Best of Kinks: 1964-1971

Sony's 2014 compilation The Best of the Kinks: 1964-1971 weighs in at a generous 17 tracks but it's difficult to compress the band's first decade onto a single disc. Some sacrifices must be made and so they are. Many hits and swinging '60s standards are here -- "You Really Got Me," "Tired of Waiting for You," "Till the End of the Day," "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," "Sunny Afternoon," "David Watts," "Days," "Victoria," "Lola" -- but there are several notable absences, including "All Day and All of the Night," "Stop Your Sobbing," "Death of a Clown," "Dead End Street," "Waterloo Sunset," and "Autumn Almanac." Everything that's here is excellent, so this is a nice sampler, but it's just a bit too haphazard to qualify as a preferred introduction. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine