First up is live staple, "Strutter". An ode to a vamp of a woman, the song is heavily influenced by the sound of the "New York Dolls". A great song, but the production and sound of it on this album really suffers. That is really the problem with most songs on this album, the versions on Kiss "Alive" are so much better sounding. Next is the very bluesy "Nothin' to Lose". Not a huge fan of this song, and especially not of this terrible sounding and very slow version. One of the few Kiss I actually like the studio track better is "Firehouse". Paul Stanley sounds great on this studio track, and he delivers a great vocal. Nonetheless, the song itself does sound terrible, I just like the rawness of the studio track, less bombastic sounding. "Cold Gin" definitely is a Kiss classic. Ironically an ode to something that he does not do, Gene "I like money" Simmons delivers one of his best vocals, very aggressive and guttural. However, the muddy sound and slower tempo really kill the song for me. Stick with the live version.
"Let Me Know" is another "Gene Blues" song. Very limited musically, it sounds like a poor rehash of Strutter. The band was obviously struggling to fill out the album, and this song is the definition of filler. The song barely survives today in the hearts and minds of even the most hardcore Kiss fans, it barely registers. "Kissing Time" was not originally included on early releases of the album. It was recorded to promote a contest for this album, and really has no reason to be included on this album. It is really corny and lame. One of my least favorite songs recorded by Kiss. "Deuce" is a killer song,
and often opens Kiss concerts even today. I like both versions of the song, but I would again give the edge to the live version from Kiss "Alive". But I like the crunchy amateur-sounding guitars on this album, it has a certain innocent charm. "Love Theme from Kiss" is an instrumental. Very short, it does show that Gene was certainly a capable bassist, not just a reality TV star behind clown makeup. The song is very jammy, and feels somewhat useless and repetitive. ZZzzzZ
"100,000 Years" suffers the most out of any tracks contained on this album as well as Alive. It lacks the energy and ferocity of the version from Alive. It's like a deflated tire, it just doesn't drive. A great song, but a terrible sounding version. "Black Diamond" is the band's magnum opus in my humble opinion. A tale of an African-American prostitute, Peter Criss delivers a stunning vocal, with his whiskey-tinged voiced. But this version suffers the same fate as most other songs, it cannot compare with the version from "Alive". Not bad, but better live. Also, the outro is even more useless than the live track.
"Kiss" is not essential for anyone other than hardcore Kiss fans. The sound is awful, the songs are played at a very slow speed, production is almost non-existent, and only a few songs really can almost match their live counterparts, even then, not really. All of the best songs on this album can be found elsewhere, Kiss Alive is 100,000 years better.
Rating-5/10
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