REVIEW: KISS – Smashes, Thrashes & Hits (1988)

Part 26 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

SMASHES FRONT

KISS – Smashes, Thrashes & Hits (1988)

October, 1988.  Articles had been spinning through the rock magazines for months that this was the end:  Kiss was on the verge of breaking up.  Gene Simmons was still focused on his label and management company, the last album (Crazy Nights) was a disappointment, and the word on the street was that Kiss were no longer cool.

So, when Gene Simmons was to appear as co-host of the Pepsi Power Hour that day in October, they said it was for a special announcement.  I fully expected it to be an announcement of the farewell tour.

It was not.  It was to promote his new label, $immons Records, and his signing, the excellent House Of Lords.  And, to announce the forthcoming release of Smashes, Thrashes & Hits:  the new Kiss greatest hits CD with two new songs.  And a remake of “Beth”.  With Eric Carr singing.

I received the album for Christmas that year.  My feelings were quite mixed.

Both new songs were written, sung and produced by Paul Stanley, another indication that Gene was still off in la-la land.  “Let’s Put The X In Sex” is a pretty lame, pretty pop, pretty un-Kiss tune, with a somewhat redeeming horn section.  I was horrified that, in the music video, Paul wasn’t even holding a guitar anymore.  He was just dancing.  Dancing!  At least in the videos from Crazy Nights, he was holding a guitar while dancing.   Somehow I saw this as a symptom of what was wrong with Kiss in the late 80’s.  This was not the same band anymore.

The second new song, “(You Make Me) Rock Hard” (a double entendre that I missed completely), is a slightly more uptempo song which almost qualifies as a rocker.  It has an insanely catchy pre-chorus.  Which is something I’d actually like to draw your attention to.  See below, please:

Try to ignore the dancing, Paul hugging a very bouffant Gene, just skip to the 1:50 mark.  Watch Gene’s lips.

Paul sings, “You make me sweat, you turn me ’round,” but Gene can be clearly seen mouthing, “you turn me up.”  He doesn’t even know the words to the song, and that made it into the video.  He was clearly asleep at the wheel!

The rest of the album was filled with hits, none with Ace nor Peter singing.  Hence, “Beth”.  It’s always been said that Kiss have tried to erase Ace and Peter from their history and here’s a great example.  In addition, Eric’s voice is simply too sweet, it needs rasp to do this song.  It’s unfortunate that this was Eric’s first lead vocal.

You should know that many of the hits were remixed — virtually everything from the original lineup.  Some of the remixes are quite good (I love this version of “Love Gun” with the extended guitar bit), some are not.  “I Love It Loud” lacks the oomph of the drums, and the false ending.

Of note:  Not one song from Crazy Nights made the cut (except in the U.K., where “Reason To Live” was added).  I’ve always felt this was a subliminal message as to the quality of that album too.

Smashes, Thrashes & Hits represents the absolute lowest point of this era of Kiss.  The dancing, the pop, the terrible videos, I was fed up.  Fortunately, Gene got his brain back and the band began to steer the ship back in the right direction.  In my opinion the first real step began with Paul Stanley’s solo tour (with Bob Kulick and Eric Singer), where he reconnected with the fans and the music.

Better things were to come, but not yet.

2/5 stars

Part 88: The Only Time I Called the Cops

October.  These two shady, shady guys came in looking for the new “Limp Daddy” (Limp Bizkit).  After buying “Limp Daddy” they told me they had a van full of stereo equipment, good prices, did I want to buy anything?  No thanks!  I’d seen guys like this around before, selling stolen speakers and car decks.

They came back later in the day to buy more stuff, in total they dropped about $200 in a day.  They were just buying whatever crap was on the charts that they had heard.  They were buying discs like they didn’t care.  Good for sales, yes, but I had this vibe that they would be back.

Sure enough a couple weeks later they were back to return the discs they bought.  They had been opened and played.

“I used my boss’ money to buy these, and he doesn’t want them, so I need my money back.”

Now, this wasn’t the most unique reason I’d heard for returning discs, I’ve heard much more original reasons over the years.  (“I got five of these for my birthday so I need to return all of them”, “I found this”, “I’m not allowed to have this”)    But I guess this guy’s boss was pissed about him spending the money on discs.  Maybe he should have thought of that before he spent his boss’ money.

And knowing that this guy sold stolen car stereo equipment for a living, I’d hate to meet his boss.

