The Kiss Studio Albums

[Thenop]

What really makes your head spin is that everything talked about so far, happened in a time span of 3 years and 8 months.
Debut was released Feb '74 and Alive II Oct' 77.

[dom]

I've really enjoyed reading this thread. It hasn't inspired me to go and have a listen though. Just not my cup of tea.

[David L]

I've really enjoyed reading this thread. It hasn't inspired me to go and have a listen though. Just not my cup of tea.

Might not be your cup of tea. Might not be your tequila or vodka and orange juice but it could be your.................

"COLD GIN!"

[Slim]

7. Dynasty (May 1979)

So: a couple of years pass, during which time each member of the band has recorded a solo album. I bought Ace's and Paul's for myself just before Christmas 1978. I liked both of them, Paul's especially. I didn't buy Gene's until a few years ago. Never had any interest in Peter's.

I can't remember where I was the first time I heard I Was Made For Lovin' You, but I very well remember the dismay, the disbelief - contempt even - when I realised how far they were prepared to go to sell out. I did buy Dynasty though when it hit the shops, perhaps out of loyalty, perhaps out of optimism. But I didn't like it. It just wasn't the same band any more. I probably played it two or three times. It felt cynical.

The extraordinary dissonance between the band's established persona and the reality of this album is nowhere more evident than in the official video for Sure Know Something. Pay attention to Gene Simmons: the grimace, the menacing pose. If you were watching with the volume turned down you might be forgiven for thinking the God of Thunder was unleashing earth-shaking bottom end mayhem from that axe-shaped bass with the fake blood on the blade, but nope - he's laying down a tastefully subdued funky soul groove.

Of course the whole album isn't soft rock AOR dance music but actually that's the other problem with this record - it has an identity crisis; it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. It's a mish-mash of styles. A bit like The Beatles' 'White Album' in a way. It doesn't feel like the project of a band with a single, coherent idea for an album. Or a band with a single coherent idea for a band, come to that.

Having said all that - listening to it again today for the first time in many years, I did enjoy it in parts. I've heard I Was Made For Lovin' You many times over the years of course, as most of us have and now that I don't particularly care what sort of band Kiss wanted to be in 1979, I admit I quite like it. It was nice to hear Magic Touch again. And Sure Know Something is actually a pretty classy, soft rock / soul tune.

I've always liked Hard Times, definitely the highlight of the record for me. Unusually for Ace, it feels sincere. It's not a shallow cock rock tune like Shock Me or Rocket Ride.

Ace's cover of 2,000 Man isn't bad. I don't like the other Frehley tune at all.

I surprised myself by quite enjoying Dirty Livin', I never used to. Gene's tunes on here are nothing special.

Overall - it has its moments but it's patchy and incoherent and so much of it is such a departure from the band's established identity that I can't help thinking they were letting their fans down.

[Thenop]

How I become a Kissfan, I have described that elsewhere but it was around this period. Dynasty was my first Kiss album and it'll always have a special place for me because of that, but there are issues with this album...big issues.

A word on the solo albums though, before I get to Dynasty. The idea was of course coined by management: tensions rose high in the band, Frehley had all but quit but remained onboard because of this. The were unified by the covers and the Kiss logo on the sleeve, plus if you bought all four of them you had a set of posters that locked  into each other.

Now, Neil Bogart (again) thought of a campaign to bring the to the publics attention: "shipped platinum!" and so they did, they were also retuned in bundles..

For me the Peter Criss does nothing, zero. I don't understand the album, on any level.

Gene threw everything but the kitchen sink it, had around 30 guest starts (including Cher, Joe Perry, Rick Nielsen and a slew of musicians). It was even rumored he did not play 1 single instrument on the album himself. He re-recorded a Rock and Roll over tune, added a Disney tune and all sorts of nonsensical things. He did however, produce one of the best songs out of the 4 albums: Radioactive.

Paul did his album mostly by himself with 2 backing bands in 2 studios: 1 in New York and 1 in LA. Some guests were there but not much. If you hear these songs it's about half a Kiss album, it's missing the Simmons songs that's all. Also: that's not keyboards you here, that's an E Bow.

By far my favorite, and a top 3 Kiss universe album to me, is Ace's. I love this album. I really like Ace's voice, there's a lazyness in his singing I enjoy, but also a directness and honesty. Also: Anton Fig is phenomenal on drums on this one. New York Groove still resonates after all these years. No matter which TV shows recorded in NY is aired, at some point you will hear it :-)

Right, Dynasty then. Again Anton Fig, Criss only handled drumming duties on Dirty Livin'. Ace has 3 songs here, I really like 2,000 Man and Hard Times, again an honest lyric here.

Simmons fails on all fronts for me: X Ray Eyes? Charisma? Spare me, do better. Half cocked stuff with bad lyrics.

