The Kinks - Word of Mouth (1984)

Word of Mouth is the 20th studio album by The Kinks. It was a modest success in America (hitting #57), but the album did not achieve the Top 20 success that its predecessors State of Confusion, Give the People What They Want, and Low Budget had.

"Do It Again" was released as a single from the album in 1985. It was featured in the film Click (released in 2006), and in trailers that were promoting the film. It was also used in TV ad promotions for the 2013 edition of the Tour de France.

The song "Good Day" includes an allusion to the death of actress Diana Dors. During the sessions for "Good Day," a drum machine was used instead of drummer Mick Avory, due to the conflicts between Avory and Dave Davies. Ray Davies said of this: "Dave and Mick just couldn't get along. There were terrible fights, and I got to the point where I couldn't cope with it any more. Push came to shove, and to avoid an argument I couldn't face....we were doing a track called "Good Day" and I couldn't face having Mick and Dave in the studio, so I did it with a drum machine." "Good Day" was first released as a single in Britain (as well as Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden) in August 1984, backed with "Too Hot" (both songs would appear on Word of Mouth.) A maxi-single, with "Don't Forget to Dance" added to the two tracks already on the 7 inch single, was also released in the UK. "Good Day", however, was unsuccessful, as it did not chart in any country. In November of that year, "Good Day" appeared as the third track on the first side of album, Word of Mouth. An extended edit of "Good Day" appears as a bonus track on some CD reissues of Word of Mouth. "Good Day", despite its commercial failures, has received generally positive feedback from critics. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine cited the track as a highlight from the Word of Mouth disc of the compilation album, The Arista Years (which is a box set of all Kinks albums released on the Arista label) despite not doing so in his review of Word of Mouth. Rolling Stone writer David Fricke said that, "for 'Good Day,' Ray dusts off his old 'Sunny Afternoon' ennui with a languid melody and a fragile, winning chorus."

The track "Living on a Thin Line" by Dave Davies was played three times in the 2001 episode "University" of the American TV show The Sopranos. According to producer Terence Winter, it is the series' most asked about song.