Wicked Annabella

An example of psychedelia, the song includes guitar feedback and a long sustain, likely achieved through the use of an early solid-state amplifier, while Davies's lead vocal features heavy echo and reverb.

[1] Ray Davies suggested in a November 1968 interview with Melody Maker that he composed "Wicked Annabella" to get a song "to sound as horrible as it could".

Among band biographers, Andy Miller characterises "Wicked Annabella" as a "psychedelic nursery rhyme",[2] while Johnny Rogan calls it a "black fairy tale".

[2] The witch is said to live in "perpetual midnight", spending her time mixing brews, burning into others' souls with her eyes and preying on children.

[17] Davies is credited as the song's producer,[18] while Pye's in-house engineer Brian Humphries operated the four-track mixing console.

[19] Dave Davies' double-tracked lead vocal ranges from frightened whispers to raging screams, while his laughter at the song's conclusion includes heavy echo and reverb.

"[25] Ray Davies included "Wicked Annabella" on the second side of the twelve- and fifteen-track editions of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

[32] Morgan Enos of Billboard magazine appreciated the eerie tone of "Wicked Annabella" and compared it to the Who's "Boris the Spider" (1966) and the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" (1968).