Thanksgiving Day
Strictly speaking, there's only one new song on this EP. The pounding "London Song" and gentle "Storyteller" are bonus studio tracks from 1998's music-and-spoken-word showThe Storyteller, while the swinging, big-band "Yours Truly, Confused N10"--recorded with Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra--originally appeared on the latter'sSmall World Big Band, Vol. 2: More Friendsfour years later. But the title track--a teaser for Ray Davies's debut solo album,Other People's Lives--is all new. Nothing like the music hall of Davies's Kinks heyday, "Thanksgiving Day" is, rather, a brassy Southern soul ballad that sounds like something offExile on Main StreetorOtis Blue. Meanwhile, Davies's gift for wistful songcraft hasn't departed him, as he tells us that on this fourth November Thursday, "A lonely spinster prays / for a handsome lover and a passionate embrace, and kisses all over her American face." If this is any indication of the full album's quality, Davies fans are in for a real treat.--Benjamin Lukoff