Tag: C’mon And Love Me

Kiss – ‘Icon’ (2010/2023) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic9 Comments

Back in 2003, Kiss released, okay, the record company released a greatest hits compilation called The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss (1973-1979). It was the first of three volume set. Well, then in 2010, the label issued the ‘Icon’ Series with two volumes. The first volume is the exact same track list as ‘The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss’. There is nothing different to it at all except for crappier cover art and no inserts/liner notes. A very bare bones set. I do not recommend any of these sets as they weren’t done by Kiss per se.

However, as the collector in me, I do have the brand new, first time on vinyl version of Icon as Walmart has just released an Exclusive Silver Black Splatter vinyl. And since I collect everything vinyl for Kiss, I had to have it for my collection wouldn’t be complete. Okay, my collection is not complete anyway as I am missing a couple pieces that are extremely pricey, but that is for another time.

For now, let us go through this set and talk about the songs since we are here.

SIDE ONE:

The album kicks off with the first song of their debut, “Strutter”.  The song was written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and over the years, this would be a rare experience as they would wind up writing songs by themselves.  The music of the song was based off an old Gene song called “Stanley the Parrot” which was recorded even before there was a Wicked Lester.  The song has a great opening drum fill by Peter and is an uptempo rock song that was inspired by all the sexy women in New York.  There is a great bass riff by Gene why Ace belts out the solo. Paul sings the song and shows all the confidence a lead singer should show.

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Skid Row – ‘B-Side Ourselves E.P.’ – Album Review

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic35 Comments

Skid Row were two albums in and after 1991’s ‘Slave to the Grind’ going #1, there were riding high. Little did they know that the rug was about to be pulled out from under them thanks to the likes of Nirvana. But that didn’t stop them from releasing material to keep the fans happy. They released an E.P. which was a collection of covers and a collection of B-Sides from previous singles. This an idea that today band’s like Halestorm do between albums…the only difference is the Halestorm covers are not B-Sides. Still glad they do it.

The album came out on September 22, 1992 almost 30 years ago. My version is not an original copy, but a re-issue released on October 17, 2017. This release is part of the Rhino Rocktober’s 2017 and is limited to 3,000 copies worldwide. It comes with original inner-sleeve and vinyl disc in charcoal black poly-lined inner whatever the hell that means. The vinyl is silver…or maybe gray…either way, it is nice…

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Kiss – ‘Dressed to Kill’ (1975) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic105 Comments

When the band completed ‘Hotter Than Hell’, they quickly went right back on tour.  That album only had the one single, “Let Me Go, Rock & Roll”, which quickly fell from the charts. That wasn’t the only thing that fell quickly, so did the album sales.  Their label, Casablanca, was hemorrhaging money with Kiss on Tour and the album doing poorly.  As a result, the band was yanked off tour to record a new album.

When they get in the studio, the producer for the record was no longer Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise as Casablanca had no money to pay anyone.  So the owner of the record label, Neil Bogart, stepped in and recorded the album.  Which isn’t really a problem as he has a ton of experience…in the pop and dance music world.  Not in Rock & Roll.  And it would be evident as the heavier sound of the band on the first two albums, was a little more pop sounding on this one.  Don’t fret, it still rocked out, but not as hard.

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Imagine you are in a band and you are now starting to write your third album in about a year’s time.  You have to be one heck of a writer to come up with that much music in such a short time.  Well, Kiss didn’t have the songs.  So, what did they do.  They pulled a couple songs from their Wicked Lester Days and re-worked them.  Now, only 8 more to go.  Paul wrote three of them, Gene got two, Ace got one and then Paul & Gene wrote one together and what a song it was.  More on that in a minute. Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Dressed to Kill’ (1975) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)” →