Preservation: Act 1 is a 1973 concept album by the English rock group 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...
Preservation: Act 1 is a 1973 concept album by the English rock group 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. In particular, All Music's Stephen Thomas Erlewine has declared "Sweet Lady Genevieve" to be the "real candidate for Davies' forgotten masterpiece".
The CD reissue of Preservation: Act 1 includes the single versions of "Preservation" and "One of the Survivors", neither of which are available on the original vinyl release. The latter briefly charted on the Billboard Pop Singles chart peaking at #108. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
