ALBUM OF THE WEEK #8 KISS - LICK IT UP (1983) KEY KISS ALBUMS PART 3

[RJhog (Admin)]

1. Exciter
2. Not For The Innocent
3. Lick It Up
4. Young And Wasted
5. Gimme More
6. All Hell's Breakin' Loose
7. A Million To One
8. Fits Like A Glove
9. Dance All Over Your Face
10. And On The 8th Day

Let me start this week with a little reminder.  I'm in the middle of a series that is looking at pivotal Kiss albums.  These are not
necessarily what
I consider the "best" Kiss albums or even my "favorite" Kiss albums. 
These are albums that, in my opinion, either saved Kiss from falling off
of the map forever or they set the stage for the future.  And on that
note, I'll begin the
discussion on this week's album.  That would be Kiss' 1983 offering,
"Lick It Up".  This one saw Kiss unmasking for the first time in
public.  As much as Kiss has always been my
favorite band, they had sort of disappeared from my radar for a year or
two (I really didn't discover the excellent Creatures Of The Night for
myself until after this album).  So I'm in my local hometown record
store one day (when we still had hometown record stores) and I'm just
browsing the vinyl.  This album catches my attention.  It was four dudes
on a plain white background that looked like rockers to me.  So I
picked it up.  It took a moment of looking it over for me to realize,
"holy crap, this is Kiss".  You have to remember that I didn't have an
internet that could keep me up on all things Kiss at that time, so I had
absolutely no idea this was happening.  Although there were only two
original members left, I still couldn't believe my eyes. 

Now this was at the dawn of the phenomenon that was MTV.  Kiss also debuted
their non-makeup era with an appearance on MTV for an official
unmasking.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't see this until many years
later on one of the Kissologies.  Basically, what I'm trying to say is
that this album really
continued the job of kicking them back into the mainstream that
Creatures had started.  I really think this album opened Kiss up to a
whole new generation.  And it features 8 songs co-written by Vinnie
Vincent.  I'm not saying he's the greatest by any means, but his playing
and writing really helped Kiss on this album.

The album starts out smokin' with the very hard and heavy "Exciter".  Penned by Paul
Stanley and Vinnie Vincent, this is a terrific album opener.  I also
really like the follow up tune, "Not For The Innocent".  It fits Gene's
demonic personality very well.  "Lick It Up" follows and has become a
classic and a staple of today's live show.  For me personally, although I
think it's a pretty good song, it's one of my least favorite.  I don't
necessarily dislike it, maybe I just think it's a bit over played.  Next
up is the very heavy "Young And Wasted".  Originally the album vocals
were performed by Gene, but it became an Eric Carr song in the live
show.   I do really like this song.  Side one of the album is closed out
with "Gimme
More".  This is another Paul tune with the usual childish lyrics ("come
on lick my candy cane").  But musically, I like it and I think it's a
little underrated.

Side two opens with a change of pace for Kiss.  "All Hell's Breakin' Loose" has a cool and heavy riff, but the
rapped lyrics are a little strange.  I didn't know what to think of this
at first, but I've grown to really love this song.  Overall, Paul's
vocal perfomance on this song as well as the next song ("A Million To
One") is incredible.  And "A Million To One" is one of my all-time
favorite Kiss songs and is extremely underrated.  This is a definite
hidden gem.  Gene closes the album out with 3 straight songs.  I don't
remember Gene having 3 straight songs on any other album besides his
1978 solo album.  Of the 3, I think "Fits Like A Glove" is the best.  It
has a basic but cool riff and Gene puts in a nice vocal perfomance. 
Don't you just love the lyrics (I've got the urge to merge and your as
cold as ice, baby won't you let me in)?  "Dance All Over Your Face" is
okay, but I could do without "And On The 8th Day". 

And there it is, my opinion of the album that introduced Kiss to the MTV
generation.  I do like the artwork.  It's very simple but also very
effective and is easily the best non-makeup era album cover. 
Thankfully, this photo was taken before the band got into the "hair
band" look where Gene looked more drag queen-ish than demonic.  You can
pick up a new and remastered version of the disc from Amazon for under
10 bucks or a used copy for under 5 bucks. 

Singles

Lick It Up
All Hell's Breakin' Loose

Best Album Cuts

Exciter
Not For The Innocent
Young And Wasted
A Million To One
Fits Like A Glove

Hidden Gems

Exciter
Young And Wasted
A Million To One

[RJhog (Admin)]

Well, you know me, we will be talking about Music From The Elder one of these days. And I kind of agree with you on Animalize, it's one of my least favorite Kiss albums. But, it's nice to know that you do post wrong opinions, as in yours on Lick It Up.

[Jon]

Oooooh...them be fightin' words!