me and rebuild so completely". Williams's review subsequently became the most influential piece ever written about the Kinks, helping establish a cult following for the band. A review in Circus, formerly the teen magazine Hullaballoo, stated that though the Kinks were "backdated" and "cut off from the mainstream of pop progression", Village Green indicated their continued originality. A reviewer in Boston's new underground paper Fusion similarly wrote that despite the increasingly bad press the band were facing, Village Green showed their persistence. The album was also reviewed in university newspapers. Musician John Mendelsohn reviewed it for UCLA's paper the Daily Bruin, counting it as his favourite LP since the Who's 1967 album The Who Sell Out and predicted that it would be one of the best in 1969. The reviewer in Caltech's paper instead disparaged the album as "schmaltz rock", being "without imagination, poorly arranged, and a bad copy of the Beatles". Retrospective assessment Retrospective commentators often regard Village Green as the Kinks' best work. Critic Rob Sheffield writes the album is likely the band's strongest album on a song-by-song basis, while Rogan writes it is "[t]he crowning achievement of the Kinks' career and their best album by some distance". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic writes that the album's subdued performances emphasise the songwriting to make it feel more like Ray's solo project than a Kinks album. He suggests that, despite the album's calm sensibility, it includes "endless layers of musical and lyrical innovation". Village Green has often be reassessed by commentators as Ray's creative peak. Dylan Montanari of the website Spectrum Culture writes that the album places Ray's songwriting ability among the best of 1960s, such as the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. He contends that Ray's unique skill is in understanding the nostalgia one will later feel about the present moment and a recognition that individuals often craft themselves on how they want to look to their future selves. Charles Ubaghs of webzine Tiny Mix Tapes writes the album is "[a] piece of near perfect pop perfection repeatedly imitated and arguably never bettered". He argues that its lyrical content is furthered by the arrangements which mix folk with music hall, elevating it from "odd ball piece of rose tinted British nostalgia, to a rightfully regarded piece of song writing brilliance". Listeners in the 21st century often interpret Village Green as applying to modern issues. Relevant themes include