15. Ace Frehley (1978): This album gets a lot of love from the fanbase, and I totally understand it, even if I don’t exactly share it. It’s probably the most Kiss-like, top to bottom, but that’s both its blessing and its curse. I love Ace’s voice – there’s literally no one that sounds like him – but for me, he’s like garlic or cumin: a little goes a long way. When he has two or three songs on an album, in between songs by Gene and Paul, it REALLY works, but here it starts to sound “same-y”. LOVE Fractured Mirror, the instrumental, and thought it was by far the strongest song on the record (I played it to death), and I really like the “drone-y” vibe to both “Snowblind” (one of the best uses of a guitar synthesizer I can name) and “Ozone”. As is typical with me, the biggest hit - "New York Groove" - is the song I like least, and I feel it’s more novelty than real song, and I can't stand the drum sound and the vocal phrasings ("Here I am..."). Some very good guitar work overall, though, and this album more than any wishes that the band took the three or four best Paul songs, the three or four best Gene songs, and the three best Ace songs and made another Kiss album in '78.
14. Monster (2012): This is an album that, along with Sonic Boom, gets a lot of flack. But if you’re down with the Kiss ethos – meat and potatoes, loud guitars, melodic vocals, and a lot of sex – this album delivers. Not every song is a winner – I like the song, but I’ll concede “Freak” is a little contrived in the same way that most of “Carnival of Souls” is contrived - and it is a heavier record than Sonic Boom, but it’s solid from top to bottom. “Shout Mercy” is a Top Ten Kiss song for me, and I REALLY like the Gene songs on this record, especially “Wall of Sound” and “The Devil Is Me”. He put in the effort, especially with his bass playing (all indications are it is him playing on most of the songs) and really, that’s all I ever ask of him. Tommy Thayer co-writes 9 of the 12 songs on this record, and I’m starting to feel that he pulls his weight in a way that Ace never did, even if perhaps Tommy’s playing isn’t as groundbreaking as Ace’s was. I didn’t succumb to pressure on this, but I will admit to dropping this several places after re-listening to it in the last few days in the context of the rest of the catalogue. I liked it a lot when it first came out – and still do – but it’s not quite as strong top to bottom as Sonic Boom, and it hasn’t, over time, replaced any of the top ten (though I have, in the past, called it a “Top Ten Kiss Album”; it’s not). Regardless, I'd like more of this, please! How about another album in 2017!!!
Trivia: Speaking of “Freak”, according to Gene, what mega-star asked to sing on that song, and was going to until ultimately Gene decided that Paul should sing it by himself?
Topic: KISS Discography - My Life As a Kiss Fan (Read 62124 times)
