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 somehow wrote it all - and made it feel entirely coherent.
As someone who spends a considerable amount of time immersed in a band's full discography before committing it to a map, I find The Kinks endlessly rewarding. Their 24 studio albums tell a story of contradiction, commercial frustration, critical genius, and surprising late-era resilience.
My The Kinks Discography Map Art Print by Mike Bell charts every studio album as a station on a tube-style network, with Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Mick Avory, Pete Quaife, John Dalton, John Gosling, Jim Rodford, Ian Gibbons, and a rotating cast of session players and collaborators mapped as the lines running through them. What the map shows visually - who appeared, who left, who came in - is as fascinating as the music itself.
My Kinks Discography Map charts every studio album as a station on a tube-style network, with Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Mick Avory, Pete Quaife, John Dalton, John Gosling, Jim Rodford, Ian Gibbons, and a rotating cast of session players and collaborators mapped as the lines running through them. What the map shows visually - who appeared, who left, who came in - is as fascinating as the music itself.
Here is my ranking of all 24 studio albums covered in the map.
The Lower Tier - Worth Hearing, Hard to Love
24. UK Jive (1989)
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.
23. Schoolboys in Disgrace (1975)
The second and final instalment of the Percy and Soap Opera theatrical run before the band pivoted. Not without charm, but thin compared to what preceded it.
22. Think Visual (1986)
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.
21. Word of Mouth (1984)
The farewell to Mick Avory, who appears on a handful of tracks before Bob Henrit takes over. Patchy, though "Do It Again" is a hook that has stuck around for four decades.
20. Phobia (1993)
The final studio album. There are glimpses of the classic Kinks - Dave's guitar tone, Ray's defiant eye on England - but at 15 tracks, it sprawls where it should focus. A decent close to a remarkable run.
19. Soap Opera (1975)
A theatrical concept record about a rock star who swaps lives with a commuter. Lyrically sharp in places but difficult to return to in the way the best Kinks records demand.
The Middle Ground - Solid Records with Real Moments
18. Percy (1971)
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)
The debut. Raw, raucous, and built heavily on covers. "You Really Got Me" and "Stop Your Sobbing" are the landmarks. Bobby Graham plays drums for most of it, with Jimmy Page lending twelve-string acoustic on a couple of tracks - a detail I always enjoy surfacing when I'm building the map.
16. Kinda Kinks (1965)
Recorded quickly in the wake of the debut's success, it shows. But there is genuine energy here, and Ray's voice already has that world-weary quality that would define the decade ahead.
15. Preservation Act 1 (1973)
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, and John Beecham's trombone flesh out the sound considerably.
14. Preservation Act 2 (1974)
More satisfying than Act 1, partly because the story has somewhere to go. The band is at its fullest here in terms of personnel, with the brass section and backing vocalists creating something close to theatre. Ambitious and admirably strange.
13. Everybody's in Show-Biz (1972)
Half studio, half live. The studio side contains some of Ray's warmest and most domestic writing - "Celluloid Heroes" stands as one of his finest songs. The live section captures a band having genuine fun, with Dave Rowberry's organ on "Celluloid Heroes" a lovely detail.
12. Give the People What They Want (1981)
Jim Rodford's bass and Ian Gibbons' keys anchor a record that sounds more confident than much of the late-seventies output. "Destroyer" samples "Lola" without apology. Certified gold in the US. The band still had real reach at this point.
11. State of Confusion (1983)
"Come Dancing" is an ASCAP-awarded hit that disguises what is actually a melancholy and carefully crafted record beneath it. Chrissie Hynde appears uncredited on vocals. Bob Henrit arrives on drums for several tracks. A late-career record that rewards the full listen.
10. Low Budget (1979)
Their best-selling studio album. Ian Gibbons had just joined; Jim Rodford was solid on bass. Gordon Edwards contributes piano on the title track. The self-aware humour of the whole project - an inflation-era Kinks sounding deliberately cheap - is very Ray Davies.
The Career Peaks - Essential Listening
9. The Kink Kontroversy (1965)
The point at which Ray Davies starts asserting full control as a songwriter. "Milk and Honey" and "Till the End of the Day" still sound urgent. Nicky Hopkins on keyboards begins his long studio association with the band here. Clem Cattini handles drums on several tracks.
