The Kiss Studio Albums

[The Picnic Wasp]

Looks like you might be flying solo from here, Nop.

Cancel that! 😁

[Thenop]

Looks like you might be flying solo from here, Nop.

I know, I am in good company

[David L]

As a fairly regularly Sounds reader I remember being so frustrated by not knowing what NWOBHM stood for. I must have missed a few issues when the term was coined. I suppose I must have been at that age when you are cautious about asking questions like this for fear of being mocked by peers. So it was some time before I one way or another unscrambled the mystery. I can still remember reading it and my teenage brain translating it into an odd sounding word, rather than the acronym. I think I was quite an insecure teen pre-beer.

"Nuwobum" 

[Thenop]

Lick It Up, for the most part, was the first decent band effort in years, that's why it sounds coherent. Less outside writers, more focus on the songmaterial.
it is a solid album, it attracted quite some attention and it was the first album with no make up. I recall sitting in front of the TV waiting for the clip to premiere. The gradual build up, and then into the first chorus, we got to see the faces officially without make up for the first time.
Immediate disappointment because Vinnie was, well, not what I expected. Not the face I was looking for behind that Ankh mask. But the rest made sense, the dystopic Mad Max vibe seemed to suit the song and time just fine. 
Recorded by the same producer that did CotN it was received reasonably well but the lead off single did not explode like they wanted (they had to wait for Animalize for that..).

The sound of this album is fantastic, a full rich round sound with big drums, more than enough guitar and a nice top end to the mix that gives it a shine.
Opener Exciter is the blueprint for all Kiss' 80's songs: a fast-paced Stanley song that flies by, has a flashy guitar solo (by Rick Derringer) and a strong chorus.
Simmons strongest track for me is Not for the Innocent, in fact I think it is one of his strongest sans make up songs period. The title track is still played in the set and it segues int and out of the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again. Great chorus this one, big and easy to sing along.
Young and Wasted is song by Simmons on the record but would become an Eric Carr sung vehicle live, speeding it up to breakneck pace.
Gimme More is the equivalent of Danger on CotN, fast and a companion song to the opener.
All hell's Breaking Loose was written by Carr and he was proud of it, and then Stanley stuck a rap (kind of) part in it and he hated it. Not their best song on here to say the least. I Million to One was an exercise for Stanley again, he was gradually gravitating to the Big Ballads Michale Bolton style (more on that later).
Fits like a Glove was another juvenile Simmons' attempt at being sort of funny. A live staple in the 80's though. Especially the middle part (A Hot Knife, Through Butter).
The last 2 songs could never really interest me, they just sound kind of bland to me.
A good effort, a step down from Creatures for me, but still very enjoyable.

[Slim]

Simmons strongest track for me is Not for the Innocent, in fact I think it is one of his strongest sans make up songs period. The title track is still played in the set and it segues in and out of the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again.

Couldn't quite believe this when I read it, so I did a YouTube search. Very odd to intersperse a song with a serious and articulate message like Won't Get Fooled Again with Lick it Up, but at least they don't do the lyrics.

Even odder for me is to see the band in makeup doing what is probably their best-known non-makeup tune.

[captainkurtz]

Lick it up was their very last essential record, for me.  I absolutely loved Animalize in 1984, but listening to it today, it's pretty ropey.

[Thenop]

Lick it up was their very last essential record, for me.  I absolutely loved Animalize in 1984, but listening to it today, it's pretty ropey.

Let's see what Slim's Music Oracle has to say about that, shall we?

[captainkurtz]

Simmons strongest track for me is Not for the Innocent, in fact I think it is one of his strongest sans make up songs period. The title track is still played in the set and it segues in and out of the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again.

Even odder for me is to see the band in makeup doing what is probably their best-known non-makeup tune.

They often did Crazy Crazy Nights and God Gave Rock and Roll to you as well...

[Thenop]

Heaven's on Fire as well, which was a bigger song than Lick It Up.
Not sure whether GGRnR to you was actually played, they use it as an outro tape after shows, kind of what Maiden does with Always look at the bright side of life.

[Slim]

Not sure I've ever heard Heaven's on Fire. I hadn't heard of it before I started this thread, unless I've forgotten about it.

[Slim]

12: Animalize (September 1984)

By 1984, I don't have much of an interest in traditional rock music. I remember that I did buy the Diamond Head album Canterbury that year, and I liked it. I still listened to ZZ Top a lot as I recall, although not the later, MTV-friendly material. But I've definitely moved on. By this time I'm listening mainly to contemporary British artists like Prefab Sprout, The Blue Nile, The Smiths, Scritti Politti, Style Council. Intelligent, thoughtful music.

Certainly, I never had much tolerance for the hair metal bands who came to prominence in the '80s. That flashy, commercial, corporate stuff like Warrant, Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, Hagar-era Van Halen. Definitely not my thing.

And to me, Animalize, like Lick It Up, is a sort of blend of that sort of trashy populist showbiz metal and harder '80s rock music. Again it has a powerful guitar sound and a heavy attack but I don't really like anything on this record. Nothing really stands out. Heaven's On Fire and Murder in High Heels are probably the more memorable tunes. The latter borrows from Ian Dury's Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, I think.