I explained our return policy and told him that once he’s opened the wrapper and kept it for two weeks there was nothing I could do for him besides buy it back used, at a greatly reduced cost.

“Can’t you just re-seal it and sell it again?” he asked.

“No, because it’s not new anymore.  It’s used.”

“Well then what are all those sealed discs I see behind you there?” he persisted.

“Those are brand new, I can’t just seal up a disc and sell it for $16 man!”

“Oh man, my boss is going to kill me.  You have to do something for me,” he moaned.

“I wish I could, but really after this much time…I mean my boss would kill me too.”

“You have to give me the money back.  I’m not leaving until I get it,” he threatened.  I never did too well with threats at work.  I don’t like people getting my back up against the wall.  It doesn’t work with me.  Threatening me was the one way to make sure I don’t give you what you wanted.  Any chance of him getting even a dime out of me just ended.

“Well, I guess if you want to stay, we’re open ‘til 9.  You’re going to have to move though.  I have other customers that need to pay.”

He really, really didn’t like that.  His buddy stood silent behind him laughing as he continued to make a nuisance of himself.

“Yeah?  You want me to move?  I’m not moving.  I’m standing right here until you give me my money.”

“Well, you’re going to have to move when people want to pay, just telling you right now.  This is a business not a hangout,” I said.

“Yeah?  This is a business eh?  Do you like it when I push these buttons?  Or how about this, do you like when I play with your computer?”  He reached over the counter and started hammering keys on my keyboard, and buttons on our VISA machine.  The VISA machine beeped in protest as he continued to hit buttons, and windows began popping up on my computer screen.

“If you don’t leave right now, I’m going to have to call the cops.”

“Yeah?  You’d like that wouldn’t you?  Go ahead and call them.  Go ahead.”  He grabbed my phone.  “Call them.  Go ahead.”

“I just did,” I said as I hit the panic button.

Well next thing you know, him and his buddy were out the door without another word.  They bailed and they bailed fast.  The cops called to confirm the emergency and I told them that the two trouble makers had left.  They told me to call back if I had trouble with them again.  (I’m sure they would have been interested in the stereo equipment in their van!)

Of course after a confrontation like that, you worry about the person returning.  My buddy Shane Schedler, who is about 7 feet tall and 250 lbs, came in later that night and I told him how my day had gone.  I told him about the two dudes in the van and how I had to call the cops on them.

“Do you want me to stay until you close?  I don’t mind you know,” Shane said.  It was getting close to closing time anyway.

“Yeah!  That would be fine, I appreciate that man.  They wouldn’t mess with a guy your size.”

Shane laughed.  I’m sure he knew that.

A week later I did see the guys again, in the parking lot.  Incredibly, they apologized for their behaviour.  That part was a first!

REVIEW: KISS – Crazy Nights (1987)

Part 25 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

KISS – Crazy Nights (1987)

Gene Simmons, still off in la-la land ($immons Records, managing Liza Minelli), was about as far removed from the demon as you could get.  Looking quite womanly, and no longer singing in his “monster voice”, Gene had lost it by 1987.  Paul Stanley was writing songs on keyboards (not a good sign) although Bruce and Eric both made strong songwriting contributions.  The result is Crazy Nights, a record that Bon Jovi could have made, but Kiss?  It didn’t sound like Kiss to me.

Still, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Crazy Nights because it came out when I was in highschool, and I played it nonstop then, even though I questioned Kiss’ direction. (Over)produced by Ron Nevison, Kiss were trying way too hard for radio and video hits. The rock was all but gone. At the same time, the songs are actually pretty well written for the most part. Better, on average, than some songs on Animalize. It’s the gloss and production that sinks Crazy Nights.

Originally titled Who Dares Wins, the album does indeed feature too many keyboards.  I remember being so disheartened by the video for “Reason to Live”, and seeing Bruce Kulick playing keys instead of guitar. Stanley himself didn’t play guitar in the videos either — he wore one, and danced around with it. This didn’t seem like rock and roll anymore.

Here’s my song breakdown.  I just wish there was more oomph to them.

Good to great songs:

“Hell Or High Water”
“Good Girl Gone Bad”
“Turn On The Night”
“No, No, No”

OK songs:

“Crazy, Crazy Nights”
“Reason To Live”
“I’ll Fight Hell To Hold You”
“My Way”

Bad songs:

“When Your Walls Come Down”
“Thief In The Night” (a song written earlier and recorded by Wendy O. Williams first)

So, not bad. Not enough Gene though. That was a problem on a lot of albums from Dynasty to Crazy Nights, there just wasn’t enough Gene. He had become a sideman, not a frontman. Gene’s singing here is smooth, no rasp and no guts.  Paul’s singing is very high and something shrill. It was the 1980’s.

