Ray Davies
had indulged himself one time too often with
Soap Opera
, and his bandmates, namely brother
Dave
and founding member
Mick Avory
, revolted, insisting that their sixth
RCA
album sound more like a
Kinks
album (certainly, that's something
wanted too). So,
Davies
designed their next album as a return to a simpler, band-oriented sound. Of course, he didn't jettison his love for conceptual works, so
Schoolboys in Disgrace
was born. Working under the presumption that a return to simple
rock
demanded a simple theme,
constructed the album as a nostalgic trip through childhood, reviving '50s
rock & roll
(including the occasional
doo wop
harmony) for the album's foundation, then turning the amps up high. There's no actual story per se -- it's a series of vignettes, like a coming-of-age film. As such, it's intermittently successful, on both the
hard rock
(
"Jack the Idiot Dunce"
) and
ballads
"The First Time We Fall in Love"
). [A Japanese edition was issued in 2009.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine