2. Lick It Up (1983)
So in 1983 with a great album having failed to reignite mass KISSteria it was clear that the make-up was getting in the way of people appreciating the band. The KISS corporation decided on a radical revamp and removed the trademark face paint for the album Lick It Up. This album picks up where Creatures of the Night left off, but is significantly more accessible. Michael James Jackson is back, but this this time as co-producer with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. The drum sound is dialled down a notch or two, but the guitars are still razor sharp. The Demon and The Starchild put in sparkling performances, whilst The Fox - like all the very best drummers - is rock solid with moments of flash, flair and dazzling brilliance. Vinnie Vincent, however, is once again Man Of The Match/MVP here. Co-writing 8 of the 10 tracks on offer, challenging Gene and Paul both as musicians and songwriters, his torrid solos set each song alight. Young And Wasted, Not For the Innocent, and Gimme More are among the best KISS tunes recorded. The prototype rap-rock of All Hell's Breakin' Loose pre-dated Run DMC and Aerosmith's Walk This Way by a couple of years. KISS as innovators? Who knew? The catchy title track was a modestly successful single in theUK and the US, but my favourite song on this album is the unashamed single entendre of Gene's Fits Like A Glove. The lyrics read like a scene from a Carry On movie, and the funniest line is probably, "Well goodness sakes, my snake's alive and it's a ready to bite!" I actually smiled as I typed that... And now I'm punching the air. Gene-ius! This was a new KISS and one which promised so much, but the line-up changed once again when Vinnie Vincent left after refusing to sign a contract of employment which would seal his position as a mere employee rather than recognise and reward his contributions as a songwriter. It would have meant him giving up his future royalties in return for a salary which, at one point when the band was struggling, had been halved. Rock n' roll dreams, eh kids? The subsequent albums (Animalize 1984, Asylum 1986, Crazy Nights 1987 and Hot In The Shade 1989) without Vinnie's input, apart from the odd moment (Heaven's On Fire, Tears Are Falling, Crazy Crazy Nights and Forever), all sucked like a planet-sized industrial vacuum cleaner. Indeed the next KISS studio album of any quality wasn't even a KISS album. The exceptional, 5 star rated, Gene Simmons produced WOW (1984) by Wendy O Williams - formerly of the Plasmatics - was a collection of discarded KISS demos which had Wendy's raw, screaming voice recorded over the top. By 1992 their waning fortunes forced the band to bring back Bob Ezrin and Vinnie Vincent (as a songwriter) to significantly up the quality of their album Revenge. Lick It Up is the consummate desert island disc and was good enough to endorse the band as a make up free entity. This enabled them to keep putting out albums of decreasing quality and limp along until the lucrative reunion of the original band in 1996. It's hard not to listen to it now and wonder what might have been.