Lola

A three-minute narrative novel — the production has a theatrical warmth that suits the lyric's storytelling ambition, Ray Davies unfolding the tale of a narrator who falls for someone who may or may not be transgender with a matter-of-factness that was genuinely radical in 1970. The bass line is melodic and propulsive, carrying the story forward. Davies's vocal delivery is conversational and warm, the narrator never arriving at judgment, only arrival — the final "girls will be boys and boys will be girls" delivered as observation rather than moral. The guitar work is restrained in service of the story, the arrangement never competing with the lyric for attention. The chorus is irresistibly singable, which may have helped it land on the charts despite subject matter that must have alarmed radio programmers. Lyrically it covers an entire night, a series of realizations, a reframing of desire and identity in the space of a pop song without ever announcing itself as Important. The Kinks were always sharper social observers than their competition, and this remains among the sharpest — a song that doesn't ask its listeners to reach a conclusion, just to follow the story and notice what it contains. Endlessly replayable; sounds better every decade.