Kiss: the solo albums

It took me awhile to decide how to deal with listing these four albums here; on the one hand they are definitely four distinct albums, very different from each other, and on the other hand they were all released under the KISS aegis, and the commonality is emphasized by the consistent graphic design and portrait paintings.

I finally opted for the latter approach because it provides a basis for comparison and contrast of the four albums that benefits each of them differently. As a general prefatory note I would simply say that in this unique opportunity for each of the KISS members to show what they’re musically made of, only Paul Stanley comes across as his KISS “character”—the Romantic—although Gene Simmons does dip into his Demon persona a little bit and certainly plays up the “sin” angle (albeit inconsistently), while Ace and Peter make very clear that the Starchild and Cat are simply gimmicks that interfere with their actual music.

In that sense I think the solo albums were a success, although I’m not sure they seemed that way at the time. Back then there was a lot of merchandising and excessive PR trying to “spin” these albums as being something other than the immediate prelude to a breakup of the band; while it both was and was not both of those things, my conclusion after two and a half decades of casual consideration is that it was an internal-tension-relieving exercise that worked better in the long run than in the short term. Each album is good, each has its highlights; none is perfect, none lacks a yawn or cringe. And in the end you get to hear four distinct elements of one of Rock’s iconic bands in undiluted form before they issued another album that again fused their individual elements.