Only one song (“Crazy Crazy Nights”) has been played live since this tour.

Pick it up if you love 80’s rock. Avoid if you don’t.

2/5 stars

There are also several outtakes from this album that were later released:  “Time Traveler” is a Paul Stanley keyboard song that found its way onto The Box Set.  “Boomerang”, a speedy thrash-like number, was re-recorded for the next studio album, Hot In The Shade. “Dial L For Love”, an Eric Carr demo, was released on his posthumous Unfinished Business CD.  Finally, one of the better Paul Stanley songs called “Sword and Stone”, was recorded by Bonfire and released on the soundtrack to the movie Shocker.

I have a couple bootlegs from this tour, seen below.  (Yes, they put Vinnie on the cover of one by mistake!)

Part 87: The Great Change

RECORD STORE TALES PART 87:  The Great Change

The Great Change happened around the turn of the millennium.

Prior to that, CD sales were fast and furious. DVD sales had begun to replace VHS sales. We still carried blank cassette tapes. Not too many people were downloading music. Most people weren’t even connected to the internet yet.  I still had friends who would come over to use it, and I only got it in mid  ’98.

Then I noticed a change. Cassette sales dwindled while requests for blank CD’s increased. Initially we resisted carrying blank CD’s. We thought by doing so, we would be unintentionally killing a CD sale. Eventually we began carrying blank discs, when they started dropping in price.  They, they took off.  We started hearing about Napster. And Metallica. Metallica fans began selling off their discs.

I remember one guying coming in with a great selection of Metallica discs. All the albums, plus the Live Sh*t box set.

“Wow, this is a great Metallica collection you have here,” I commented as I went through the discs.

“Thanks. I’m selling them because of that fucking asshole Lars. I ripped them all to my computer and now he can go fuck himself.”

                                                      

I’ll never forget that because at first I felt like, “Well, that doesn’t really do anything to Lars, you already paid for the discs and gave him your money,” but I guess it was the principle of the thing. People were really pissed off. And that represented a huge change.  People always bitched about CD prices.  $24 for a regularly priced disc, that’s a lot of money.  I used to get two albums for that money in 1986. There’d never been a satisfactory answer as to why a kid had to pay $24.99 for the new Judas Priest in 1998.  And believe me, it wasn’t the stores ripping off the kids.  The margin we made on new CDs could barely be called profit.

Over the next five years, I watched CD prices and sales drop, while we were forced to diversify in order to stay alive. We had already been carrying DVD’s. We started carrying McFarlane dolls.  They were cool, but a lot of them were really limited.  For example, for Kiss, we only got one Eric Carr, and two Aces.  People would want the whole set, but all you’d have left was Paul and Gene.

Then bobble-heads came (which I hate, I absolutely hate bobble-heads). Then Osbournes family toys. Trivia games. Simpsons toys. Clocks. Posters. Books. Hats. CD wallets with a Linkin Park logo on them.  Anything we could make a reasonable buck on, even if it was only marginally related to what we did, like the Simpsons toys. (We carried DVD’s, so Simpsons was marginally related.) Then we’d knock down whatever wasn’t selling to clearance prices, and try something else.

Angus

The only tangent that was really successful was Xbox and Playstation games. We had so many requests, and physically a game is identical to a CD or DVD, so games were a no brainer.  People asked for them all the time.  We had to educate ourselves from the ground up on game pricing and we jerry-rigged a way in our computer system to inventory them. However to me, the scent of decay was in the air. Because downloading had killed such a huge chunk of our music sales, the stores were nothing like the way I remembered.

Working in a store selling video games and bobble-heads wasn’t the dream job that started me on this path.  I was always there for one reason:  the music!

Well, yeah, and the staff discount.

DVD REVIEW: KISS – Exposed (1987)

Part 24 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

KISS – Exposed (VHS 1987, DVD 2002)

While Kiss took some time off as Gene continued to pursue his movie career, Exposed was released in lieu of a studio album.  1986 was the first year to ever come and go without new Kiss music.  The band sought commercial success, and an outside producer as they worked hard to record hits.  This video nicely documented their career to that point.

