1975 proved to be the year for Kiss. After two mediocre albums
\n(including the horrible production work on
\nHotter Than Hell<\/i>), Casablanca Records chief Neil Bogart and
\nthe band decided to take matters into their own hands for the third
\nattempt. Kiss was known for their live shows, and come hell or high
\nwater, they were going to capture that energy on the third
\ndisc.<\/p>\n
Over a quarter of a century later, we can look at
\nDressed To Kill<\/i> and ask ourselves whether they succeeded.
\nWhile this record is a major improvement over
\nHotter Than Hell<\/i>, and it contains songs with more substance
\nthan the previous two efforts, it still falls a bit short of the
\nmark, though not by much. At the time, it was Kiss’s best
\neffort.<\/p>\n
Returning to the “sex equals love” concept that wasn’t as
\nconspicuous on
\nHotter Than Hell<\/i>, Paul Stanley and crew crank out 10 songs,
\nmany of which have become part of any rock music fan’s vernacular.
\nWho knew back in 1975 that “Rock And Roll All Nite” would become
\nthe anthem for this Kabuki-faced foursome, and would rank up there
\nas one of the all-time most popular rock songs? The answer:
\nsomebody<\/i> had to, otherwise it wouldn’t have made the
\ncut.<\/p>\n
But wait, there’s more. While some of these might not get as
\nmuch attention today as they did back then, tracks like “C’mon And
\nLove Me,” “She” and “Rock Bottom” (complete with acoustic guitar
\nintro) all served as proof that Kiss was no flash in the pan, and
\nthat they did indeed have their eyes on the big prize. “Rock
\nBottom,” while a hit for the band in the ’70s, still ranks in my
\nbook as one of Kiss’s most underrated songs.<\/p>\n
Even some of the “filler” is pretty tasty. “Room Service” is a
\ntrack that I’m truly surprised didn’t become another one of Kiss’s
\nanthems, from the catchy chorus to the harmony vocals to the
\namazing guitar work. The same goes for tracks like “Two Timer” and
\n“Ladies In Waiting,” songs which are just lying there, waiting to
\nbe re-discovered.<\/p>\n
But, let’s face it, it wouldn’t be a Kiss album if there wasn’t
\nat least one throwaway song, and
\nDressed To Kill<\/i>, while solid otherwise, has a couple of
\nthese. “Anything For My Baby” just doesn’t rank as one of the best
\nsongs Kiss has ever crafted, while “Love Her All I Can” never is
\nable to build up listener interest. They might not be the worst
\nthings the band has ever done, I’ll grant you that, but compared to
\nthe stellar material on this disc, these tracks don’t hold their
\nwater.<\/p>\n
\nDressed To Kill<\/i> is a record you might know the music from,
\nbut you might not be familiar with the music itself. If someone
\nwanted to discover what Kiss was all about, this might be the first
\nrecord I’d point them towards, if
\nAlive!<\/i> was out of stock. The third time indeed proved to be
\nthe charm for Kiss – and it marked the start of a golden period for
\nthe band.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5731],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39479","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kiss","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39479"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39479"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}