The Kinks - Hidden Quality - Non-Album Tracks (1979-1981)

Here's another album of stray tracks from the Kinks. And I'm hardly done with them yet. They're my second favorite musical group of all time (after the Beatles), so I love highlighting what a deep quality discography they have.

This album covers 1979 to 1981, which was a time of renewed popularity for the band in the US. The songs here are about evenly split between Dave Davies songs (six) and Ray Davis songs (five). Dave Davies was having a renewed effort at a solo career, putting out three solo albums in the early 1980s. Two of the songs here - "Nothin' More to Lose" and "Imagination's Real" - are from his 1980 solo album, but they're listed as Kinks songs because these recordings come from Kinks concerts.

The Ray Davies songs on this album are mostly taken from "Picture Book," the Kinks' box set. However, there's one live cover of an Everly Brothers song, "Bird Dog," sung by Ray, that I've included too. Also, there's one Ray song I considered including but didn't quite make the cut. "Maybe I Love You" is a 1980 demo from the box set, but the recording is clearly unfinished, with vocals only on the choruses.

I think this makes a fine 40-minute-long Kinks album. Note that it's more Dave-heavy than usual for the group.

01 This Precious Time [Long Lonely Road] (Dave Davies)
02 Hidden Quality (Kinks)
03 Within Each Day (Dave Davies)
04 Duke (Kinks)
05 Nothin' More to Lose (Kinks)
06 Nuclear Love (Kinks)
07 Imagination's Real (Kinks)
08 Bird Dog (Kinks)
09 Too Serious (Dave Davies)
10 Stolen Away Your Heart (Kinks)
11 Eastern Eyes (Dave Davies)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15485635/TKnks_1979-1981_HiddnQuality_atse.zip.html

The cover art was made by Peter at the Albums I Wish Existed blog. I'm not sure what year it's from, but it looks like it shows Mick Avory, Dave Davies, Ray Davies, Ian Gibbons, and Jim Rodford, who were the members of the band from about 1980 to 1985.