"Do It Again" certainly has a recognizable kick, with Dave's brisk uppercut fuzz chords counting off a spry "Victoria" rhythm. For "Good Day," Ray dusts off his old "Sunny Afternoon" ennui with a languid melody and a fragile, winning chorus. Dave's two lead-vocal entries, "Living on a Thin Line" and "Guilty," also mark a welcome return from the socioreligious harangue and the demolition-derby guitars of his last solo album. In "Living on a Thin Line" – a dark variation on Ray's own death-of-England's-glory songs – brooding, goose-stepping chords and moping Pink Floyd synths underscore the desperate effectiveness of Dave's nervous croon.

Word of Mouth falters when Ray's canny self-plagiarizing eclipses the songs themselves. "Too Hot" is a slight, complaining song about city heat and urban grief that weakly reprises the keyboard figure from the '83 hit "Come Dancing." It sounds especially trite next to "Missing Persons," a parent's wistful prayer for the speedy return of a runaway child. Its gentle ballad arrangement (which recalls the hymnlike quality of "Celluloid Heroes") and the slight choke in Ray's pleading vocal draw you quietly into the father's heartache with a classic Davies songwriting maneuver that deftly compacts universal conditions into poignant specifics.

This album is not always up to that brilliant standard. On the title song, why does the band that wrote "You Really Got Me" feel compelled to borrow the central guitar riff from "Start Me Up"? But those moments when Word of Mouth lights up with Ray's familiar wit and delightful whimsy make you glad the Kinks are still around to do it again.

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DAVID FRICKE

(Posted: Jan 31, 1985)