Ray Davies, See My Friends

By Ann Clarke

I truly love and adore Ray Davies—always have, always will—but his latest album See My Friends, wherein he collaborates with a roster of some popular musicians is rather . . . intolerable!

Having to listen to Bon Jovi barf their way through “Celluloid Heroes” is truly disgusting. But the Jersey Shore doesn’t stop washing up dead fish with just them. Yup, Bruce Springsteen, too! Bruce groaning like he’s taking a dump through “Better Things” is just YUCK! There is a medley of “Days” and “This Time Tomorrow” with those hacks Mumford & Sons. It would’ve been OK, if they just let Ray sing lead, and they sang back up, but oh no, they had to let this wannabe-Dave Matthews loser duet with him! It’s just horrendous. I didn’t think it could get worse, but Lucinda Williams sounds like a tone-deaf Sheryl Crow. This is so rotten that it makes my teeth hurt!

Surprisingly, the Metallica collaboration didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. I chalk that up to the fact that “You Really Got Me” isn’t one of my favorite Kinks songs, so I didn’t really care either way.

I honestly didn’t think “Lola” could be blighted but alas, when you have an English singer (Paloma Faith) trying to sing a faux-funky mix of American Blues, Jazz ,and Country, it just sounds like a shittier version of the late Amy Winehouse.

Moving onward, the version of “Waterloo Sunset” was tolerable. It’s a duet with Jackson Browne (a musician I really dislike), but they kept it simple and harmonic. “Till The End of the Day,” with Alex Chilton and The 88 is not bad! Not nearly as good as the original, but not a bad collaboration overall. “Dead End Street,” a duet with Amy MacDonald (someone I have never heard of) is OK, but she enunciates her vocals like Shakira. Not really interesting, but not cringe-inducing either.

The title track “See My Friends” is a duet with Spoon, and actually quite good. I never liked this song to begin with, so I wasn’t expecting much, but this is probably the best track on the entire album.

“This Is Where I Belong,” performed with Frank Black is bearable. It definitely evokes The Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man,” which isn’t a bad thing, but it isn’t bringing anything new to the table. “David Watts” is performed with The 88, the same band that tours with Ray. Its definitely good—one of the best tracks—but they didn’t really do anything different with it. It sounds like The Jam’s cover of it, but without the Cockney snarl. “Tired of Waiting” is performed with Gary Lightbody (the singer of Snow Patrol). It sounds like the original, but with cleaner production. Vocal-wise, he sounds like Sting (but with Sinead O’Connor’s accent). It’s decent.

The last song is a medley of “All Day and All of the Night” and “Destroyer” and is performed with the horrific Billy Corgan. Billy is aping a British accent mixed with his typical atrocious vocals; luckily Ray is doing most of the lead vocals. It is indeed crappy!

This review is written based upon one listening, and is solely my first impression of See My Friends. I can honestly say one listen of it is enough.

If you love the originals, you’re not missing anything if you never hear this. It was honestly depressing. I tried to give it a listen with a very open mind, only for my mind to upchuck it! Typically I can make myself listen to something several times before dismissing it. especially if I have respect for the artist to a degree. But this . . . this was 90 percent awful and 10 percent tolerable, and 10 percent isn’t enough for me to bother with again. Life is too short; I’d rather listen to something that doesn’t irritate the fuck out of me.

See My Friends was released on April 5, 2011 in the US from Decca Records and is available to order from the album’s website.