When someone asks me, “What’s your favorite KISS album?” I don’t always give the same answer. Depending on my mood, it could be one of several. Dressed to Kill. KISS. Revenge. All good choices. But probably more than half the time, I’d respond with Rock and Roll Over, the latest entry in our regular feature [...]
Destroyer is without doubt the most celebrated album in the KISS discography. In a sense it’s their Sgt. Pepper’s, to use a Beatles analogy. Hot off the success of Alive! and working with producer Bob Ezrin, the band made a concerted effort to do something bigger and more ambitious with this record. Departing from the [...]
On a class trip to New York City in 1991, a friend of mine gave me a cassette of Ace Frehley’s solo album to listen to, saying “I think you’ll like this.” A bit of an understatement, that was. The first song I listened to was ‘New York Groove’ and I was hooked before the [...]
Welcome to the second edition of KSE, my bi-weekly feature devoted to explaining each song in the KISS discography in a single sentence (or less). For more on this project, click here. I’ve also set up a Tumblr blog especially for this project, where, in addition to the song explanations, you can also view rare [...]
I was listening to KISS’ Asylum one day when I noticed something: KISS songs have almost no subtext whatsoever. Virtually any song in their discography can be taken at face value; in fact they pretty much demand to be taken completely literally. And then I had an idea: I will listen to all 23 KISS [...]
