you wanted the best?

so...some of you may know that i started reviewing my KISS CDs a week or so ago.  i decided that there were way too many to finish up on the VINYL JUSTICE page so, i'm gonna finish here.

 fist up is KISS' debut album simply titled...well, "KISS".  the songs were cobbled together from gene and paul's previous bands and new stuff from frehley. the album has some good stuff on it including the first set of classic tracks like "strutter", "deuce", "cold gin" but the filler songs are severely lacking.  the album also sounds a little under mixed and as i listened to it the other night i noticed that the version of "nothing to lose" was different.  it didn't sound familiar at all.  later these songs will sound incredible either live or rerecorded with better production and mixes.  overall, not a bad start to a long and varied career.

 the second album is one of my least favourites.  there are a couple of good songs on it ("goin' blind", "parasite", "hotter than hell") but it just sounds so muddy and sluggish. the pace on most of the tracks needed to be picked up a little.  but i have to say that "goin' blind" is one of the best songs i've ever heard.

due to the failure to sell of the first 2 albums the studio decided they needed a new album...and a hit single.  the band had no songs what-so-ever so they locked themselves in a room until they had some.  and it shows.  most of the songs here suck but there are some gems: "rock bottom", "c'mon and love me", and my personal favourite from the album "lover her all i can".  the album sounds horrible as well.  they couldn't afford an actual producer so the head of the record company produced it.  the crowning achievement of this record...and the 2 before it... is that they got their hit single.  "rock and roll all nite" went on to become one of the best rock songs ever recorded.



"alive!", "rock and roll over", "destroyer" and "alive II" were reviewed on the VINYL JUSTICE page...so i'm gonna skip them.

after the success of "destroyer" the band went for a more streamlined sound.  "love gun" is a straight-up rock album.  the record includes some of the best songs they ever recorded.  "destroyer" may have sounded better, but "love gun" is definitely the better album. it also features ace frehley singing lead on "shock me".  other stand outs include "i stole your love", "christine sixteen", and "love gun". this is another favourite of mine.  i'm always a little torn between this one and "destroyer" as my fave...depends on the time of year or something.  unfortunately this would also be one of the last good studio album of the make-up era.


see VINYL JUSTICE for the solo albums.

 this album represents the beginning of the end.  after the solo albums paul stanley got bit by the DISCO bug.  he infected gene simmons but not peter and ace.  peter didn't even play drums on the album and only sings one crappy song.  ace is the only one that bothers to try a rock song with "2,000 man" and "hard times".  but even with that this album has some good tracks "sure know something" is a good song as are "charisma", "magic touch" and even "i was made for lovin' you".  the one really good thing that came from this album was the hiring of eric carr to play on the tour.

 one of the other nails in the coffin.  this album is horrible with only a couple of listenable tracks.  "is that you?" is tolerable as is "shandi" but it's just full of pop crap.  ace tried hard but even he loused it up here and had to fight to even keep his crap on the album.  also, despite the fact that peter criss is on the cover he's not even on the album.  he quit earlier and they hired anton fig (from ace's solo album and later the david letterman band) to play on the album.  they then hired eric carr for the tour...which was one of the best moves they ever made.

 what better way to try and come back from oblivion than a concept album.  yea...good idea.  KISS is just not a concept album band.  and they paid the price by having their hardcore fans start to hate them.  despite that, there are a couple of OK songs here: "a world without heroes" and "mr. blackwell". overall it's not a bad album...just not a KISS album.  the best thing about the album is the debut of eric carr.  his drumming style totally changed KISS's sound to something more heavy.  he single-handedly saved the band, IMO.

the very last of the original make-up era albums.  despite the fact that ace is on the cover, he didn't play on the album.  it was the new guy vinnie vincent who will go on to replace ace on the tour as the ankh guy.  with the help of vinnie and eric this is a very heavy album.  it's a mix of the older kiss from the mid 70's and the upcoming metal era of the 80's. it is far superior to the 3 previous albums and has a couple of tracks that are now new KISS classics: "i love it loud" and "war machine".  it also has "i still love you" which is one of the first power ballads of the metal era.  they were headed in the right direction with this album.  could they continue or would they louse this up as well?



here are some incidentals including the next phase of the make-up era 2.0:

basically this was just a greatest hits record.  the only thing to note is that there's an updated version of "strutter" called "strutter '78".  the only difference between the two is there's a disco style high hat throughout.

"killers" was an imported greatest hits album that included 4 "new" songs that were the throwaways from the what was to become "music from the elder" and some left overs from "creatures of the night.  "nowhere to run" and "down on your knees" (co-written by bryan adams) are the only 2 of the four worth listening to.  "nowhere to run" is one of the better songs to come out of the end of this era.

with the success of the reunion tour KISS wanted to make a new album to capitalize.  they failed.  "psycho circus" is another failed attempt at a "concept" that included a comic book series, action figures and appearances on shows like "madTV" and the like.  i bought the comic book and it was OK.  i even bought the action figures...they were kinda cool.  the album itself was not that great.  first off, the focused way too much on matching it up with the concept of the comic and not trying to just make a good record.  also, once again it seems as though we later find out that ace and peter are not even on the album save for the 2 songs they perform.  the songs themselves have way too many attempts at anthems like "i pledge allegience to the state of rock n roll" and "raise your glasses"...they just kinda don't work.  the songs that DO work are the gene simmons performances: "within" and "journey of 1000 years".  these 2 are really well done and gene's vocals are actually pretty good.  ace also has a good tune with "into the void" which is just old school ace.  peter tries to bring back the success of "beth" but fails miserably.  overall the album is not that good but the good songs themselves are worth a listen.

what can i say about "sonic boom"?  well...it just kinda sucks.  the rerecorded greatest hits disc is so much better.  "sonic boom" is filled with poor attempts at recreating the KISS of the the past.  there are lots of tries for anthems....way too many.  just write some frickin' songs, guys!!  stop trying so hard for these frickin' anthems.  stop trying to recreate the past!!  you can't!!  they even hired the artist that created the cover for "rock and roll over".  the cover and the greatest hits package are truly the best things about this album.




so that concludes my recollections of the KISS make-up era.  i hope you enjoyed this little trip of mine through my past and present.  join me later for the "unmasked" era of KISS.