905 Kiss - Dressed to Kill (1975)

Studio Album - Hard Rock

About the Act:

Kiss are an American glam/shock/heavy rock/metal band from New York. They have been in existence since 1973 and are responsible for 20 or more studio albums (depending on how you count them). They have had a pretty stable line-up. They are best known for wearing bizarre black-and-white face paint, and glam metal costumes, and for the length of the lead singer, Gene Simmons' tongue. Oh and they have had several hit singles, quite a few hit albums and have sold lots and lots of records. They are generally thought of as being a shock rock band, as the sort of band that you listened to if you were a bit of a rebel.

About the Album:

This was the band's third album. It was produced by the president of the record label, because they (the label) couldn't afford to pay a proper producer.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

Everybody needs there to be artists, writers, musicians or performers of some kind to express what they themselves find hard to express, even greasy-haired acne-ridden teenage boys who are too shy to talk to girls, but so full of testosterone that when safe with their peers they are full of bravado and swagger. Maybe even especially those boys. This album is for them. It would be easy for me, as the middle-aged critic, to get quite critical of this album, overlooking the qualities that could have drawn me in four-and-a-half decades ago, had I just been a few years older. The songs are full of bravado, about those amazing creatures (women), not too complex for me to understand, but with some word-play so maybe my parents wouldn't get the innuendo. And the music, it rocks hard! It's raw! It's four men rocking out with guitars and drums and not the produced "pop" that the charts were full of. It's so rocky it's almost heavy metal.

So if you are a teenage boy, full of testosterone and angst, you may love this album it may speak to and for you in ways that other music just cannot.

If you are not, say you are a middle-aged man, or a woman in her prime, or an elderly person, or, well anyone else really, this is a collection of misogynistic twaddle, badly produced on a budget, and mostly uninspired musically and in performance. Some of the singing is even out of tune.

However, that's a little harsh, some of the songs are better, and as the album progresses they settle down into some solid musicianship. There are some head-bobbing and toe-tapping moments, and not all of the lyrics are misogynistic, some are just fairly bland, but passable. It's not without merit, even for me. There is an energy. There is a certain theatricality to it, bordering on camp, that makes it "glam", which still has a bit of appeal this far on. It's by no means a classic, and boy it could have been better if the production was better!

5.4/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1YCC4oZXg2zGn7pVSKVlGF

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6ogdCG3tAWgGC-Wh4oj_sEKcOFrFrSjB

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dressed_to_Kill_(album)