THE KINKS-ARTHUR OR THE DECLINE & FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE-1975-LP-VG+ VINYL

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Per Wikipedia, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), often referred to simply as Arthur, is the seventh studio album by the Kinks, released on 10 October 1969. It was the first Kinks album to feature bassist John Dalton, who replaced Pete Quaife after the latter's departure. Kinks frontman Ray Davies constructed the concept album as the soundtrack to a Granada Television play and developed the storyline with novelist Julian Mitchell; the television programme was never produced. The rough plot revolved around Arthur Morgan, a carpet-layer, who was based on Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies' brother-in-law Arthur Anning. A stereo version was released internationally with a mono version being released in the UK, but not in the US.  The album was met with poor sales but nearly unanimous acclaim, especially among the American music press. Although Arthur and its first two singles, "Drivin'" and "Shangri-La", failed to chart in the UK, the Kinks returned to the Billboard charts after a two-year absence with "Victoria". Today the album receives generally positive reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said Arthur was "one of the most effective concept albums in rock history, as well as one of the best and most influential British pop records of its era", and in 2003 Matt Golden of Stylus Magazine called it "the best rock opera ever". Switch magazine included Arthur on their "100 Best Albums of the 20th Century" in 1999.  The album up for sale is a 1975 repress of the original 1969 release on the Reprise record label. Distrubuted by Warner/Reprise Records, the recording was manufactured at Capitol Record's Winchester pressing facility.  It consists of 12 tracks with a run time of 49+ minutes.  The cover is in VG+ condition with only mild wear on the bottom corners.  There are no split seams, marking and no evidence of disc ring wear on the front cover.  The back cover contains a photo of the band members, along with track listings and liner notes, and there is a hint of ring wear along the top and bottom.  The artwork on the front and interior covers of this gatefold album are sharp and show no sign of discoloration.  The inner sleeve consists of a poly vinyl anti-static sleeve that is original and intact.  The recording has been cleaned and tested using Audacity.  All tracks are free of skips and there is very little background noise.  On testing, I detected a single "click" on Side 1 in the quiet space between tracks 2 & 3, which did not impact on the music.  The sound is strong and clear throughout the entire album.  Disc surfaces show very few signs of  wear and the disc surfaces are glossy.  The labels are clean and intact.  By Goldmine standards for grading records, this recording would qualify as VG+.

I always clean, listen and test every record using Audacity that I list on EBAY. I do this in insure that I can give as accurate a description for each album I list. I also try to follow the Goldmine standards on grading records. I do this as a service to the buyer, as well as, to maintain my own reputation.

Please consider viewing my "sellers other items" section. I am in the process of  liquidating my collection and will be posting 10-12 albums every Sunday.  If you purchase additional albums listed by me, please consider requesting combined shipping.  Thanks for viewing this post.