After the commercial failure of Village Green Preservation Society (1968), The Kinks could go either way. First of all, they could have stopped making stilted concept albums and returned to making records as disjointed collections of songs. Second, they could move on to making records as complete rock operas, full of made-up characters that would help frontman and brain Ray Davies distance himself
… even more from his audience. They chose the latter and even won a new fan base with it. The special thing about Arthur is that the group immediately shows itself fully capable of the rock opera genre and at the same time returns to the pop songs of yore. Opener Victoria remained a stage hit for years and Shangri-La also effortlessly pried herself free from the libretto to start leading an independent life. In short, The Kinks suddenly blazed with creativity on this album, which serves both the fans of the pop Kinks and the theatrical Kinks.more
