The Kiss Studio Albums

[David L]

The Iceman with the cracked-mirror finish is the guitar I'll always associate with Stanley - an epic axe.
I too wonder what on earth he was doing on stage in the non make-up (wilderness years). I was embarrassed for the guy when I saw them live. Completely destroyed the aura for me. It definitely had a strong element of 'mincing' about it. That tippy-toe, backwards, shuffle thing he kept doing was dreadful. Not sure who he got that from but it could've been Kate Bush. And the skateboard knee pads....wtf?

[captainkurtz]

'It was good at the time, though'

[Thenop]

'It was good at the time, though'

Not really no, not after the Animalize tour.
What they also did, wanting to add to the excitement, is they sped the songs up to ridiculous speeds which made them loose all power.
They stopped doing that once the 90s had set in and they toured Revenge.

[captainkurtz]

My first time seeing them was the Crazy Nights tour at Newcastle City Hall in September 1988.  Horrendous.  I think they must have used the same PA that they'd used at Wembley and the NEC.  It was bone shatteringly loud to the point of being painful.  Notable though that there was a massive - and good natured - stage invasion at the end;  Simmons was literally egging people on to jump down from the balcony.  It was on YouTube for ages but I can't find it now...I have it on VHS somewhere...still, so bad, I made no effort to see them when they returned in 1992 for the Revenge tour...with the Hot in the Shade stage show...

[Slim]

[Slim]

14. Crazy Nights (September 1987)

I'm getting through these a bit quicker than I expected, partly because I'm curious to find out what the reunion material is like. In the meantime - what a record this is.

If the intention, post-makeup, was to morph into purveyors of accessible, polished, uber-commercial soft rock - then this album is surely where they honed their skills in that direction to absolute perfection. This is well-written, well performed, so well recorded and polished to a mirror finish. Props to Ron Nevison, who is the producer. I only really know him for UFO's Obsession.

It's huge sounding. Passionate vocals, big drum sounds, earnest, crashing power chords, driving bass, catchy hooks. It's a masterclass of '80s corporate rock - which is not the sort of thing I'd usually say as a compliment but nonetheless I couldn't help but be impressed.

Everyone knows the title track of course, or the almost-title track. It's a very deliberately populist us-against-the-world song, like Judas Priest's United or Ozzy's Never Know Why. But it's as catchy as anything, it has a power and a depth that carries the message to brilliant effect.

Although (again) it's not my sort of thing I can see myself returning to this one. For what it is it's just so good. Yes it reminds me of Pat Benatar, Heart, Journey, REO Speedwagon et al and I don't much care for any of those artists. Reason to Live strongly reminds me of Foreigner's I Want To Know What Love Is, which I've never liked. I don't care. The Kiss tune is much better.

The Paul songs are more emblematic of what the album's about. A bit more anthemic and emotional. But Gene's efforts are decent as well, and similarly smooth and polished.

Synthesisers are used on some of the tunes, to great effect. I wonder if our own @Matt2112 might enjoy this record.

I must say Bruce Kulick really puts a shift in here. He tends to play improvised solos where I'd sometimes prefer to hear something a bit more composed and melodic, but he plays out of his skin all the same. I think he probably plays most of the guitars on the record. Paul is in fine voice and he sings his heart out.

We're a very long way now from the stripped-down, unpretentious rock and roll of Dressed To Kill. It's hard to think that it's the same band. But this is a very good album indeed.

According to Wikipedia, the record company execs broke into a spontaneous standing ovation at the playback meeting. I'm not surprised; the sound of cash registers going off in their heads must have been deafening.

Interesting to think that this was released the same month I spotted Paul in the street in New York.

[Slim]

A recent interview with Ace. He sounds a little worse for wear to me.

"I'm a great songwriter", he says. Also gives Paul and Gene a bit of grief. "When this album comes out it's going to make [Paul] look like an imbecile".

