ENGINEROOM, you're nuts!!! FREHLEY's solo album is one of my favorite KISS albums. I rank that thing up there with LOVE GUN and some of the others. CARNIVAL OF SOULS...some really great songs and a raw feel. ELDER...again...some crap...but also good tracks like MR. BLACKWELL, A WORLD WITHOUT HEROES, DARK LIGHT, ONLY YOU...and some of Ace's best work. And don't badmouth NIRVANA, bitch!
MEZ, VINNIE...I like UNMASKED. I think it's horribly overproduced, EASY AS IT SEEMS is one of the worst songs they ever did...but songs like TORPEDO GIRL, TWO SIDES OF THE COIN, IS THAT YOU, NAKED CITY, SHE'S SO EUROPEAN are all decent or good songs. Basically, though, UNMASKED takes everything that makes DYNASTY one of the band's best albums and overschlocks it.
Anyway, worst four...
4. HOT IN THE SHADE - Some of this album is unlistenable, uncreative and uncommercial, all at the same time. If one likes ballads, well then yes, FOREVER is a good one. It's certainly better than any Sammy Hagar ballad. RISE TO IT, HIDE YOUR HEART...pieces of putrid shit. LITTLE CAESAR is junk...sorry, Eric. Really, the one standout on this whole CD for me is CADILLAC DREAMS. I really like that tune. It has a good groove and actual personal lyrics. Good tune on an overproduced AND underproduced record that is a total mess.
3. GENE SIMMONS (Solo Album) - I just purchased this piece of shit recently. It was the last thing the band ever had anything to do with that I didn't own. I don't know why I kept putting it off...but now I wish I put it off longer. There are a couple of moments here for me...RADIOACTIVE (though it's better live on the DYNASTY tour...check out Largo '79). Thing is, I actually love Ace's album and somewhat enjoy Paul's. And even Gene's new album had a few good songs...not a good album, but better than this one. Basically, this is a very bad album...over-indulgent, cheesy production...a lot of crap (though for some reason, I kind of enjoy WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR). That said, it has nothing on the horrors of...
2. PETER CRISS (Solo Album) - I remember purchasing this on CD (again, I didn't get into KISS until my teens and I didn't hear a lot of these albums initially). This is absolute shit. Fucking horrible. I like Peter's drumming...his sound fits with KISS. He may not have the chops that both Erics have/had, but his raw sound and rat-tat snare-sound really compliment those distorted guitars and sexually-crazed vocals. But this album...it is as much KISS as Kirk Hammett recording a polka album would be Metallica. In other words, there is no reason any KISS fan needs to own this unless he genuinely enjoys awful music. I remember purchasing it with a few of my friends...we got back to my pad to listen to the CDs that we had just purchased...and I put this album in. I put in the opening notes of YOU MATTER TO ME (the song I remembered was the single from this record). The cheddar-laced keyboard riff and disco beats started in, and my friends all looked at me wide-eyed and then started laughing their fucking asses off! "What kind of shit did you spend $10 on??" I hung my head in shame. Thanks Peter.
CRAZY NIGHTS - This is the worst thing in their catalogue. I hate it. I hate every moment on it. I do not like one song, one solo, one riff, one drumbeat...and that keyboard! AHHH!! This is nauseating music. Amazing to think that ten years earlier that year they released LOVE GUN and ALIVE II. Is this musical progression? And you have to remember...I am one of those KISS fans that really enjoys LICK IT UP and ANIMALIZE. I even like a few of the songs on ASYLUM. But this? This is where they DESERVED to lose every fan they had. They're lucky they didn't.
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