No, the ones that shine here are the Stanley songs. And of course, there's outside writers and a producer who helped a lot. But Magic Touch is my highlight.
My main gripe here is the production, it sounds weak and wimpy. No balls, no guitars. At the time, I was 9, I ate it up. But over time I've grown to not like the sound at all.

This of course, was also the album where it all unraveled. The band was no longer a band, Criss was about to be fired / left (the jury will always be out on that one) still they did a megatour in the States. Funnily enough they had this little block of solo songs squeezed in. They did Move On, Radioactive, NY Groove and  Tossin' and Turnin. Some songs were dropped early on, some survived. Also, it was a rare occasion where DRC or Deuce did not open the set: it was King of the Night Time World as set opener.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Sure Know Something holds a nice memory for me. Somehow, the 7" single came into my possession. I know I didn't buy it so I think a friend must have had it and given it to me as it was also on the album which he owned. I was really getting into bass guitar at this time. I was hugely influenced by Geddy and tried to play little else. Geddy's frantic Prog lines were the goal for me. Nothing came close or held my interest for any length of time. I think Rush are to blame for me having a fairly narrow bandwidth of musical taste.

That has only changed quite recently unfortunately. Still, I have a lot to aim at and enjoy now. But this Kiss bass line intrigued me, quite simple for a novice, but addictive and hypnotic. I think I was on the Peavey T40 at this time. My first proper bass guitar having been unable to find a Fender Precision in those days of Fender production difficulties.

I wonder if I still have the vinyl single somewhere. I haven't seen it in so long. I seem to remember quite a colourful label but might be wrong.

[Thenop]

Bit off topic, but Kiss' current tour drumtech is Lorne Wheaton, aka Gump. He was Neil's as well. There's a little video up on Youtube where Eric Singer (current Kiss drummer) shows us his setup in London and Gump is there, but also - I have not seen this anywhere else - there seems to be a little Neil tribute going on on he frontheads of the bassdrums. I could be wrong but it seems like a Rush starman is on there..judge for judge for yourself..around the 35 seconds mark

[Slim]

Good spot! Without a doubt.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Yes, I think you're right. Nice touch!

[Slim]

8: Unmasked (May 1980)

This is an album I'd pretty much forgotten about. In fact if I hadn't found it in my box of old LPs in the loft at the weekend while searching for my old vinyl copy of Alive II, I would have claimed, in this very post, that I never owned it. But apparently I did. I must have bought it when it came out.

I certainly don't remember ever listening to it. I'm sure I did though, because one or two of the songs are familiar.

It's pop music in essence, which in my book is not a bad thing in itself, but in most cases there's something really lightweight and frothy about the tunes on here which I don't find appealling at all. The Bangles and the Go-Gos rocked harder than this. Maybe Bananarama did.

Actually I really like (Gene's) Naked City, the chorus was instantly familiar. Gene's other songs are decent. But all of them are crying out for a more ballsy production. Did Gene write the lyrics for You're All That I Want? They're so uncharacteristically innocent and normal. None of the usual cartoon-macho excess testosterone posturing.

Ace seems to have raised his songwriting game a bit - all of his songs on here are pretty good, even if they sound a bit limp-wristed. Torpedo Girl is a wacky tune. I love it.

I think this album sounds a bit less disjointed than its predecessor. Whereas Paul easily has the best stuff on Dynasty, here it's Ace who delivers the goods in my opinion. I found all of Paul's songs on here (all co-written with Vini Poncia) very forgettable and I've proved that experimentally. I'd forgotten all of them.

Anyway the whole record has been castrated with a really gutless production job. The rhythm guitars throughout sound like they've been recorded through $20 transistor radios.

One or two decent tunes but I'm unlikely to revisit this album except for Torpedo Girl, which I'm glad to have rediscovered and possibly Naked City.

[Thenop]

You said it right, Unmasked misses any type of punch. Again produced by pop producer Vini Poncia, again missing Criss (who was de facto out of the band only to make an apperancce in the Shandi video), it does feel like the lesser accomplished brother of Dynasty.

You also hit the nail on the head picking out Naked City, I love that song. Finally a riff I can relate to, it has that feel to it Almost Human as well. The whole song just sounds like a walk in a lamppost lit city. It was largel written by Bob Kulick though, he came up with the riff.

Ace's songs are great here too, I think I like Two Sides of the Coin the best though. Ace had this thing by now about letting poeople play on his songs, he played all guitars and bass, so no Simmons on this one.

And out of all the Paul songs I have always loved Tomorrow, that one deserved better that being on this album. Even though he has gone on record tha he didn't like the pop sound, admittedly his songs sound like they were written with this production in mind.
 
The rest is not necessarly bad (although the already mentioned Shandi is horrid but also a huge hit in Australia), but it doesn't bring about any spark. That is not surprising considering the state the band was in. There were a lot of outside writers, Anton Fig played drums again.

The subsequent tour was interesting. It was booked, I had tickets to a local venue (Ahoy' Rotterdam) and was to with my stepfather, but the band called it off. They returned later that year with a new drummer (Eric Carr) in a venue much further away, and I didn't get a chance to see them. I was devastated.

