I have been a KISS fan since I was five. The whole mystique surrounding those characters had a huge impact on me. To this day, they remain one of my favourite bands of all time. And I have digested their whole discography many times, during many different phases of my life.
I must admit I love 90% of their catalogue. The only record I really can’t listen to is Sonic Boom. Even the ones I don’t care much, like The Elder or the last one, Monster, have their moments. But the truth needs to be told, a few songs from the 70’s to the early 2010s didn’t stand the test of time. And I didn’t include any off Carnival of Souls, to be fair with some of them songs being unfinished.
Of course, this list is based on my taste and I’ll give my best to justify why those tracks don’t resonate with me, and don’t forget, I’m a KISS fan and not a KISStard.
10. “Odyssey” (Music From The Elder, 1981)
I don’t think this is a bad track. But it feels like they’re trying hard to sound like something they are not. Paul’s operatic vocals don’t help either. I somewhat like the arrangement and a few other bits, but it doesn’t sound right. I understand what they were trying to do with this album, and a coked-out Bob Ezrin producing the record didn’t help things at all.
To my ears, The Elder is hit and miss. And this song misses the point. In my view, the album would benefit from a couple of extra Ace songs.
09. “Charisma” (Dynasty, 1979)
This used to be my least favourite KISS track when I was younger. It has grown on me a little bit, but I still don’t love it. The chorus sometimes gets on my nerves. I love Dynasty and that’s the only track I skip whenever I’m in the mood to listen to it.
The verses sound a bit off to me, mainly Gene’s extended notes. The groove itself and the bass tone are a bit odd too. I know many people like this song, but is a no for me.
08. “Hot And Cold” (Sonic Boom, 2009)
The vocal melody here is like nails on a chalking board to me. Sonically, it tries to emulate the Rock And Roll Over sound, but it is daft, lazy and cringeworthy, just like a few other tracks from this record. Gene’s vocal delivery sounds like he just ate a bunch of nachos and is trying to finish the take quickly and visit the toilet
07. “Outta This World” (Monster, 2012).
I have nothing against Tommy Thayer. But this atrocity sounds like a six-year-old Ace Frehley fan trying to write a song and getting applause from his proud parents. Horrid lyrics (not saying Ace is Dylan or Ian Hunter) and a lazy chorus that is just too forced. I included it here instead of “When Lightning Strikes”, because I had the misfortune of hearing them playing "Outta This World" live on my birthday.
06. “Love em’ and Leave em’ ” (Rock And Roll Over, 1976).
I know it is a typical Gene rockin’ tune, but in my view, “Ladies Room” from the same album is much better. Even the catchy “See You In My Dreams”, often disregarded by KISS fans works better for me. This one is a bit repetitive and flat, especially during the chorus.
I love Rock And Roll Over, don’t get me wrong, but I have always felt they could have used a better song here.
05. “I Finally Found My Way” (Psycho Circus, 1998)
My problem here is not with the song itself, but how cruel and nasty they were to Peter by giving him a sappy, generic ballad to sing on the record, and that’s it. I can imagine Paul going “I have this ballad that is... whatever, so let’s give them for Peter to sing on, we can say it sounds like a modern “Beth” and Gene and I sing the better songs, proving we’re good with or without him and Ace in the band.”. We all know the background stories of this album and still, I love most of the tracks. But this one is hard to digest.
To me, that’s the beginning of the end of what once was a fantastic band…
04. “Murder In High Heels” (Animalize, 1984)
I love their non-make-up era. Paul took over since Gene was going Hollywood with Tom Selleck and Rutger Heuer, and his songs are considered the weak links in those records. I normally disagree, since I love the fast stuff like “Fits Like a Glove” and “No No No” and melodic moments such as “Good Girl Gone Bad”, but this song feels totally like a last-minute fill-in.
The Aerosmith-like riff and groove, both work fine, but it takes too long for the chorus to kick in and….there is no chorus! Don’t come to me and say what Gene does here, spitting the title of the song can be considered one because it can’t!
03. “Say Yeah” (Sonic Boom, 2009)
Paul sounds tired here. The pre-chorus is so lazy and formulaic that it doesn’t build any tension to a good chorus. Instead, we have the same melody sung by the backing vocals on Alice Cooper’s “Poison” (listen to any live version of this song, it would become more evident).
I can’t believe that before that, Paul wrote great tunes for his “Live To Win” record. It’s like he had forgotten how to write great, catchy songs in a matter of few years. Funny enough, “Say Yeah” was often included in their live set, until the recent farewell gig at Madison Square Garden.
02. Never Enough (Sonic Boom, 2009)
First of all, Paul Stanley is one of my favourite tunesmiths of all time. Secondly, Pennsylvania’s own Poison was highly influenced by the masked four. Finally, I don’t think David Coverdale has ever bought a KISS record in his life.
That being said, why would Mr.Stanley write a song that mixes both Poison’s “Nothin’ But A Good Time” and Whitesnake’s “Slide It In”?
I get it when he writes something like “Dreamin'” from Psycho Circus. KISS was sued by the Alice Cooper camp for it sounding too much like Coop’s “I’m Eighteen”, but that was settled off-court. The original Alice Cooper group had a huge impact on KISS, so that’s understandable. But ripping off Poison and Whitesnake? Come on, Paul!
01. “Read My Body” (Hot In The Shade, 1989)
I know Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” stormed through radio stations and MTV in 1987 and 1988. Many bands tried to rewrite the Lep’s hit and most of them failed miserably. KISS was one of them. “Read My Body” is cheesy and cringeworthy, both musically and lyrically. I think it would have suited better as a Bonus Track on a Mili Vanilli Best Of compilation record. It can’t get any worse than that.
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