A lot of long term KISS fans absolutely hate Exposed. It is not without flaws, but considering when it came out and what it aimed to do, it is actually one of the best home videos from the era.

Exposed is an early example of a mockumentary, or, as they say in the opening, “A rousing docu-drama. It will be disgusting to some, titilating to others.  But whether it disgusts you, or titilates you, it is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” That right there tells you everything you need to know. Interspersed with the docu-drama bits are video clips, and live clips of the band during the makeup years.

The biggest flaw with Exposed is that it’s pretty sexist. It’s all meant to be in good fun I guess, but many will be offended by Gene using women as wall decorations. It was the 80’s; every band influenced by Kiss was doing the same thing, and Kiss responded by taking it to the limit. It is what it is, and if you’re likely to be offended, don’t watch.  It’s still nothing compared to some rap videos I’ve seen.

The second biggest flaw is the lack of Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick participation. They each get two scenes: In Eric’s scene, he meets the interviewer and leaves without any audible lines. In Bruce’s scene, he chases a girl down the stairs and has the line, “Is this for the documentary? Edit her out!” In the final scene, Bruce and Eric are seen taking Paul’s monkey Sonny Crocket for a stroll. Everything else is the Gene and Paul Show.

The docu-drama takes place at “Paul’s mansion”, and this is where the jokes begin.  It’s kind of an 80’s Monkees, with the band all living together in the same house.  There’s a butler and women everywhere.  Gene of course has a throne.

Paul and Gene are funny in Exposed. The interview segments are 50% “straight”, talking seriously about the early years of Kiss, and 50% comedy segments. I enjoyed the comedy. Gene in partiular is a very funny guy. In the “straight” segments there is a comraderie rarely seen between Gene and Paul, such as Paul razzing Gene about early song lyrics he had written. (“My mother is beauuuuutiful…,” Paul croons to an old Gene lyric.)

The music videos include some rarities such as the banned “Who Wants To Be Lonely” clip (more girls). Basically you get every music video from 1982 through to 1985., with a couple exceptions.

The live stuff proved to be just a taster for what Kiss had in their vaults. At the time, bands didn’t release a lot of archive concerts on home video, instead concentrating on documenting current tours. Now they do release such archival concerts on DVD, and since then Kiss have released more complete footage on Kissology I-III. The film quality, despite complaints from the fans, is pretty decent, especially the old 1974 clip of Deuce. Some fans claim their bootleg home videos look and sound better than the official KISS releases; I haven’t seen that.

The video ends with a brief audio clip of Paul answering the question, “What do we call this?” He responds, “Why don’t we call it Volume I?”

Volume II would come later in the form of Kiss’ X-treme Close Up, a more “serious” video, stripped of the girls and the jokiness. I find Exposed to be a much more entertaining video.

Check it out if you are a fan, particularly for 80’s Kiss. Avoid if you are not.

4/5 stars

Incidentally, you can get Kiss Exposed as a third bonus disc in a deluxe edition of Kiss Gold.  Seen below, the regular edition of Kiss Gold.  We’ll be talking about that CD much later on.

REVIEW: KISS – Asylum (1985)

Part 23 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!

KISS – Asylum (1985)

My bias with this album is simple:  Asylum was the “new” Kiss album when I first started listening to the band.  “Tears Are Falling” was getting a lot of airplay, and it was the latest thing.  I still think, on a whole, it is superior to Animalize.  The reason for this is all around stronger songs, with Bruce Kulick contributing heavily.  Recall that when we last checked in with Kiss, Bruce Kulick was temping, filling in for the ailing Mark St. John.   He was their fourth guitar player in as many albums.

By the time to record a new album, Bruce was a full member of Kiss.  Gene was still off in la-la land trying to become a movie star, as he was cast as a transvestite in the John Stamos vehicle, Never Too Young To Die.


The good news is, Paul was steering the ship as best he could, considering he was effectively working without his partner in Kiss.  Paul contributed some decent material with a bevy of cowriters including Kulick.

  • King Of The Mountain (awesome)
  • Tears Are Falling (awesome)
  • Who Wants To Be Lonely (great)
  • Radar For Love (decent)
  • Uh! All Night (decent)

Gene’s good songs include:

  • Trial By Fire (good)
  • Secretly Cruel (great)

That only leaves three duds by my counting: Gene’s and Paul’s first co-write in years,  “Love’s A Deadly Weapon”, Gene’s “Any Way You Slice It”, and Paul’s “I’m Alive”. “I’m Alive” is almost a carbon copy of other fast Paul songs such as “Gimme More”.

