Sleepwalker (The Kinks album)

Infobox Album | Name = Sleepwalker
Type = Album
Artist = The Kinks


Released = 25 February 1977
Recorded = July 1976 - December 1976
Genre = Rock and roll
Length = 40:10
Label = Arista Records
Producer = Ray Davies
Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|3.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:2bkzu3e5andk link]
*Blender Rating|2|5 [http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?id=3854 link]
*Robert Christgau (B-) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=1464&name=The+Kinks link]
*"Rolling Stone" (favourable) [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thekinks/albums/album/174388/review/5946447/sleepwalker link]
Last album = "Schoolboys in Disgrace"
(1976)
This album = "Sleepwalker"
(1977)
Next album = "Misfits"
(1978)

"Sleepwalker" is a 1977 album by the English rock group, The Kinks. Whilst there is something of a somnambulant theme to the album, this first album on the Arista label broadly ditched the theatrical and occasionally impenetrable concept album style the group had been mining with diminishing returns since 1968. A modern, confident series of melodic tracks was described in the American music press as "a phoenix rising from the ashes". The overall sound was certainly slicker than the rather rougher RCA albums of the mid seventies, but saw the group begin to edge closer to the stadium rock and pseudo heavy metal that would characterise their eighties albums.

Track listing

All songs by Ray Davies

# "Life on the Road" – 5:02
# "Mr. Big Man" – 3:49
# "Sleepwalker" – 4:04
# "Brother" – 5:28
# "Juke Box Music" – 5:32
# "Sleepless Night" – 3:18
# "Stormy Sky" – 3:58
# "Full Moon" – 3:52
# "Life Goes On" – 5:03

Bonus tracks on CD reissues

# "Artificial Light" – 3:27
# "Prince of the Punks" – 3:18
# "The Poseur" – 2:53
# "On the Outside (1977 Mix)" – 6:01
# "On the Outside (1994 Mix)" – 5:07