KISS – KISS 40 – UME
By Jeffrey Easton
Sweet shit, has it really been 40 years since rock fans first dropped the needle on the S/T KISS LP? Time really flies when you are having a blast and its hard to believe all of that time and all of these great KISS LPS have come and gone. So here you have KISS 40 and normaly when you hit your 40’s it’s a reason to feel old but not with this set. The material is still so fresh it could have been released yesterday to the current generation of rock fans and it would still be scooped up. The track listing represents a cut off of each studio album which includes the solos and the foreign released Killers LP. The must have standards are here in the form of RnR All Nite, Beth, Shout It Out Loud but you have the fairly uncommon tracks like Nothin To Lose, Let Me Go Rock N Roll and C’mon And Love Me from the early days represented here. The other Peter sung hit, Hard Luck Woman and Gene’s ode to teenage lust Christeen Sixteen are welcome additions to a best of package and then it graduates to something different. The tracks from the solos are here with the best of the bunch, specifically You Matter To Me and New York Groove. With Paul, his inclusion of Hold me Touch Me could have been a huge single off of any KISS LP and Gene’s dark macabre of Radioactive saw him completely in his own world. One of the cool oddities here is Strutter 78 from Double Platinum, a remixed version with a more disco flair to match the times. Whereas you will find I Was Made For Lovin You on most KISS Comps, you wont find Shandi or A World Without Heroes as these were considered the lesser days of KISS. These tracks still hold their own and I feel that the Elder is a great album and KISS fans should give it another chance. Shandi would have been bigger than it was at the time if it was released in the 70’s. KISS was sliding off of the radar and I do not feel that the fans gave that a fair shot either. So with that we hit the 80’s and KISS struck back with a string of gold and platinum albums and they sharpened their edge and delivered a heavier blow than before. With tracks like I love It Loud, Heavens On Fire, Tears Are Falling and Lets Put the X In Sex they found new fans and a new lease on life they felt had slipped with the changing decade and times. Down On Your Knees was amongst four amazing new tracks that was released on Killers which to this day has still yet to be released in the U.S. The softer side was still well represented with the lush tracks Reason To Live and Forever, to massive hits for the later KISS Catalog. Revenge ushered in still yet another heavier era for the band and that album is represented well with Unholy and Jungle finding an even more depraved heavier sound from Carnival Of Souls. With the reunion and a new era of makeup albums we got the tracks Psycho Circus, Nothing Can Keep Me From You as well as Hell Or Hallelujah, the later from the most recent statement Monster. This set also includes rare live versions in Crazy Crazy Nights, Deuce, Cold Gin as well as Firehouse. This is by far the most encompassing set released yet and if you call yourself a KISS Fan this demands to be in your collection.
Official KISS Site
BUY KISS 40
By Jeffrey Easton
Sweet shit, has it really been 40 years since rock fans first dropped the needle on the S/T KISS LP? Time really flies when you are having a blast and its hard to believe all of that time and all of these great KISS LPS have come and gone. So here you have KISS 40 and normaly when you hit your 40’s it’s a reason to feel old but not with this set. The material is still so fresh it could have been released yesterday to the current generation of rock fans and it would still be scooped up. The track listing represents a cut off of each studio album which includes the solos and the foreign released Killers LP. The must have standards are here in the form of RnR All Nite, Beth, Shout It Out Loud but you have the fairly uncommon tracks like Nothin To Lose, Let Me Go Rock N Roll and C’mon And Love Me from the early days represented here. The other Peter sung hit, Hard Luck Woman and Gene’s ode to teenage lust Christeen Sixteen are welcome additions to a best of package and then it graduates to something different. The tracks from the solos are here with the best of the bunch, specifically You Matter To Me and New York Groove. With Paul, his inclusion of Hold me Touch Me could have been a huge single off of any KISS LP and Gene’s dark macabre of Radioactive saw him completely in his own world. One of the cool oddities here is Strutter 78 from Double Platinum, a remixed version with a more disco flair to match the times. Whereas you will find I Was Made For Lovin You on most KISS Comps, you wont find Shandi or A World Without Heroes as these were considered the lesser days of KISS. These tracks still hold their own and I feel that the Elder is a great album and KISS fans should give it another chance. Shandi would have been bigger than it was at the time if it was released in the 70’s. KISS was sliding off of the radar and I do not feel that the fans gave that a fair shot either. So with that we hit the 80’s and KISS struck back with a string of gold and platinum albums and they sharpened their edge and delivered a heavier blow than before. With tracks like I love It Loud, Heavens On Fire, Tears Are Falling and Lets Put the X In Sex they found new fans and a new lease on life they felt had slipped with the changing decade and times. Down On Your Knees was amongst four amazing new tracks that was released on Killers which to this day has still yet to be released in the U.S. The softer side was still well represented with the lush tracks Reason To Live and Forever, to massive hits for the later KISS Catalog. Revenge ushered in still yet another heavier era for the band and that album is represented well with Unholy and Jungle finding an even more depraved heavier sound from Carnival Of Souls. With the reunion and a new era of makeup albums we got the tracks Psycho Circus, Nothing Can Keep Me From You as well as Hell Or Hallelujah, the later from the most recent statement Monster. This set also includes rare live versions in Crazy Crazy Nights, Deuce, Cold Gin as well as Firehouse. This is by far the most encompassing set released yet and if you call yourself a KISS Fan this demands to be in your collection.
Official KISS Site
BUY KISS 40