Kiss - Kiss

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Music reviews of Kiss

Music Review: The debut album that started it all.
Rating: 5 Stars

The KISS debut album features 7 veritable KISS classics, several that would become staples of the live show: "Strutter", "Nothin' to Lose", "Firehouse", the Ace Frehley penned (but not sung, Frehley wouldn't sang until Love Gun's "Shock Me") "Cold Gin", popular show opener "Deuce", "100,000 Years" (where Peter would have his drum solo in the live version), and "Black Diamond", which was written by Stanley and sang by Criss (Criss is also chorus singer on "Nothin' to lose"). The remaining three songs sometimes sound a little out of place: "Let Me Know" is a pleasant rocker written by Stanley (sung by Simmons and Stanley) that he had been sitting on since he met Simmons when it was called "Sunday Driver". Battling each other for most odd KISS selection (at least on this album) are the completely instrumental funky rock tune "Love Theme from KISS" and a goofy cover of a 1959 Bobby Rydell hit "Kissin' Time". Both are worth hearing though and if you're a KISS oddity seeker you'll appreciate them even more.

This album is also notable for being the first and last album to feature the names of the band followed by instrument duties (i.e. Ace Frehley: Lead Guitar). All subsequent releases would simply say "KISS:" followed by their names. This made all the more sense when facts started coming out later that certain members didn't play some things where other members or even "gasp!" other musicians played for them. For example, Peter was replaced by drummer Anton Fig on all but one song on 1979's Dynasty and Ace only played on one song from the Studio side of Alive II, where Bob Kulick played in an "Ace like" style. It was also brought out that Gene didn't play bass on many songs and I'm sure that Paul has had his moments. Its hard to say when all this started occuring but it's safe to say that it all came later after KISS established themselves as a huge concert draw, visual band, action figures, comic book superheroes, etc., etc. In most cases it would take a serious KISS officianado to notice the changes. I highly recommend picking this album up, but not necessarily as a starting point for beginners. For that, I would go with one of the later albums like "Destroyer" or one of the classic live albums "Alive!" or "Alive II". Of course I feel that all KISS make-up era albums are essential from "KISS" to "Creatures of the Night". Actually you could pick up a copy of "KISS" for the cover art alone! If there was ever a band I could have the entire collection of on vinyl, it would be KISS, arguably the best album cover art ever. Classic!

Description of Kiss

Classic Rock CDs

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