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Ray Davies performs "Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)" on "Other People's Lives"

So here, finally, is what is officially being called Ray Davies’ first solo album. Of course, that discounts the famed former-Kinks frontman’s previous semi-solo outtings—including The Storyteller, the recording of his spoken-word show from the late 1990s which inspired the popular MTV/VH-1 program of the same name, and Return to Waterloo, the soundtrack for his 1985 television play which inspired very little—both of which have been recently reissued on CD. But let’s not quibble about semantics; Other People’s Lives is widely considered to be Davies’ first solo album. I won’t lie: I’m a big fan of Davies’ previous work. On the other hand, I’m always eager to call out one of my old favorites when they poop in the tuba, so to speak, on a new record. I’m happy to report that Davies’ first solo outting is not a bust. Having said that, I cannot tell a lie: The record is not a complete success either. Much has been made of the contemplation of mortality and air of melancholy contained by the lyrics on this album. Some critics have been quick, and incorrect, to link that moodiness to Davies’ recent appearance in the news as a victim of a gunshot wound; the songwriter was shot in the leg while chasing a mugger in pre-Katrina New Orleans. Ray’s brush with death and the renewed musical vigor exhibited on this album would make for a nice connection, but unfortunately the timeline doesn’t work. Most of the songs on this album were recorded long before the shooting and Davies has confessed to slaving over the album for a number of years. As a result, much of the album’s production already sounds rather dated (more Brit-pop than British Invasion). Musically, Ray’s songs are all over the map: snippets of Tin Pan Alley show tunes, big classic rock numbers and acoustic balladry appear throughout. Ultimately, whether or not the songs on the album actually describe “other people’s lives” or facets of Ray’s own is impossible to tell. What can be said is that Ray Davies is once again glaring at the world with a skeptic’s gaze, cherishing the familiar, simple things in life and waiting for some form of peace and redemption that always seems to be out of reach. Let’s hope the next chapter of Davies’ story doesn’t take so long to write.