State of Confusion is the twentieth studio album by the English rock group the Kinks, released in 1983. The record features the single "Come Dancing", which hit number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was one of the band's biggest hit singles in the United States, equaling the 1965 peak of "Tired of Waiting for You". The album itself was a major success, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard albums chart. The album was certified gold in Canada by August 1983.[2] It was the last Kinks album on which drummer Mick Avory appeared as a full member of the band.[3]
The album was recorded between September 1982 and March 1983 at Konk Studios, London, and was produced by Ray Davies. It was recorded during another period of turmoil for the band, as Ray recalled:
It was a difficult time: '83, '84. Songs like 'Definite Maybe', 'State of Confusion', it's all got this concern about it. If you look at the album cover, everybody's going in different directions. And that was the last of ... that band's records. And it had our biggest single on it. So there you go.[4]
Release
The cassette versions of the album included two additional tracks at the end of both sides:"Long Distance" and "Noise". The former was also released as one of the two B-sides on the "Do It Again" single in Germany (the other being "Guilty"), while the latter was the b-side to "Come Dancing" single.
State of Confusion was reissued on CD in 1999. It featured shorter version of "Bernadette" than the original LP relese and included four bonus tracks, two of which were previously unreleased: "Don't Forget to Dance" (Original extended edit) and "Once a Thief".[5]
State of Confusion saw acclaim from American critics. Rolling Stone commented, "Nobody but the Kinks could have made such a record in 1983, and no band deserves more to be at the very top, which is where this LP ought to place them".[4]
The track "Long Distance", which only appeared on the cassette version of the album, has generally received positive reviews from critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic retrospectively praised the track as "wistful pop",[6] and went on to call it a "terrific obscurity".[11]Rolling Stone critic Parke Puterbaugh hailed the song as "astonishingly Dylanesque", and went on to say that "there's no excuse for omitting ['Long Distance' from the LP version of State of Confusion]".[9]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
