As with the earlier titles, the new Come Dancing album is a Single Inventory Super Audio CD packaged in a Digipak case with a sticker noting that it is a Hybrid Stereo SACD that “plays on all CD players”. This means fans of the band will be more likely to find it filed in the regular CD bins than in the Audiophile and SACD sections where earlier Super Audio CD discs were often found. Since this SACD carries more songs than the earlier Kinks SACDs, it carries a list price of $17.98 – $2.00 higher than the earlier releases in the Kinks Remastered SACD series.

Come Dancing With The Kinks: The Best of the Kinks 1977-1986
The Kinks
SACD Stereo/CD Audio
(Velvel/Konk Records VEL-SC-79812)

Come Dancing With the Kinks features 18 of the rock group’s best known songs from their recordings on the RCA and Arista record labels. The SACD reissue includes liner notes about the origin of each song and musician and recording credits on the album.

The earlier Super Audio CDs in the Kinks SACD series have been widely praised. In fact, Michael Fremer at Musicangle.com says that the new Kinks SACDs surpass the sound on the original RCA Vinyl LP editions “by a good margin”.

I don’t have the original vinyl LP Kinks albums here to do a comparison, but I am impressed by the way the new SACDs deliver the rocking sound of the band as well as offering the well detailed soundfield that one expects to hear from a well mastered SACD re-release.

Album Tracks
1. Come Dancing
2. Low Budget
3. Catch Me Now I’m Falling
4. A Gallon Of Gas
5. (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman (Disco Edit)
6. Sleepwalker
7. Full Moon
8. Misfits
9. A Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy
10. Do It Again
11. Better Things
12. Lola (Live)
13. You Really Got Me (Live)
14. Good Day
15. Living On A Thin Line
16. Destroyer
17. Don’t Forget To Dance
18. Father Christmas

SACD Credits
As with the earlier albums in the Kinks Remastered SACD series, Come Dancing With The Kinks was produced for SACD by Bill Crowley, mastered for SACD by Alan Silverman with DSD Engineering handled by Dawn Frank from the Super Audio Center in Boulder, Colorado. The SACD disc was made by Sony DADC’s Hybrid SACD replication operation in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Sleepwalker and Soap Opera SACDs
The SACD release of Come Dancing follows the release in January of 2 earlier Kinks Remastered SACD titles – Sleepwalker and Soap Opera. Each of these SACDs contains the original CD song lineup plus several bonus tracks. The 5 bonus tracks on the Sleepwalker SACD are Artifical Light, Prince of the Punks, The Poseur, On The Outside (1977 Mix) and On The Outside (1994 Mix). The bonus tracks on the Soap Opera SACD are Everybody’s A Star (Starmaker) (Mono Mix), Ordinary People (Live), You Make It All Worthwhile (Live) and Underneath The Neon Sign (Live).

Correctly Labeled SACDs
High Fidelity Review readers will recall that the first releases in the Kinks Remastered SACD Series carried some confusing labeling. This involved a grey sticker noting the discs were “Newly remastered in SACD format! Hybrid Stereo SACD” on the front of the Digipak and then a format bar that incorrectly said the disc contained SACD Surround Sound, SACD Stereo and CD Audio tracks. In reality, none of the Kinks Remastered SACD series carries SACD Surround Sound tracks.

The good news is that Velvel has cleaned up the labeling problems with the latest 3 SACD releases. Come Dancing With The Kinks, Sleepwalker and Soap Opera all correctly indicate that they are Hybrid Layer Stereo SACDs with SACD Stereo and CD Audio tracks.

The Kinks Remastered SACD Series Releases on Velvel Records
With the release of Come Dancing With The Kinks, we now have all but 3 of the planned SACD Remastered Series discs from Velvel Records on the market. High Fidelity Review readers will note that two if the still to be released titles – Low Budget and Everybody’s In Showbiz are still in print in Stereo SACD format from Mobile Fidelity Records. Here’s the line up from Velvel:

2004 Kinks SACD Releases