The Kinks Albums Ranked: All 24 Studio Records, 1964 to 1993

The Kinks Albums Ranked: All 24 Studio Records, Every Credited Musician Mapped

Few bands in British rock have the range of The Kinks. From the fuzz-riffed swagger of You Really Got Me to the pastoral melancholy of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, Ray Davies wrote it all and made it feel coherent.

I spend a long time inside a band's credits before committing them to a map, and The Kinks reward it. Their 24 studio albums, from 1964 to 1993, tell a story of contradiction, commercial frustration and surprising late-era resilience.

The Kinks Discography Map Art Print charts the studio albums as stations, with Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Mick Avory, Pete Quaife, John Dalton, John Gosling, Jim Rodford, Ian Gibbons and a rotating cast of session players drawn as the lines running through them. The credited musician count ranges from 4 on Phobia to 14 on Preservation Act 2, and that range tells its own story about how the band's ambitions expanded and contracted.

The Kinks Albums at a Glance

Album	Year	Credited musicians
Kinks	1964	9
Kinda Kinks	1965	6
The Kink Kontroversy	1965	8
Face to Face	1966	7
Something Else by the Kinks	1967	6
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society	1968	6
Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)	1969	5
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One	1970	5
Percy	1971	5
Muswell Hillbillies	1971	10
Everybody's in Show-Biz	1972	9
Preservation Act 1	1973	13
Preservation Act 2	1974	14
Soap Opera	1975	6
Schoolboys in Disgrace	1975	11
Sleepwalker	1977	6
Misfits	1978	13
Low Budget	1979	6
Give the People What They Want	1981	6
State of Confusion	1983	5
Word of Mouth	1984	6
Think Visual	1986	7
UK Jive	1989	7
Phobia	1993	4

The Lower Tier: Worth Hearing, Hard to Love

24. UK Jive (1989), 7 credited musicians

The penultimate record and arguably the most awkward. There are moments of the old Davies wit, but the production sits uneasily between American AOR and something trying to be heavy. How Do I Get Close salvages some dignity. Ian Gibbons and Bob Henrit hold the rhythm section together. This is also Mick Avory's last appearance on the map, drumming on Entertainment.

23. Schoolboys in Disgrace (1975), 11 credited musicians

The last of the theatrical run that ran through Preservation Act 1, Act 2 and Soap Opera before the band pivoted to arena rock. Not without charm, but thin compared to what preceded it. The 11-musician count reflects the expanded lineup of that period, with John Gosling, Mike Cotton on trumpet and John Beecham on trombone all present.

22. Think Visual (1986), 7 credited musicians

Competent mid-eighties rock that never quite ignites. Bob Henrit's drums and Ian Gibbons' keyboards give it backbone, but Ray's songwriting feels constrained by the decade's production norms. Kim Goody contributes backing vocals on the title track, and Mark Haley adds keyboards on Down All the Days, two of the shortest spurs on the map.

21. Word of Mouth (1984), 6 credited musicians

The handover to Bob Henrit, with Mick Avory appearing on only a handful of tracks. Patchy, though Do It Again is a hook that has stuck around for four decades. Ray's drum machine credits on Good Day, Do It Again and Living on a Thin Line are among the more unusual entries in the whole discography.

20. Phobia (1993), 4 credited musicians

The final studio album, and with four credited musicians it is the sparsest station on the entire map. There are glimpses of the classic Kinks, Dave's guitar tone and Ray's defiant eye on England, but it sprawls where it should focus. A decent close to a remarkable run.

19. Soap Opera (1975), 6 credited musicians

A theatrical concept record about a rock star who swaps lives with a commuter. Lyrically sharp in places but hard to return to. The core lineup carries it without the expanded brass section that defines the Preservation albums on either side.

The Middle Ground: Solid Records With Real Moments

18. Percy (1971), 5 credited musicians

The soundtrack to the 1971 film. Surprisingly gentle and melodic in parts, with John Gosling's keyboards adding real texture. Stranger and better than its premise suggests.

17. Kinks (1964), 9 credited musicians

The debut. Raw, raucous and built heavily on covers. You Really Got Me and Stop Your Sobbing are the landmarks. Bobby Graham plays drums on most of it, with Mick Avory absent for the bulk of the sessions. Jimmy Page contributes twelve-string acoustic on tracks 6 and 12, and Jon Lord plays organ on track 9. Two of the shortest branch lines on the map, and two of the best to point at.

16. Kinda Kinks (1965), 6 credited musicians

Recorded quickly in the wake of the debut's success, and it shows. But there is real energy here, and Ray's voice already has the world-weary quality that would define the decade ahead.

15. Preservation Act 1 (1973), 13 credited musicians

The opening chapter of Ray's most ambitious and troubled theatrical experiment. Introduces the characters but never fully arrives. John Gosling, Mike Cotton on trumpet, John Beecham on trombone and Alan Holmes on saxophone and clarinet fill out the sound considerably. Thirteen names is more than double the count of the classic 1960s albums.

14. Preservation Act 2 (1974), 14 credited musicians

More satisfying than Act 1, partly because the story has somewhere to go. Fourteen credited musicians is the highest count on the entire map: the brass section, a cast of voice actors including Christopher Timothy as the announcer, and backing vocalists including Maryann Price and Pamela Travis. Ambitious and admirably strange.

