# What is the best album by The Kinks?

> Ray Davies gave us pastoral English social satire, swaggering hard rock, and music-hall eccentricity — sometimes on the same album. Which Kinks record do you keep coming back to?

*By YPB Team · Published April 14, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-album-by-the-kinks*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society**
   The Kinks' 1968 pastoral concept album, a bittersweet love letter to a vanishing England now regarded as one of rock's greatest.
2. **Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)**
   A 1969 rock opera tracing one family's story against the backdrop of Britain's fading imperial glory, often cited as their most ambitious work.
3. **Something Else by the Kinks**
   A 1967 album blending sharp social observation with pop craft, featuring the transcendent 'Waterloo Sunset'.
4. **Muswell Hillbillies**
   The Kinks' 1971 cult classic, a sad and funny portrait of ordinary London life filtered through country, music hall, and barroom folk.
5. **Face to Face**
   A 1966 album marking Ray Davies' shift toward character-driven narrative songwriting that would define the band's golden era.
6. **Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One**
   A 1970 satirical album skewering the music industry featuring the iconic hits 'Lola' and 'Apeman'.
7. **The Kink Kontroversy**
   A 1965 hard-rocking album that captured the band's early raw energy at its most powerful and aggressive.
8. **Low Budget**
   The Kinks' 1979 comeback album blending hard rock with satirical commentary on economic hardship, their biggest US chart success.
9. **Sleepwalker**
   A 1977 album marking The Kinks' American rock revival, showcasing a tighter and more commercial sound that reached the US top 30.
10. **State of Confusion**
   A 1983 album featuring the top-20 hit 'Come Dancing', a nostalgic and melodic pop-rock success showcasing Davies' storytelling at its most accessible.
11. **Kinda Kinks**
   The Kinks' urgent 1965 sophomore album capturing their raw, blues-infused British Invasion energy at its most unfiltered.

Tags: music, rock, 60s, bands, british