Many hardcore Kinks fans were alienated by Ray Davies’ melodramatic songwriting during the Preservation project era, resulting in albums that played more like the soundtracks to a piece of musical theatre than rock albums. More recent reviews of Preservation: Act 1 have been more sympathetic to it’s ambitions. In particular, All Music’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine has declared “Sweet Lady Genevieve” to be the “real candidate for Davies’ forgotten masterpiece”.