Preservation Act 1 (studio album)
by The Kinks

Preservation Act 1 by The Kinks
Year: 1973
Overall rank: 8,448th   Overall chart historyOverall chart history
Average Rating: 
68/100 (from 72 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution   Average rating historyAverage rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1973 (155th)
Award Top albums of the 1970s (1,291st)
Award Best albums of all time (8,448th)
Product Details
Availability

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The Kinks CD Jul 1998 Velvel Records Preservation Act 1 Remaster / New Sealed
Condition: Brand New


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The Kinks 2 LPs: “Preservation Act 1” & "One For The Road (2)" *Ships Free
Condition: Used


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Preservation: Act 1 [Remaster] by The Kinks (CD, Jul-1998, Velvel Records)
Condition: Very Good


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The Kinks bestography

Preservation Act 1 is ranked 13th best out of 62 albums by The Kinks on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by The Kinks is The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society which is ranked number 150 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 9,518.

The Kinks album bestography « Higher ranked (7,409th)
Sleepwalker
This album (8,448th)
Preservation Act 1
Lower ranked (8,658th) »
One For The Road

(N.B. Bestographies do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Preservation Act 1 track list

  Track ratingsTrack ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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1.
Rating: 80 (13 votes)Comments: View 0
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Preservation Act 1 rankings

Preservation Act 1 collection

Preservation Act 1 ratings

Average Rating: 
68/100 (from 72 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 72 ratings for this album.

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70/100
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08/02/2025 12:57 daCritic  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 4,34673/100
 
30/100
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03/28/2025 06:00 Proto  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 3,50834/100
 
60/100
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08/17/2024 07:00 Tamthebam  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 22,77369/100
 
55/100
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09/26/2023 21:13 fabm0  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 6,50459/100
 
80/100
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06/16/2023 03:47 Raddi27  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,45485/100

Rating metrics: Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album has a Bayesian average rating of 68.3/100, a mean average of 67.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 67.7/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.8.

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Preservation Act 1 favourites

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Preservation Act 1 comments

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Rating:  
95/100
From 09/08/2017 16:52
Best Tracks: Sweet Lady Genevieve, Daylight
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 07/09/2016 19:40
First of a muddled two part album series called, preservation act. Ray Davies has gone past the stage of writing killer hit singles and is now completely immersed in odd concept albums. It's not bad, but it's not great either. I don't know if I can't follow the story properly or I just don't care. Probably a bit of both.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 06/21/2012 21:55
This is one of the most overlooked and unfairly underrated Kinks albums.

It may have vanished a little in the amount of very strong album releases that characterized these years. Moreover the theme in "Preservation" came out much unresolved, and the plot and characters did not come out clearly until the release of "Preservation Act 2" the following year.

In fact this album, along with with "Muswell Hillbillies", for me is easily the group's strongest release during their time at RCA.

Several of the strong songs have only peripheral or no connection with the "Preservation" theme and in fact the album would probably have worked well as an ordinary album, with a dozen songs with different themes.

Songs like "Sweet Lady Genevieve" and "Sitting in the Midday", sung by the character "The Tramp" in "Preservation" are sone of Davies' most beautiful, and both are clearly releated with several songs of the original "The Vilage Green Preservation Society ".

"Where Are They Now" is nostalgic song about great men of the past - a theme also found on the "Muswell Hillbillies" - Great melody and another favorite.

The two opening tracks "Morning Song" and "Daylight" are very powerful and I remember how I got goose bumps during the performance of "Preservation Act" in London’s Royalty Theatre at Christmas 1974.

"Cricket" is a biting humorous song performed in music-hall style.

"There's a Change in the Weather", "Money and Corruption", "Here Comes Flash" and "Demolition" sound a lot like the songs from "Preservation Act 2" and they are tightly linked to the plot of the opera. Both are also fine songs that actually can be enjoyed out of context.

An album everybody deserves to hear at least once.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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Best Albums of 1973
1. The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd
2. Innervisions by Stevie Wonder
3. Houses Of The Holy by Led Zeppelin
4. Selling England By The Pound by Genesis
5. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
6. Quadrophenia by The Who
7. Band On The Run by Paul McCartney & Wings
8. Raw Power by Iggy And The Stooges
9. Aladdin Sane by David Bowie
10. Future Days by Can
11. (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'Nérd 'Skin-'Nérd) by Lynyrd Skynyrd
12. For Your Pleasure by Roxy Music
13. Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock
14. Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield
15. Closing Time by Tom Waits
16. Berlin by Lou Reed
17. The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle by Bruce Springsteen
18. Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye
19. Paris 1919 by John Cale
20. Larks' Tongues In Aspic by King Crimson
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