13. Everybody's in Show-Biz (1972), 9 credited musicians

Half studio, half live. The studio side holds some of Ray's warmest and most domestic writing, and Celluloid Heroes stands as one of his finest songs. Dave Rowberry's organ on that track is a one-station branch line I always enjoy finding in the credits.

12. Sleepwalker (1977), 6 credited musicians

The pivot to arena rock, and the first record of the American phase. It works better than it has any right to. Andy Pyle arrives on bass for Mr. Big Man, and this is John Gosling's penultimate station before he leaves.

11. State of Confusion (1983), 5 credited musicians

Come Dancing is here, and it is one of Ray's most perfectly judged songs about vanished England. The rest does not match it, and five credited musicians makes this one of the leanest records of the later period.

10. Low Budget (1979), 6 credited musicians

Their biggest American success, and unashamedly so. This is where Jim Rodford's bass line begins on the map, running unbroken from here to Phobia in 1993, fifteen years and seven albums.

9. Give the People What They Want (1981), 6 credited musicians

Hard, bleak and better than its reputation. Better Things closes it beautifully. The detail I like best is Chrissie Hynde singing uncredited on four tracks, which means she is on the sleeve research but not on the sleeve, a branch line that only exists because somebody went looking.

The Upper Tier: The Run That Made Them

8. Misfits (1978), 13 credited musicians

Underrated, and by far the most chaotic station on the map for a record this size. Thirteen credited musicians includes three different bass players, Andy Pyle, Zaine Griff and Ron Lawrence, and two drummers besides Mick Avory, with Clem Cattini returning for overdubs thirteen years after The Kink Kontroversy. A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy is a great song surrounded by a band quietly falling apart.

7. The Kink Kontroversy (1965), 8 credited musicians

The transition record. Till the End of the Day still belongs to the early band, but Where Have All the Good Times Gone points directly at everything that follows. Nicky Hopkins arrives on keyboards here, and his line runs through the next three albums, the imperial ones.

6. Muswell Hillbillies (1971), 10 credited musicians

The move to RCA, and a record about north London displacement dressed as American country. Ten credited musicians, because this is where the Mike Cotton Sound brass section boards: Mike Cotton on trumpet, John Beecham on trombone and tuba, Alan Holmes on saxophone and clarinet. That trio then runs through the whole theatrical period.

5. Face to Face (1966), 7 credited musicians

The first Kinks album that is properly an album rather than singles plus filler. Sunny Afternoon, with Nicky Hopkins on harmonium, is the centre of it. There is also a quiet detail here that the map surfaces: John Dalton plays bass on three tracks, three years before he joined the band, deputising for Pete Quaife after a car accident.

4. Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970), 5 credited musicians

A concept record about the music industry that contains two of their greatest singles in Lola and Apeman. Only five credited musicians, and this is where John Gosling's keyboard line starts. It runs unbroken from here to Misfits in 1978, ten consecutive albums.

3. Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), 5 credited musicians

Shangri-La is possibly the best thing Ray Davies ever wrote. Five credited musicians, and the last station on Pete Quaife's line, which has run unbroken from the 1964 debut across seven albums. The original bassist leaves at the end of their best decade.

2. Something Else by the Kinks (1967), 6 credited musicians

Waterloo Sunset alone would carry it, but David Watts, Death of a Clown and Two Sisters are all here too. Six credited musicians, with Nicky Hopkins on keyboards and Rasa Davies on backing vocals. This is the Kinks at their most economical and their most English.

1. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968), 6 credited musicians

It sold almost nothing on release and is now regarded as one of the great British albums. Six credited musicians, the same small group as Something Else, making something far stranger: fifteen short songs about memory, disappearance and the things worth keeping. On the map it looks unremarkable, a narrow station with few lines running through it. That gap between how little it needed and how much it achieved is the single best argument for reading a discography as a diagram rather than a chart position.

Questions About the Kinks Map

How many albums are on The Kinks discography map?

All 24 studio albums, in order, from Kinks in 1964 to Phobia in 1993.

What is not on the map?

Live albums, compilations and singles collections are excluded by editorial rule, so records like Live at Kelvin Hall and the many best-of packages do not appear as stations.

Does it show who played on each track?

No. Track-level roles appear only on my Rolling Stones' Goats Head Soup album map. Here, each line tells you which albums that musician appears on.

Are session players and guests included?

Yes. Jimmy Page, Jon Lord, Nicky Hopkins and Chrissie Hynde all appear as lines, alongside the band members. Producers are only included where they also have a playing credit, which is why Shel Talmy appears for his guitar on It's Too Late and nowhere else.

Sizes and Framing

The Kinks Discography Map Art Print is a Giclée on 230gsm textured matte fine art paper, archival and acid-free, hand-designed without AI. It comes in A2 (594 x 420 mm, 23 x 16 in) and A1 (841 x 594 mm, 33 x 23 in), with 24 x 18 in and 36 x 24 in formats for buyers in the USA. Every size is available unframed, or ready to hang in a black wood frame. Current prices are on the product page.

The full range sits in my Music Wall Art Prints collection. If you are buying for someone and are not sure which artist is theirs, there is a Mike Bell Maps gift card.