It’s been almost a decade since Ray Davies introduced a new set of songs to the world, but he’s hardly been slacking. After 2007’s Working Man’s Café, he assembled the fun (if unnecessary) Kinks Choral Collection; dropped the collaborative retrospective See My Friends with Bruce Springsteen, Metallica and more; published his memoir, Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story; and performed steadily. But Kinks fans, this writer included, couldn’t help but thirst for some new material instead of reimaginings of past hits. With the Americana album, Davies has finally returned to his truest strength: original songwriting. While it’s not a revolutionary record, its quality is a testament to an icon already 54 years into his career. Americana features The Jayhawks as Davies’ backing band, and they match the feeling of each song expertly. The lazy, shuffling “I’ve Heard That Beat Before” is loose and easy—you’ll want to crack some peanuts and order a beer. First single “Poetry” rocks just hard enough, with bright, punchy guitars that never overpower Davies’ storytelling. The album draws on Davies’ memoir as inspiration, even featuring some spoken-word excerpts that harken back to the British author’s own American history: “The day before I left New Orleans, my neighbor from down the street, Alex Chilton, came to say goodbye.”At its core, Americana is a warm, easy to enjoy, country-flecked rock record with a few truly excellent tunes (the gently soaring “Rock ‘N’ Roll Cowboys,” the fiery, honky-tonk “The Mystery Room”), crafted by a rock star who is still hungry—impressively so—to prove that he’s a legend.