Here's a comment from a fan on Reddit:

Saw Ace last night at Peekills, NY. He was horrible. I kinda felt bad for him, and I was not the only person that felt that way. Thankfully he has a terrific backing band. I recorded his guitar solo, and it's so bad, I wouldn't even share any of it on social media. And I am a huge Ace fan.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KISS/comments/17i6j2v/comment/k6uzexv/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[Matt2112]

14. Crazy Nights (September 1987)

Synthesisers are used on some of the tunes, to great effect. I wonder if our own @Matt2112 might enjoy this record.

You're 100% correct, James; I have this album on picture disc.

Agree entirely with your review - really enjoyed reading it - though I expected it to be rather dismissive given this album is part of that 80s wave of melodic, commercial "hair" rock. 

But, yes, its production, arrangements, writing and performances just have an extra layer of classiness and craft that sets it apart from much of what that genre was churning out at the time.

[Thenop]

Let's say this was not my favourite Kiss era.. Until now I had swallowed it all, even Asylum and Animalize but by now I was 17 and when this was released I felt so disappointed. In a time I moved away from pop and rock and gravitated toward metal, this was exactly what I didn't need. I listened to Slayer, Voivod and all sorts of more obscure metal bands. I had ventured into playing my own music and even though feelings of nostalgia now and then popped up and I put on a Kiss record, I was utterly disappointed in this one.
I have the LP, why?
Well, its one redeeming feature it has (and it has nothing to do with the band or the music) is that is was given to me by a girl I ran into when I rode the bus home. She worked in the mall, I returned from my dayjob as well and we'd often see each other there. We did not live too far from each other, she was lovely, big blond hair (yes, it was the eighties), my hair was down to my back and blond as well. It was something in development let's say, she was seeing someone else at the time. It would take a good 2,5 years before we got involved.. and then another 6 before we got married

Crazy Nights has 1 song on it that perfectly sums up what I think of it:
No No No.

By this time Gene has zoned out entirely, clearly since he has only I think 4 songs on here. The rest is Stanley drivel. Keyboard driven pop pulp on which he tries to show the world what his vocal range is. Nevison shoud have been taken out back and shot for what he did to the guitars - which are virtually non existent. Kiss has lost their way completely, and it shows.

There is not 1 song on here I like, there are songs that are lower than even the dire Title Track most notably My Way which is a piece of AOR, but the lowest point has to be Reason to Live. It is difficult for me to find words to describe this one. It's a bit like there's a gathering of people worshipping their personal deity and calling this their "reason to live", and a big group hug follows, oh joy! Look at how happy we are!

Edit:come to think of it, it has a sort of happy Foreigner vibe as in the chorus of I want to know what love is.

The irony is, this was their lowest financial point despite the title track being a smash hit in the UK (what happened guys? I hold your in higher regard than this!). 

The subsequent tour was somewhat succesful, but they played festivals in Europe on the Monsters of Rock tour and were limited to approx 45-50 mins of material. They had lost teir headline status. These shoiws were heavily bootlegged and easy to find even nowadays. They look ridiculous and everything sounds like the chipmunks.

 

[captainkurtz]

At the risk of repeating myself....'it was good at the time'...

[Thenop]

At the risk of repeating myself....'it was good at the time'...

At the risk of repeating myself: Not really no 

[Matt2112]

Crazy Nights has 1 song on it that perfectly sums up what I think of it:
No No No.

Very good.  Can't wait to see what you think of Forever...

[Slim]

15: Hot in the Shade (October 1989)

I'm not sure I'd even heard of this album. When it came out I was mostly listening to Scofield, McLaughlin, Metheny and similar so if this did appear on the radar, it wouldn't have received much attention.

This is a decidedly different proposition from Crazy Nights. The obvious thing to say is that it's not as classy or stylish, it's not nearly as well-produced. Secondly - it does mostly have a more direct, generic hard rock sound - it's not so AOR-sounding as its predecessor. No-one's going to confuse Boomerang with a Foreigner song, for example. But on the whole we're still a lot closer to Bon Jovi territory than to Hotter than Hell.

Thirdly, it's a long album; there's very nearly an hour of it. We're in the CD age now, of course. Thankfully the advent of the Compact Disk also means that it's a lot easier to skip the songs you don't like. Unfortunately listeners of this album might well want to take advantage of that, because (fourthly) the songs are not particularly strong.