The cover art is bland, but it does have links to Kiss’ past such their traditional “aura” colours (purple for Paul, red for Gene, blue for the guitar play, and green for the drummer). Production is a little glossy on the drums (samples?), but there are no keyboards, or anything like what would happen later on Crazy Nights. It’s a little more pop than Animalize, but I think it’s just a better album. Just better songs.

3/5 stars

Part 86: Captain Gold Shirt

One time, we almost got sued for wrecking some guy’s golden shirt.

We had this annoying sidewalk sign.  Everybody hated it.  When the wind caught hold of it, it would always fall over, if not go for a short jog.  Some days I didn’t bother putting it out, I hated it so much.

I never hated it more, however, than the day that idiot in the golden shirt walked past.  Our sign took up half the sidewalk (another reason I hated it) and this idiot wasn’t looking where he was going and sideswiped it.  I knew right away because I heard the sign crash.  I looked outside and I saw this guy stumbling next to the downed sidewalk sign.

“Oh shit.” I concluded.

One of the girls immediately ran out to see if the guy was OK.  Yeah, he was fine.  Not a scratch.  But his golden shirt was torn!  Oh my God!

He threatened to sue!  He wanted the owners name and contact information!  We provided the requested data.

“You’re going to get a call from my lawyer about this, you wait and see,” said Captain Gold Shirt.

Pffftr.  Gold shirt?  Who do you think you are, James T. Kirk or something?

DVD REVIEW: KISS – Animalize Live Uncensored (1985)

Part 22 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!  I’m generally not going to be covering DVDs, but this one was crucial to me.  I heard a lot of these versions so often, that they were the “original” versions for me.  So I have a soft spot for Animalize Live Uncensored.

KISS – Animalize Live Uncensored (VHS, 1985)

 This video was recorded live at Cobo Hall, Detroit Michigan December 8th, 1984. It has never been released officially on DVD, although as you can see there are unofficial versions to be had.  (It’s clearly unofficial since it has a picture of Carnival of Souls era Kiss on the back!)  Annoying subtitles are the only real drawback to the DVD.

There’s not much crossover between this and the two Alive albums, as it leans heavily on newer material (Creatures, Lick It Up, Animalize).  The tempos are, in general, faster. The energy is high, and Paul is singing at the peak of his talents.  The solos by Bruce Kulick are flashy in that 80’s sort of way, which isn’t my thing. Basically this is 80’s KISS, like it or lump it. I like it somewhat, probably due to nostalgia. 

Visually, Gene and Paul are all over the stage, while Eric stands on his drums and demands to be seen and heard.  At the end, the band climb onto a flying platform. Very cool live show.

One special treat was Eric’s lead vocals on “Young and Wasted” and “Black Diamond”. I also quite enjoyed Eric’s drum solo. Gene’s bass solo is nothing much to speak of, just a chance for him to introduce “I Love It Loud”, but far more musical than solos past or present. Actually he only speaks twice on the whole DVD. Before “I Love It Loud” he says to the crowd, “Oh yeah? Ohhh yeeeah? Well alright, come on.” And then at another point Paul says, “How you doing Gene, alright?” to which Gene responds, “Welll ooooooohhhh yeeeeaaaah!” Quite comical really. Paul’s raps are some of his all time classics. “Paul, what you are doing with a pistol down your pants?” (“Love Gun”)  His story about Gene’s “little child” (“Fits Like A Glove”) is also classic. His guitar solo is nothing special, I guess Bruce Kulick was just too new to the band to warrant a big solo? The fact that Paul has one is somewhat a rarity in KISStory.

The video quality of the DVD is fairly low. Don’t quote me on this, but I think I heard that this concert is going to be reissued on the next installment of the KISStory DVDs. 

3/5 stars

There are several CD bootlegs (incomplete however) of this concert.  The only live audio from this concert to be officially released was “Heaven’s On Fire”.  Kiss contributed that track to Ronnie James Dio’s Hear N’ Aid LP (also being reissued!) which donated proceeds to feed people in Africa.

Editorial: Paul Stanley’s voice problems

I’ve been reluctant to post anything about this, but I’m an honest fan.  I’m no fanboy — when a band does something I don’t approve of, I say so.

Everybody knows I’m a huge Kiss fan.  I first started noticing Paul’s voice getting raspier on the 2004 DVD Rock the Nation Live!  Now, it’s…man it hurts to say this…it’s almost tuneless.  You can hear Gene and Eric Singer holding down the melody while Paul struggles to sing.

I read recently that Paul had vocal cord surgery in November 2011, and that he says he has simply done too many tours with not enough time off to rest his voice.  I think that is a real shame.  Paul, listen to me — I consider you to be one of the top five rock singer frontmen of all time.  Right up there with Freddie and Ronnie.  To hear the guy that I once saw in Phantom of the Opera croak like this, something’s clearly wrong.  Paul, if time off is all you need — take it!

We, the Kiss Army, would gladly, patiently wait years between tours if it meant preserving your voice.  In the meantime you guys could continue to issue box sets and DVD’s with worthwhile unreleased material, and we’d buy it.

I fully expect the new album, Monster, to be good.  I have no doubt that in the studio, a controlled environment, Paul nails it.  But live, Paul, you need to give your voice a rest and take some time.  We’ll still be here when you come back.  For yourself, please think about it.

LeBrain

LeBrain as Paul

More KISS at mikeladano.com:

Complete KISS reviews + Complete ACE FREHLEY reviews + 

PETER CRISS – Criss EP review + GENE SIMMONS – Asshole review

Record Store Tales Part 3:  My First KISS + Part 8:  You Wanted the Best +
Part 77:  Psycho-Circus + Part 151:  24kt KISS…cheap at twice the price +
Part 152:  Carnival of Lost Souls + Part 173:  Gene Simmons’ Asylum Demos + 
Part 179: Phantom of the Opera + Part 241:  Halloween, KISS style!

REVIEW: KISS – Animalize (1984)

Part 21 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!  Still flushing out the last of the lo-fi cell phone pics, sorry about that.

ANIMALIZE

KISS – Animalize (1984)

Exit Vinnie Vincent.  Enter Mark St. John aka Mark Norton, a music teacher that came highly recommended, but had no touring experience.  Looking for the next young hot shot to compete with Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie, Kiss took a chance.

In addition to yet another lineup change and third lead guitar player, there were other fractures setting in.  Gene Simmons was dead set to become a movie star, and played the villain role alongside Tom Selleck in a movie called Runaway, written and directed by Michael Crichton.  Paul Stanley was left to produce the next album.

Paul and Gene recorded in separate studios, shuffling Mark St. John between them when needed.  Gene didn’t play bass on several of Paul’s songs, and studio musicians were brought in to add guitar solos, drum overdubs, and backing vocals.  All songs but one were co-written by outside writers.

Animalize is one of those albums that was hugely popular (2 x platinum I think?). It has a couple hot singles, a couple decent album cuts, but disappointly Animalize is mostly filler. Gene’s material is particularly forgettable and uninspired. It’s like you’re listening to half a band.
Mathematically, here’s how it breaks down:

1. I’ve Had Enough (Into The Fire) – good song
2. Heaven’s On Fire – good song (but overplayed)
3. Burn Bitch Burn – bad
4. Get All You Can Take – great song
5. Lonely Is The Hunter – bad
6. Under The Gun – bad
7. Thrills In The Night – great
8. While The City Sleeps – terrible
9. Murder In High Heels – terrible

4 out of 9 good songs, and not one of them by Gene Simmons. All of Gene’s stuff on Animalize sucked, leaving the kids of the 80’s to think that he was a sideman and Paul was the main guy. Gene also has the worst lyric in Kisstory here: “I wanna put my log in your fireplace.”

However, a highlight of the album are some of the solos.  A fast neoclassical/jazz player, St. John was miles away from Kiss’ roots. It was the era of the fast classically trained player. Even so, when the band thought that Mark wasn’t nailing the feel, they asked Bruce Kulick to fill in on two songs.  He appears on “Lonely Is The Hunter” and “Murder In High Heels”.  So, technically Animalize was Bruce’s first Kiss album, although nobody knew at the time that Kulick was destined to replace St. John, who was struck with a freak arthritic condition that left him unable to tour.

Kulick wouldn’t be granted full member status until the next album, while the band felt him out.  Later, St. John too went on to make some great solo work — check out his Magic Bullet Theory CD.

Animalize is far from outstanding. I would rank it among Kiss’ three worst albums, the other two being Hot In The Shade and Psycho-Circus. It’s historically important because of how popular the tour and album were. Most of the good songs, however, can be found elsewhere such as the Kiss box set.

2/5 stars.

Mark St. John passed away in 2007.  Rest in peace.