The Kinks: The Essential Album-By-Album Guide

COME DANCING WITH THE KINKS: THE BEST OF THE KINKS 1977-1986 (1986)
Reason for Existing: Documents the band's improbably late-period resurgence as arena-rockin' warhorses.
Quick Take: Held up against the dizzying musical shifts and consistent musical genius of the Kinks' first nine years, these nine years don't come off so well. Too often in their late period (the band didn't officially call it quits until the mid-Nineties), the Kinks sounded like they were in it for a paycheck. Still, from "Father Christmas" to "Come Dancing," Ray occasionally demonstrated that he knew how to tell a compact musical story better than anyone. [Listen]