CoronaVinyl Day 291 (K): Hot in the Shade by KISS

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Friday's CoronaVinyl category was "K," and as you know by now, the only "K" albums I have left are KISS albums -- and I have eleven more!  Friday's selection was their fifteenth studio album, 1989's Hot in the Shade.

KISS had navigated its way through the '80s with mild success.  At the beginning of the decade, they still had their original lineup -- Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss.  Criss left first, in 1980, replaced by Eric Carr.  Then Frehley left two years later, replaced by Vinnie Vincent.  They took off the makeup in 1983.  The next year, Mark St. John replaced Vincent, and then he was quickly replaced by longtime KISS collaborator Bruce Kulick.  It was that lineup -- Simmons, Stanley, Carr, and Kulick -- that made Hot in the Shade, which was the band's most successful attempt at cashing in on the Hair Band Era.

I was obviously aware of KISS long before Hot in the Shade, and I was terrified of them when I was really young when they were still in the makeup.  Then there was a blank space of five or six year when I don't really remember hearing or seeing anything about KISS, until Hot in the Shade. 

Hot in the Shade was a pretty remarkable 15 songs.  It reached #29 on the Billboard album chart, but more importantly, it contained the band's biggest non-makeup-era hit -- and first Top 40 hit since "I Was Made For Loving You" in 1979 and first Top 10 hit since "Beth" in 1976 -- the power ballad "Forever," which was co-written by Stanley and Michael Bolton and went to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Two other songs from the album charted:  "Hide Your Heart" (#66) and their last charting song, "Rise To It" (#81).

I listened to the full album about eight times on Friday, as I ended up working far later than anyone should work on a June Friday.  It's not a bad album.  Having listened to KISS's other '80s albums with a little bit more regularity than Hot in the Shade, I think the band put out their best album since Creatures of the Night in 1982.  Sure, they were trying to keep up with all the bands that they influenced, but they did a good job, and there are a lot of good hard rock songs on the album, showing that the band could still rock with the best of them.  And, of course, "Forever" is a classic late '80s power ballad.

Sadly, this was the last album the band released before Carr died from heart cancer in 1991 at the age of 41.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Silver Spoon"
The last song on the first side is a solid hair band song, sung by Stanley.  I particularly appreciate that it ramps up at the end, with a good guitar solo and then an outro featuring impassioned female background singers.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Boomerang"
The last song on the album is a Simmons and Kulick-penned snarling rocker, sung by Gene.  It's just a good hard rock song, with another great solo by Kulick.