Connor McGrath
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Released: June 30, 1977
Label: Casablanca Records[/alert][/one_third]Love Gun is the last truly great KISS album. Not coincidentally, it’s the last album where all four original members play on all of the tracks and the first where all four members take turns on lead vocals. My favorite KISS album changes constantly but this is a fixture in the Top 3. If I had to recommend any KISS album for anybody who wanted to check them out, it’d probably be this one.
KISS was at the height of its powers commercially during this period. During the recording of Love Gun, a Gallup poll was released that indicated KISS was the Most Popular Band in The USA, ahead of Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Eagles. They were not just a band anymore but now a well oiled merchandising machine that released t-shirts, lunchboxes, and an increasingly absurd amount of assorted memorabilia. But they hadn’t reached the point yet where their albums had merely become another piece of merchandise (that’ll happen soon).
The title track is KISS at its most… KISSy. Absurdly cheesy lyrics with a driving hard rock rhythm, “Love Gun” been justifiably played on most of the tours they’ve done since the albums release. Might be Paul Stanley’s finest moment. He also contributes the incredibly awesome/rapey album opener “I Stole Your Love” and the unsuccessful but fun attempt to ripoff “Rock and Roll All Night”, “Tomorrow and Tonight”. Gene tries to one up Paul on the creep factor with the ode to penis molds, “Plaster Caster” and one of the aforementioned KISS Top 40 Hits You Never Hear on The Radio today, “Christine Sixteen”. Fun fact: A young Eddie and Alex Van Halen played on the demo of that one.
In the long term, perhaps the most significant contribution to the album was “Shock Me”, which was Ace’s first lead vocal on an album. Though he’d written songs for the band since the beginning, he had been too shy to sing them. He recorded the vocals to this song lying down. The song would end up Ace’s “signature song” and remains in KISS’ setlist to this day (even though they replaced Ace ten years ago… this still rankles me a bit). Despite being the weakest vocalist of the four original members, Ace’s songs would often be the saving grace of their albums at the end of the ’70s/beginning of the ’80s. Plus, out of nowhere, he’d easily have the best of their four solo albums… but we’ll get to that soon.
Love Gun, unsurprisingly, was a massive success. Going platinum less than two weeks after its release and becoming KISS’ highest charting album to that point by going all the way to #4 on the Billboard charts.
Here, KISS was hitting the point of saturation. After this is the period where KISS was releasing an album every eight months. This wasn’t a product of them being a hard working band, but the product of them having to release more merchandise for overeager fans in order for Gene, Paul & Casblanca to fill their Swiss bank accounts and Ace & Peter to afford to snort monster rails and crashing Mercedes while driving 125 mph on the Bronx River Parkway. Gene & Paul were already raging narcissists and after Peter’s success with “Beth” and “Hard Luck Woman”, his ego was swollen as well. Now, Ace was contributing more to the albums and you had a shit storm of arrogance brewing.
Speaking of over saturation…
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Released: October 14, 1977
Label: Casablanca Records[/alert][/one_third]After six albums in less than four years, KISS manager Bill Aucoin thought the band deserved some much needed time off. What better way to give the boys some time off and sate the fans appetite for new KISS material than record a sequel to their breakout album, Alive!. KISS once again brought Eddie Kramer out to record the band’s sold out concert in April of 1977 at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan, but Casablanca and KISS found the material unusable. Most of the material on the album came from the soundchecks for a sold out three night stand at the Los Angeles Forum in August of ’77. Of course, like with the first Alive! (and basically every live album), their were extensive overdubs in the studio. Alive II certainly has its moments and some even argue it’s better than original but I feel like, with most sequels, it falls a bit short. On the first, they were a young, hungry band ready to prove themselves. On the second, they were millionaires trying to crank out a product to get to the fans in time for the Christmas season.
In addition to the fifteen live tracks, KISS recorded four new songs for the album. Unfortunately, division in the band was becoming increasingly apparent with Ace Frehley only appearing on one of the new songs. Luckily, for Ace, his one contribution, “Rocket Ride”, was really the only standout track of the four new songs and managed to sneak into the Billboard Top 40 briefly. Definitely one of the best tracks from The Spaceman.
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Released: April 2, 1978
Label: Casablanca Records[/alert][/one_third]KISS’ first compilation album, Double Platinum, released in April of ’78, is oddly one of the very first remix albums ever released. It’s odd mostly because rock bands don’t usually do remix albums but maybe not so weird considering KISS was signed to Casablanca, the premier disco label. On one or two tracks, the sheen of the remixes work to the original track’s advantage (“Black Diamond” in particular) but mostly, I think the glossiness is unnecessary and a slight preview of the watered down production of their next two studio albums.
Finally, in another omen of things to come, the first and only single released from the album was a re-recording of a track from their debut album, “Strutter” with a disco beat. Still, this might be KISS’ best compilation (Gold 1974-1982 is really the only other contender) even if the production is weird as hell and it omits a few key tracks.
Next time on Connor’s KISS Korner: KISS makes their boldest and most daring move yet by splitting off and recording four solo albums, released simultaneously. The Demon shows his sensitive side, The Spaceman rocks out, The Catman gives the world the classic R&B album the world had been waiting for from him (World: We had?), and The Starchild, well, he was the principal songwriter for the band so his album wasn’t much of a surprise. Get ready… it’s KISS: The Solo Albums!
