Kiss - Crazy Nights

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Music reviews of Crazy Nights

Music Review: A Winner By Any Other (Band) Name
Rating: 4 Stars

Kiss had dabbled in less hard rock-oriented styles at occasional points in their lengthy career. While this upset (and continues to upset) fans of the down-and-dirty Kiss era for which they are immortalized, it also proved that - despite some moans and groans - Kiss (or particuarly, Paul Stanley) could craft a trendy tune and stand ground alongside other output from 15-minute bands. If you're into factual premise, Billboard echoes the reality: Kiss' three biggest hits in the US, chart-wise, were (in this order): "Beth" (#7), "I Was Made For Lovin' You" (#11), and "Forever" (#8). Two ballads and a disco tune. Oh, and in the UK, look what their biggest charting single was! "Crazy Crazy Nights" (#4)! Now that is bound to make the earliest of fans shake their fists and say "well that's just commercialism - it reflects nothing of Kiss' cult status." You're absolutely right. But Crazy Nights was all about selling out. The 1980's were all about selling out. So cut it some slack.

On to the album itself. Like I said before, if a four-letter word (starts with a "K", ends with "iss") had been innocently removed from the cover and replaced by some other name, this album wouldn't have earned the reputation is holds today as being "awful". In fact, it's stellar. It's not the Kiss that Kiss fans want, but that says nothing about the quality of the record. This record has more hooks than a kindergarten coatroom. The only other alternative I can think of that would have spared Crazy Nights from severe tongue-lashings is if Paul Stanley had released it as a solo album. After all, his tracks make the album what it is.

Specifically, "Crazy Crazy Nights" is infectuous and crowd-pleasing. It doesn't go beyond that - but that was clearly the target. "I'll Fight Hell to Hold You", in my opinion, is jaw-dropping in every respect. Wonderful. "Bang Bang You" - okay, it's a little rough around the edges in terms of recycled "principles" (if you can call them that) but it's still listenable and sentimentally Kiss. "My Way" - get over it, people, this song is good. I don't think it will be covered by any band anytime soon and it certainly hasn't aged well, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it! It will be forever etched in 1987, plainly put, but the song is inspirational, melodic and uplifting (play this one next to "War Machine" from '82 and see what I mean). "Reason to Live" is a picture-perfect 1980's power ballad and whether we like it or not, Paul Stanley's forté is directed, more often than not, to balladry. Big points for that one. "Turn on the Night" (welcome aboard, Diane Warren!) could essentially have been any song on FM radio that year, but Paul carries it well and avoids dropping too far into the despairs of sentimentality. Gene Simmons (a name not-too-oft spoken that year, I don't suspect) gives only a mediocre performance - the reality is, he's much better at metal than at power-pop. He's so good at being a demon that he doesn't look good in a tutu. That's the best analogy I can give. "No, No, No" is my favourite (?) Simmons track on Crazy Nights.

So if you're just getting into Kiss and you liked Destroyer or something like that, and you want to expand your Kiss collection, I wouldn't suggest moving forth with this record. However, if you have it in you to kick back a bit and just enjoy what was happening with music at the time, this album will remain appealing. By any other band, this album would have been very well-received. By Kiss, it was torn to shreds.

But I like it, for what it's worth.

Description of Crazy Nights

Classic Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Hard Rock & Metal
• Pop
• Rock