Since I've started the Odyssey, I've rolled 9 of 25 Alice Cooper Records and 5 of 10 KISS albums, but still just the one of fourteen Blue Oyster Cult records. If I was looking for fate to even the odds up a bit, it is not to be.
On the plus side, I got to listen to a fine KISS record.
Disc 318 is...Dressed To Kill
Artist: KISS
Year of Release: 1975
What’s Up With The Cover?: KISS gets dressed up in suits to offset their less than business-like face makeup. I love this cover, which I think is one of rock and rolls great iconic album covers. I don't like Gene's white leather clogs, however, and Paul looks like he's wearing black sneakers. Cris and Ace steal the footwork show, but as ever Gene and Paul get all the credit.
How I Came To Know It: I only got this studio album relatively recently (probably around 2000). I started buying KISS records in 1976 with Destroyer and kept buying them thereafter, but as a child with limited buying power (and less historical perspective) I didn't think to go backwards in the catalogue. That said, many of these songs are on KISS' first live album, and I know them from there.
How It Stacks Up: I have ten of KISS' studio albums, and "Dressed To Kill" is one of my favourites. I'd say it is 3rd or 4th depending on my mood at the time.
Rating: 4 stars.
"Dressed To Kill" is the third album KISS released in only thirteen months (or so saith the fawning liner notes that accompany my remastered copy). It was released a mere six months after their second record, "Hotter Than Hell" and I think it is a superior product in practically every way, returning to the high level of their self-titled debut. It is also the source of their most famous and enduring song, "Rock And Roll All Nite" which has become an anthem to young rebels the world over for more than thirty five years.
This is straight ahead rock and roll, with the underappreciated Paul Stanley belting out tunes like "Rock Bottom" with a wild abandon that makes you know he is feeling it. This is one of Stanley's better records, and I found myself noticing him more than on previous KISS reviews.
Of course, this could be because "Dressed To Kill" has some of the most ridiculous lyrics in the KISS catalogue - and that is saying a lot. Most of the songs are about partying hard, bedding groupies and...um, I think that's about it actually. From "C'Mon And Love Me":
"I'm a man, I'm not a baby
And you're looking every inch a lady
You're good lookin' and you're lookin' like you should be good
You were distant, now you're nearer
I can feel your face inside the mirror
The lights are out and I can feel you baby, with my hand."
These lyrics are absolutely ridiculous - in places they don't even rhyme correctly (baby/lady?) but in the hands of the bombastic KISS they not only work, they are awesome. I found myself struggling not to sing along or laugh out loud, and ended up doing both. I'm not sure if these guys know how silly they sound, but it is almost better if they don't.
Fortunately, a couple of things firmly ground this album and make it a four star rock album. First of all, the songs are catchy and well written. They hearken back to a late fifties/early sixties rock sound that is timeless, and then they add in plenty of grit that updates them to the mid-seventies audience.
Second, is the genius of Ace Frehley's guitar. It always sounds big and brash, and vaguely out of this world, not unlike the character he portrays in the band. Despite this, it somehow grounds this band during overblown songs like "C'mon And Love Me", keeping the album's sound firmly in a rock groove when it threatens to take a turn toward vaudeville.
Frehley's guitar on the monster track, "She" is particularly amazing, not just in playing the memorable riff that the song thrives off of, but also in the solo and after, as he meets Paul Stanley's vocal stylings and then bests them, like a poor man's Jimmy Page showing up an equally poor man's Robert Plant.
Timewise, the album is incredibly tight - less than 30 minutes of music. It might seem a bit thin to a modern audience, but it leaves you wanting more in a good way. Too often bands feel the need to pad their songs with long intros and outtros. The songs on "Dressed To Kill" get right down to business, rocking your socks off, and leaves you swaying barefoot less than three minutes later (and possibly giggling).
This album makes me feel young, and not just because the music came out when I was young. It makes me feel young, because it takes joy in having a good time, and does it well. And of course, whether you're 41 or 14, the borderline-lewd lyrics are guaranteed to annoy your parents; a rock and roll staple through the ages.
Best tracks: Getaway, C'Mon And Love Me, Lover Her All I Can, She, Rock And Roll All Night
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