Nothing stands out as exceptional, but to be fair there's nothing really bad on here either. I quite liked Boomerang, if only because it's a showcase for Bruce Kulick's guitar gymnastics. I liked Little Caesar, written and sung by Eric Carr. He sings well and supposedly he plays bass on it, too. If that's true, he's a very capable player.

Rise To It is quite an engaging little (soft) rocker. Out of interest I watched the video they made for this, which features Paul and Gene playing earlier versions of themselves in 1975. "I'll bet you we could take the makeup off and it wouldn't make any difference", 1975 Paul says. 1975 Gene tells him he's nuts.

Peter and Ace also appear in non-speaking parts, presumably played by extras. Ace is warming up on a Stratocaster. Schoolboy error.

Would be nice to think there's a video for a single from Psycho Circus that features Paul turning to Gene and saying "You know what, Gene? I bet we could put the makeup back on..". But I digress.

There are some nice girly backing vocals on Silver Spoon.

Hide Your Heart is faintly enjoyable, a story song with a rhythm guitar part that reminded me of Subdivisions.

I quite liked the little homage to ABBA's Mamma Mia at the beginning of King of Hearts, but I don't like the song.

As for Forever - co-written with Michael Bolton, and it shows - no, I don't like that, either. It reminds me of Heart's Alone. Maybe Ron Nevison would have polished it up nicely though, who knows?

Paul and Gene produced this album themselves allegedly and although there's no sign of the artful, lush sophistication of the album they made two years earlier, they didn't do a bad job. It's well-recorded, it's certainly not an amateurish production job.

In general - it's just a very ordinary album, I'm afraid.

[Thenop]

Selfproduced and riddled with errors in doing so, I'd say. Still on the downlow financially they decided to keep several demo drumcomputer parts in favor of Carr re-recording them. As a consolation they gave him free reign on Little Caesar eand it's one of the highlights on an otherwise unimpressive album.

As a matter of fact it was done so fast most of it is made up from 24 track demos the guys did themselves. It is near impossible to pick apart who played what here.

Most of this is instantly forgettable and was never played live. The few songs that were have been long since forgotten. Caddilac Dreams? Silver Spoon? Read My Body? God that is just awful. Listen tot that 2cent drumcomputer that starts of Love's A Slap in the Face, it makes me cry, I can only imagine Carr was pissed.

At least Betrayed had Simmons howling the chorus, Rise to It has some flair. Boomerang has some pace at least. Doesn't make it a good song, but it's better than most of the album.

At the time Kissfans (minus myself) hailed this as a 'come back'. No clue why, it's not good and far too long. Hide Your Heart was done by Frehley on one of his albums as well, still a hideous song.

Unfortunately the only song that scored on the charts was the dire ballad Forever written with Michael Bolton. What they did getting mixed up with the king of housewife pop is beyond me.

Again: no, this is not the Kiss I know and love.

Let's move on, or should we look back? We should! There was an '88 comp called Smashes Thrashes and Hits that had 2 new songs. Any good? Well, if you like Powerstation and juvenile lyrics, maybe. But I think just mentioning the title here will be enough to run you off:

Let's Put the X in Sex
(You Make Me) Rock Hard

That was not the worst part though, you can just skip those 2 songs and get to the old stuff.  But if you do an unpleasant surpise awaits: all of the stuff has been re-mixed and not for the better. I Love it Loud has been neutered, the old classics drown in reverb and odd stereo effects (Love Gun is butchered like this, it brings tears to my eyes). At eats the Ezrin produced stuff they couldn't screw up, Ezrin recorded with effects, which means they could not alter that.

And as a final F... Y.. to Peter Criss they let Eric Carr re-do the vocals on Beth, I kid you not. Carr is an OK singer but to let him do the signature Criss song, well no, just no.

[David L]

I've not heard Crazy Nights or Hot In The Shade and am unlikely to. They were a band drowning at this point. I just had to look at the pictures of them. I will admit though, Crazy Nights was a masterclass in creating a chart-busting anthem. More cheese than a raclette-lovers convention though.
Enjoying the reviews and comments, great thread