either needs a singer for his solo stuff, or, patch things up with this brother Ray and let the Kings soar once again. Guitar wise, this is a very strong, hard rocking album, but just be aware, the vocals are a bit rough.
Track Listing
1) Ripping Up Time
2) Semblance of Sanity
3) King of Karaoke
4) Front Room
5) Johnny Adams
6) Nosey Neighbors
7) Mindwash
8) Between the Towers
9) In the Old Days
10) Though My Window
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