The tour was also interesting as in they ventured out some more, so far the band had extensively toured the US, went to Europe once and twice to Japan. They were now adding Australia. The album exploded over there, true Kissmania. It was said at the time 1 out of 5 Australians owned a Kiss album...

[David L]

My Kiss fandom didn't stretch to buying Unmasked. That would have been too far 

[Slim]

9. Music from The Elder (November 1981)

Once again, an album that I faithfully bought when it came out, back in 1981. But I'd read a review of the album by Geoff Barton in Sounds magazine, and had good reason to expect it to be different from the previous two albums, which had singularly failed to impress me.

It certainly was quite different. A concept album, apparently based on an idea for a film that never was, with the various tunes appearing to be based on the narrative of the film.

I liked this album, although I was never quite sure what to make of it. It wasn't the Kiss that I'd grown to love as a teenager. But it certainly wasn't the lightweight, overtly commercial pop froth that had characterised Unmasked either. It was artful, purposeful. It sounded great; easily the best-sounding Kiss album since Destroyer (and it's no coincidence that both were produced by Bob Ezrin). And although they had some outside help, there are some lovely, sophisticated songwriting moments, enhanced here and there by orchestral arrangements.

It's very cinematic; operatic even in places. Lots of light and shade and reflective moments. It has choirs, mediaeval horns even.

I confess I hadn't listened to it for years but I really enjoyed acquainting myself with this album again, this afternoon. I listened to the CD version, which has a different running order from the LP I bought 42 years ago and it flows very nicely. It's a proper whole album experience, not just a collection of songs.

Highlights? The Oath, which has a terrific, driving rock feel. Dark Light, in which Ace invokes Sodom, Gomorrah, perversion and hate. Crikey! I recall that Geoff Barton was particularly fond of that one.

And I've always really liked Mr Blackwell, which back in the day I assumed to have been written about a music critic who'd panned the band at some point. I don't know if that's true or not. But what a tune, with that dark, echoey bass and sneering vocal.

There's a guitar refrain in Under The Rose that I'm sure I've heard somewhere else. A Zeppelin tune I can't put my finger on? It's bugging me at the moment but it'll come to me. Actually the opening minute or two of that song reminds me of Pink Floyd's Pigs.

Overall - I don't think it's quite a classic and it didn't give birth to any crowd-pleasing bangers. But I think it's a worthy effort to do something different and distinctive. And that's especially welcome from a band which more often than not liked to chase trends.

[David L]

9. Music from The Elder (November 1981)

Once again, an album that I faithfully bought when it came out, back in 1981. But I'd read a review of the album by Geoff Barton in Sounds magazine, and had good reason to expect it to be different from the previous two albums, which had singularly failed to impress me.

It certainly was quite different. A concept album, apparently based on an idea for a film that never was, with the various tunes appearing to be based on the narrative of the film.

I liked this album, although I was never quite sure what to make of it. It wasn't the Kiss that I'd grown to love as a teenager. But it certainly wasn't the lightweight, overtly commercial pop froth that had characterised Unmasked either. It was artful, purposeful. It sounded great; easily the best-sounding Kiss album since Destroyer (and it's no coincidence that both were produced by Bob Ezrin). And although they had some outside help, there are some lovely, sophisticated songwriting moments, enhanced here and there by orchestral arrangements.

It's very cinematic; operatic even in places. Lots of light and shade and reflective moments. It has choirs, mediaeval horns even.

I confess I hadn't listened to it for years but I really enjoyed acquainting myself with this album again, this afternoon. I listened to the CD version, which has a different running order from the LP I bought 42 years ago and it flows very nicely. It's a proper whole album experience, not just a collection of songs.

Highlights? The Oath, which has a terrific, driving rock feel. Dark Light, in which Ace invokes Sodom, Gomorrah, perversion and hate. Crikey! I recall that Geoff Barton was particularly fond of that one.

And I've always really liked Mr Blackwell, which back in the day I assumed to have been written about a music critic who'd panned the band at some point. I don't know if that's true or not. But what a tune, with that dark, echoey bass and sneering vocal.

There's a guitar refrain in Under The Rose that I'm sure I've heard somewhere else. A Zeppelin tune I can't put my finger on? It's bugging me at the moment but it'll come to me. Actually the opening minute or two of that song reminds me of Pink Floyd's Pigs.

Overall - I don't think it's quite a classic and it didn't give birth to any crowd-pleasing bangers. But I think it's a worthy effort to do something different and distinctive. And that's especially welcome from a band which more often than not liked to chase trends.

That opinion echoes my own, almost to the letter

[Slim]

There's a guitar refrain in Under The Rose that I'm sure I've heard somewhere else. A Zeppelin tune I can't put my finger on? It's bugging me at the moment but it'll come to me.

Maybe Cinnamon Girl? The guitar riff I'm thinking off starts off at 1:09 in this Kiss song: