A possibly premature overview of
Ray Davies' solo work, Collected arrived in 2009, three years after his first true solo album,
Other People's Lives.
Ray made tentative stabs at a solo career before this, writing a soundtrack to his 1985 film Return to Waterloo and issuing the live, anecdote-laden The Storyteller in 1998, but that 2006 LP was his first true collection of new songs, and it was followed quickly in 2007 with
Working Man's Café. Not much for a solo collection, but they're all sampled on the 17-track Collected, sometimes in mixes edited especially for this collection. Although the use of this compilation is questionable -- chances are those who are interested will want
Ray's full albums -- as a sampler this is good, hitting the high points from all his major projects (and those new edits may be an enticement for those who already own the albums). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine