Previous Reading:
Record Store Tales #600: The Vault
Disk 1 Review
Disk 2 Review
Disk 3 Review
Disk 4 Review
Disk 5 Review
Disk 6 Review
Disk 7 Review
Disk 8 Review
Disk 9 Review
Disk 10 Review
Bonus Disk Review
What are the best tracks of the 165 included? What about the “action figure” and coin? What’s the final score?
GENE SIMMONS – The Vault (2018) Final Score
Part One: The Best Songs
Every song that was scored 4/5 or higher is listed below, in disc order.
Disk 1
-
- “Are You Ready” 5/5
- “I Confess” 4/5
- “Legends Never Die” 4/5
- “In My Head” 4/5
- “I Wait” 4/5
Disk 2
-
- “Hate” 4/5
- “Within” 4/5
- “In Your Face with Ace” 5/5
- “I Wanna Live” 4/5
- “If It’s Too Hot, You’re Too Cold” 4/5
- “Rain Keeps Fallin’” 4/5
- “Bells of Freedom” 4/5
Disk 3
-
- “Christine Sixteen” 5/5
- “Tunnel of Love” 5/5
- “Got Love For Sale” 4.5/5
- “Hell Or High Water” 4/5
- “Domino” 4/5
- “Only You” 5/5
- “True Confessions #2” 4/5
Disk 4
-
- “Plaster Caster” 4/5
- “X-Ray Eyes” 4/5
- “Charisma” 5/5
- “Radioactive” 4.5/5
- “Calling Dr. Love” 4/5
- “It’s My Life” 5/5
Disk 5
-
- “See You Tonite” 4/5
- “Once More Chance” 4/5
Disk 6
-
- “Whatever Turns You On” 4/5
- “Hold On” 4/5
Disk 7
-
- “Suspicious” 4/5
- “Everybody Wants” 4/5
- “Promise The Moon” 5/5
- “Pride” 5/5
- “Mirage” 4/5
Disk 8
-
- “We Rocked It All Night” 4/5
- “She’s Rotten to the Core” 4/5
- “S&M Love” 4/5
- “Bad Bad Lovin’” 4.5/5
- “Chrome Heart” 4/5
Disk 9
-
- “It’s Gonna Be Alright #2” 4/5
- “Everybody Knows #1” 4/5
- “You’re All That I Want” 4/5
- “Damn, I’m Good” 4.5/5
Disk 10
(none)
Disk 11
-
- “Obnoxious” 4/5
- “Just Begun to Fight” 4.5/5
- “Dorothy Lamour” 4/5
- “My Uncle Is A Raft” 4/5
Part Two: The Worst Songs
Because there are so many songs in the two star range, every song score under 2/5 is list here in track order.
Disk 1
-
- “Something Wicked This Way Comes” 1/5
Disk 2
(none)
Disk 3
(none)
Disk 4
(none)
Disk 5
Disk 6
-
- “Beautiful” 1/5
- “I Dream 1000 Dreams” 1/5
- “First Love” 1/5
Disk 7
-
- “Dog” 1.5/5
- “Never Gonna Leave You #1” 1/5
- “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” 1.5/5
Disk 8
(none)
Disk 9
(none)
Disk 10
-
- “Granny Takes A Trip” 1/5
Bonus Disk
-
- “Feel Like Heaven 1.5/5
- “It’s Funny, But It Ain’t No Joke” 1/5
- “Love By Invitation” 1.5/5
- “Queen of Hearts” 0.5/5
- “Leeta” 1.5/5
- “Put on Your Slippers” 1.5/5
- “Nancy” 1/5
Part Three: Action Figure, Coin, and Book
The much-ballyhooed Gene Simmons “action figure” is…a statue. It’s a very nice statue, but there are no moving parts. You can’t pose Gene with your other Kiss action figures. Even the MacFarlanes were slightly poseable. It’s quite large and heavy. Very solid. Though mine is sealed and hard to examine up close, You can see the sculpt is excellent. It’s a very high-end likeness. The paint details on the face appear to be quite nice, and you can even see a silver zipper going up Gene’s black leather jacket.
The coin is just a hunk of metal. Drill a hole in it and hang it around your neck for fun.
The book is loaded with info, but not as much as you’d like. Gene sometimes repeats stories, especially when it comes to Ace Frehley and Peter Criss misbehavin’. Though Gene usually tries to highlight who is playing on which songs, it’s not always clear. In some cases this information is lost, but it would nice to see credit breakdowns in the notes. It’s loaded with sketches, lyrics, unreleased photos, and other assorted curiosities.
Though heavy, and housing all 11 discs within, the book does feel flimsy along the spine. It is also a dust magnet. It is a shame it didn’t come with some kind of slipcase. Fans are going to have to improvise their own storage methods. I’ll probably put mine inside a tote bag. It is also a shame that the CDs themselves slip in and out of cardboard sleeves, but that was expected.
Part Four: Average Score
This isn’t to say there isn’t a lot of filler on the Vault. It only looks like there isn’t because I chose to list songs under two stars only. There are simply too many 2 star songs. It would get tedious. However, there is a surprising amount of good stuff on this set too, and otherwise perfectly listenable tracks. “Mongoloid Man” may be offensive, but it does rock.
One cannot overstate the importance of finally have the three historic Van Halen recordings. This is something that never seemed particularly likely until the Vault. Other demos of value include “Only You” and the Bob Dylan sessions. There is clearly enough good material here to justify buying. The amount of repeat songs under different titles is irritating, but that’s how Gene writes. He re-uses ideas until they either make an album, or don’t! For better or for worse, you’re getting a lot of those unreleased tapes right here. Most of them involve material for his two solo albums.
Let’s face it: Kiss die-hards want these collectible demos, for a number of reason. One is that we’ve been reading about some of these song titles for decades. Second is that many of them feature Kiss members in addition to Gene, such as Eric Singer, Eric Carr, Tommy Thayer, Bruce Kulick, Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley. They also include almost-members such as Bob Kulick and Anton Fig. For all intents and purposes, many of these tracks can be considered Kiss demos, released under the Gene Simmons name.
The disc with the best score was Disk 3 at 3.83/5, with its Van Halen demos elevating it. The lowest scoring disc was Bonus Disk at 2.16/5.
The average score for all 11 discs:
3.04/5 stars
However, here’s something important to note. The final score doesn’t matter. Not at all. Gene Simmons throws everything at the wall. He writes, and he re-writes, and he keeps going until he has 165 songs jammed onto a box set. The value here isn’t simple. It’s not something you can break down into numbers. The joy of hearing Eddie Van Halen doing whammy dives on “Tunnel of Love” cannot be quantified. The value of certain demos like “Only You” overshines mere numbers. This box set’s value will continue to pay musical dividends as we listen and listen again for years to come.
Thanks for joining us for this journey through the Vault!
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