But it's all a bit samey, all that hackneyed '80s metal sound with the divebombing guitars and the Atomik Tommy / Schenker style guitar runs. There's no variety, nothing really catchy, no fun. It's very derivative as well; for a band that had once had a very unique personality, the complete absence of anything original or distinctive is a shame.

I don't know if I ever considered buying Animalize in 1984. Just a glance at the cover or the song titles would have put me off by that time, probably.

[Thenop]

I hear you, but I was not quite ready to let go yet. I wanted to ,like it so bad, that I ended up doing so, at least at the time. Mind you, this is '84, I was 14.
In all but title this is a Stanley solo effort, he produced the thing while Simmons was off chasing a movie run. They brought in a flashy new solo guitar player (Mark St.John) that lasted for 1 album and 2 shows before he fell ill and never returned to the band again. Mr. Reliable, Bruce Kulick was brought into the fold and he'd stay until the mid 90's reunion would take place. At least some stability was brought back this way.
Some outside song writers were used again and that resulted in some of the stronger songs on the album.
Heaven's on Fire is the big one here and it it propelled the album actually to multi platinum status.
The problem with Animalize (and its successor Asylum) is the lack of memorable songs. Simmons for this part at least raised eyebrows by putting up a title like Burn Bitch Burn...
Both side openers (I've Had Enough and Under the Gun) we fast paced rockers where Carr showed off his chops and Thrills in the Night (written with Jean Beauvoir) is a welcome change to the regular drumming.
I have a strange fondness for Simmons' While the City Sleeps, it's not a fantastic song but I just took an instant liking to it.

Overall the tour would be better than the album, but the decline had clearly set in and it wouldn't get any better until the early '90s.

So buckle up, it's about to get ugly.

[Slim]

WIth the benefit of hindsight - is it fair to think that there's a sort of crisis in hard rock music, in the early '80s? Bands going more commercial and turning into parodies of themselves; maybe MTV had something to do with it.

Some of the British bands had a sort of weird musical chairs thing going on. Ian Gillan was in Black Sabbath at one point.

I think I had a sort of high water mark in 1983. I can remember going to see UFO, Diamond Head, MSG and Kiss that year.  Obviously Rush had morphed into something else entirely by that time. After that I don't think I ever had much of an interest in that sort of music. I stopped buying new records by the likes of Schenker, Budgie, Priest, Leppard and Motorhead, UFO split up, Zeppelin were long gone, etc. I did buy the Purple reunion record in late 1984 but it never had much of an appeal for me.

I still do like a lot of the stuff I liked up to then though. As I grew middle-aged I became a bit more open-minded about it. Certainly I still give old Budgie and Purple records a spin sometimes, for example.

[The Picnic Wasp]

12: Animalize (September 1984)

By 1984, I don't have much of an interest in traditional rock music. I remember that I did buy the Diamond Head album Canterbury that year, and I liked it. I still listened to ZZ Top a lot as I recall, although not the later, MTV-friendly material. But I've definitely moved on. By this time I'm listening mainly to contemporary British artists like Prefab Sprout, The Blue Nile, The Smiths, Scritti Politti, Style Council. Intelligent, thoughtful music.

Certainly, I never had much tolerance for the hair metal bands who came to prominence in the '80s. That flashy, commercial, corporate stuff like Warrant, Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, Hagar-era Van Halen. Definitely not my thing.

And to me, Animalize, like Lick It Up, is a sort of blend of that sort of trashy populist showbiz metal and harder '80s rock music. Again it has a powerful guitar sound and a heavy attack but I don't really like anything on this record. Nothing really stands out. Heaven's On Fire and Murder in High Heels are probably the more memorable tunes. The latter borrows from Ian Dury's Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, I think.

But it's all a bit samey, all that hackneyed '80s metal sound with the divebombing guitars and the Atomik Tommy / Schenker style guitar runs. There's no variety, nothing really catchy, no fun. It's very derivative as well; for a band that had once had a very unique personality, the complete absence of anything original or distinctive is a shame.

I don't know if I ever considered buying Animalize in 1984. Just a glance at the cover or the song titles would have put me off by that time, probably.

Please excuse this detour. From the 80s onwards I regularly used a hairdresser in Glasgow's west end. Long story short we would exchange gig stories and we had similar tastes in music except he was a massive The Blue Nile fan and would always talk about their recent music. I drifted away to other establishments but went back there just prior to lockdown. He immediately started to tell me his Paul Buchanan tale. Again, keeping this short (it's a Kiss thread) he had a number of coincidental bumps into his hero, in a shop, another quick nod and hello again on the street and if memory serves a brief conversation at a party.

One day Paul popped into the shop to see him and was annoyed when my hairdresser said he had bought tickets for an upcoming TBN concert. At the concert, Paul sought out my mate and his wife and arranged for them to attend a post-gig back stage get together. They were a bit stunned by this so joined the party, had a couple drinks and slipped quietly out.

A while later Paul visited the hairdressers. He asked why he and his wife had left before they got to speak to each other and my pal explained he didn't want to impose or outstay his welcome when there were a number of celebrities around and they felt a bit out of place. Paul said to him, "but your my friend, they were just guests". He was on cloud nine and no wonder. His hero declaring his friendship for him. The stuff of dreams.

[Thenop]

Lovely story that. Sometimes musicians are just like people