HANK RANKS No. 25

The 4 KISS Solo Albums

04: Paul Stanley

KISS had released three platinum albums in 1977, and the band and their manager, Bill Aucoin, were looking to milk as much cash outta the band as they could, while they could...So 1978 saw the simultaneous release of four solo albums from all four members of the group...As a "solo" album, Paul Stanley's sounds pretty much exactly like a KISS album, minus two Gene Simmons songs and a possible Ace Frehley number, so this one gets no points from me for originality or necessity...Paul's songs here aren't even good KISS songs, most likely because the band had been cranking out as many songs as they could in the process of milking...

03: Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons' "solo" record is absolutely fucking wretched, but at least it sucks in a more interesting way than Paul Stanley's offering, and is even unwittingly hilarious once or twice. His heartfelt rendition of "When You Wish Upon A Star" is an appalling example of retarded song selection and an ignorance of one's own vocal talents. Gene Simmons is a shitty singer even under the best of circumstances ("Do You Love Me?"), but if he believed his version of this Disney classic sung by Jiminy Cricket in Pinnochio, would be anything but an obscenity, then he's a much dumber man than I have imagined...As a whole, the Gene Simmons album is bloated and slow, full of tired riffs and sophomoric lyrics, but that was pretty much to be expected...A little Gene goes a long way, and an 11 song album like this is simply an endurance test...

02: Peter Criss

Let's give the drummer some love here...Peter Criss had arguably the best voice in KISS...To me he sounds a bit like Bob Seger - it's a voice that's a bit rough around the edges, and hearty enough to sing good ol' Rock'n'Roll, and even some R'n'B, which is pretty much what he does on his solo album, which is a collection of songs that plays to those very strengths. Throw in a couple of ballads that might accurately be called "Freak Folk", and a power ballad closer ala "Beth", and it all adds up to a fairly cohesive, if not game-changing, longplayer...Despite having the best voice in KISS, he was relegated to playing simple 4/4 beats, and maybe getting the lead vocal once per record, so actually having the chance to be in the spotlight for an entire album was a big and welcomed deal to me. Of these four "solo" KISS albums, this might not be the best one musically, but it's certainly the most interesting of the four, and the most unique and truly "solo" of the bunch.

01: Ace Frehley

And then there's Ace Frehley...As the lead guitarist, he was certainly the best musician in KISS, but he really never got more than one of his songs on any of their records...Maybe it was his supposed drinking and drugging...Maybe it was because he was never really more than a hired gun in the KISS, Inc. world...This was Gene's and Paul's brainchild, afterall...But the thing is, those lone Ace songs on each KISS record were usually pretty fucking good, and hell, "Shock Me' was the best tune on Love Gun, so here came Ace Frehley's solo record, and it really wasn't a suprise to anyone that it was the best of the four, miles ahead of the other three. In fact, as far as collecting KISS goes, I'd say that after Alive!, I'd pick this album second...It's just a really solid and well-recorded rock album, one that has aged much better than anything else in the band's catalog, and that includes the handclap-heavy disco-rock of "New York Groove"...

Hotcha! Hank