8. Sleepwalker (1977)
The American-market pivot that worked. Stripped back, melodic, and genuinely listenable from start to finish. Andy Pyle joins on bass. A record that gets better the more you return to it.
7. Misfits (1978)
Underrated and quietly devastating. "A Rock and Roll Fantasy" is among Ray's most self-aware songs and connects deeply with anyone who has ever been absorbed by music. Jim Rodford joins here. The record has a warmth that the harder rock periods sometimes lack.
6. Face to Face (1966)
The moment Ray Davies became a genuine craftsman rather than simply a pop songwriter. "Sunny Afternoon", "Rainy Day in June", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" - the social observation is sharp without ever becoming sour. Nicky Hopkins adds piano and harmonium. One of the great British albums of its year.
5. Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970)
"Lola" alone would make this list. But as a full record - a satire of the music industry, money, and fame - it is far more than a vessel for a hit. John Dalton's bass provides the groove throughout, and the whole thing has an energy that the late-sixties records sometimes forgo for atmosphere.
4. Muswell Hillbillies (1971)
The album that should have been enormous and wasn't, at least not immediately. A tribute to working-class north London life, recorded with John Gosling, Mike Cotton on trumpet, John Beecham on trombone and tuba, and Alan Holmes on saxophone and clarinet. No hits, no commercial traction, and one of the great British rock records. The critical rehabilitation has been total and deserved.
3. Something Else by the Kinks (1967)
"Waterloo Sunset" is on this record. That would be enough. But the album surrounding it - Dave's "Death of a Clown", Ray's tender domesticity, the music hall undertow - makes it a complete and glorious thing. Rasa Davies on backing vocals. Nicky Hopkins on keyboards. A full-band performance in the deepest sense.
2. Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969)
A concept album about post-war Britain, emigration, and the slow erosion of everything. Ray Davies at the peak of his literary ambitions. John Dalton on bass. "Victoria", "Shangri-La", "Australia" - each a small epic. Pete Quaife had departed; the transition to Dalton loses nothing. This record arguably influenced more bands than any other Kinks album.
1. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)
It failed to chart on release. It is now regarded, rightly, as one of the finest British albums ever made. A record about village cricket, steam-rollering, old cats, and the threat of the modern world, delivered with absolute musical tenderness. Pete Quaife's last proper album with the band. Ray Davies as songwriter at the complete peak of his eccentric, peculiarly English genius. When I'm researching a new map, I always look for the album that tells you most about the band at their most themselves - and this is exactly that for The Kinks.
Key Collaborators Behind the Map
When I was building the Kinks map, the depth of the personnel history was one of the most rewarding research puzzles I've encountered. A few connections worth highlighting.
Pete Quaife (bass) is the thread through the first phase - his departure after Lola Versus Powerman marks a clear turning point on the map.
Nicky Hopkins (keyboards) runs as a session line through several of the key 1965 to 1968 albums, including The Kink Kontroversy, Face to Face, Something Else, and Village Green — one of the great unsung contributors to British rock.
Jimmy Page contributes a twelve-string acoustic to the debut album, a detail that never fails to raise an eyebrow.
John Gosling joined in 1970 and anchored the theatrical mid-period through to 1978, his piano and organ defining the sound of Muswell Hillbillies and the Preservation era.
Jim Rodford provides stability across the late Arista years from Misfits (1978) through to Phobia (1993).
Chrissie Hynde appears uncredited on State of Confusion - one of those map details that takes a moment to locate but repays the effort.
The tube-map format shows these connections visually: who shared albums with whom, where the membership solidified and where it fractured, which session musicians appeared only once and which became fixtures.
Final Thoughts: Why The Kinks Deserve Your Full Attention
The Kinks are one of those bands whose catalogue rewards depth rather than breadth. The singles are well-known. The deep catalogue - especially the run from Face to Face through to Muswell Hillbillies - is among the richest in British rock. Ray Davies' writing is wry, literary, and rooted in a very specific sense of England that still resonates.
My Kinks Discography Map is a way into all of it - every studio album, every key musician, every line of connection across 29 years. If you are a Kinks fan, or know someone who is, it makes a genuinely unusual and detailed gift.
Related Music Maps
- The Who Discography Map Art Print by Mike Bell
- David Bowie Discography Tube Map Art Print by Mike Bell
- Fleetwood Mac Discography Tube Map Art Print by Mike Bell
