Customer Reviews

Hot In The Shade

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

OK, after releasing a greatest hits album for the 80's generation, how to continue? Released in 1989, Hot In The Shade yielded the group a Top Ten single, but a larger than usual number of songs (fifteen as opposed to the usual ten or eleven) and a lack of variation in songs makes this a good but not great album in their post-makeup era.

"Betrayed" mixes a harsh "law of the jungle" attitude and some cynical dismissal of self-pity-"you ain't crucified, so get real" and "you ain't the only one who's been betrayed" and an affirmation on not selling out. All his songs here have this harsh, realist grabbing life by the throat and strangling it till one's dreams come true motif.

Paul's "Hide Your Heart" was co-written by Desmond Child and Holly Knight. A tragic street gang love triangle is the story here, with a moral, something not usually present in KISS songs. Paul and Desmond also collaborate on "You Love Me To Hate You"

"Prisoner Of Love" co-written by Gene and Bruce, is sung by the former and benefits from the ferocity of Bruce's guitar.

With the rap in "Read My Body," I detect a return to "All Hell's Breaking Loose" from Lick It Up, but with a power-intense sound like Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me."

I should've definitely followed Gene's advice in "Love's A Slap In The Face," where the title and the chorus tell it like it is: "Sometimes love is like a slap in the face/you've been burned and it's the same old mistake/if you want my opinion I'll give it to you straight." I bought this CD in 1990, why didn't I listen? This is one of five songs co-written by Vini Poncia, who produced Dynasty and Unmasked for them.

The power ballad "Forever," written by Paul and (gag!) Michael Bolton, became the group's first foray into the Top 40 since "I Was Made For Lovin' You" and second Top Ten hit.

"Cadillac Dreams" another Simmons-Poncia collaboration, is one of the most hard-driving songs here, and its focus being on money being the answer to dreams. However, there is some of the scoring with girls motif here: "[she] checked into a one-room suite/the back seat of my car." The horn arrangements were done by Paul.

Gene's "Boomerang" is another rapidfire drum and guitar attack reminiscent of "No No No" from Crazy Nights, also sung by Gene.

The rest of the album sports the same sound throughout with hardly any variation. However, I've noticed a couple things. In terms of lead vocals, the songs are evenly divided between 7 sung by Paul, 7 by Gene, and "Little Caesar" by Eric Carr, making me wonder if the equality in songs between the two had further meanings. Another is the number of songwriters co-writing with them, including a name from their past. And it looks like they're trying a mixed bag of winning and new formulas, production by Gene and Paul, ace songwriters, and bringing back a producer from the past.

Although a worthy release, in terms of being heavy, Hot In The Shade doesn't equal or rival their albums from Creatures up to Crazy Nights. There is a degree of energy in it, and it starts out good, but the lack of variation from song to song and its lacking the aggression of Animalize or Asylum or the energy of Crazy Nights become debits. Maybe less songs would've made it better, as this had possibilities. This album also serves as Eric Carr's epitath, as he died of heart cancer in November 1991.

This isn't one of Kiss' best albums. It has a few solid songs on it, but like most others say, this album has a lot of filler. "Hide Your Heart," "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell," and "Prisoner of Love" are probably the strongest songs here, with the exception of "Forever," which is perhaps one of the best ballads of the hair-band era. For some goofy reason, I like "Read My Body."

The rest of this album is okay, but it isn't up to par with a lot of other Kiss fare. "Revenge" is a better modern Kiss album, but if you're diehard, buy "Hot in the Shade."

Kiss released Hot in the shade back in 1990 and it's an amazing album. One of my favorite Kiss albums. Forever is a beautiful ballad and much better than the over-rated Beth. Rise to It and Hide Your Heart is another amazing album. This song is amazing. It rocks. One of the best albums in a long time. Hot in the shade is one of the best albums from Kiss.

Hot In The Shade was to be a return to form after the lackluster Asylum and Crazy Nights albums. While the album is stronger than both of them, it's not quite up to their mid-70s or early-80s albums. Many bands at this time started making albums that contained as many as 15 songs, choosing quantity over quality. This album is a good example. If they took the filler out and cut it down to a 10 or 11-song album, it would have been much better. The first half of the album is the stronger half. Some of Gene Simmons' songs, such as "Betrayed", "Prisoner of Love", and "Love's A Slap in The Face", are his best since the Lick It Up album. Paul contributes perhaps his best power ballad, the hit single 'Forever", as well as the strong singles "Rise To It" and "Hide Your Heart". Eric Carr also contributes the song, "Little Caesar", which is also among the better tracks. Then there's the filler. "King Of Hearts", "Read My Body", "Cadillac Dreams", "Love Me to Hate You", and "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell" are not up to par. Take these songs off and it's easily a 4-star album. Not quite a return to form, but a decent album.

This album is no Destroyer, Love Gun, or Alive!, but it is still a good KISS album! Best songs include:Rise To It,Hide your Heart,Siver Spoon,Forever,You Love me to Hate You,and King of Hearts.

Hot In The Shade was much-maligned by Kiss fans in the 90's. The album is what it is, but context is also important. By 1989 Kiss were coming off of two very commercial albums (Crazy Nights and Smashes, Thrashes & Hits) and were viewed to be out of touch with their rock and roll roots. I recall being particularly embarassed by Paul Stanley no longer playing a guitar in their videos so he could sing and dance like a typical 80's front man.

Then the video for "Hide Your Heart" came out, a more serious video with a storyline, and Paul was playing a vintage guitar again! The song was more rock, no keyboards in sight, and had that irresitable "Ahh ahh ahh, hey hey hey, do do do" chorus. It was a step in the right direction. I couldn't wait for the album.

I remember buying the cassette tape on a school field trip in grade 12 and listening to it on a walkman in the bus. The first sounds I heard were Bruce Kulick's bluesy pedal steel guitar intro to "Rise To It". A positive start.

Then, the band kicked in, and "Rise To It" really impressed me. The drums courtesy of Eric Carr were loud and clear, the song a little heavier than previous Kiss tunes, and Bruce was wailing. I opened up the J-card and read the liner notes.

I was surprised to see that Vini Poncia, the producer who did the Kiss disco albums, was back as a songwriting partner with Gene and Paul. I also saw that Tommy Thayer of Black N Blue co-wrote two songs with Gene ("Betrayed" and "The Street Giveth"). Little did I know that 15 years later, Tommy would replace Ace Frehley in Kiss! I also saw a song written by Paul and Michael Bolton called "Forever"...uh oh, that couldn't be a good thing.

But it was. "Forever" was a ballad to be sure, but it was alright. I maintain to this day that "Forever" contains the best guitar solo that Bruce ever wrote with Kiss. It's an acoustic solo (which he says he'd never done before) and it really is special, the kind of solo that you can hum along every note. The song itself is still great, and I still relish Eric Carr's drumming on it, which is unusually hard hitting for a ballad.

Moving further along in the cassette, I liked that Kiss were using female backing vocals on "Silver Spoon" and that Bruce was playing a lot of slide. There were horns on "Cadillac Dreams". Maybe Kiss weren't rooted in pure blues, but hard rock was moving in a bluesier direction at the time (see: Badlands, Mr. Big, Blue Murder). Even if it was a trend, I was happy that Kiss were moving anywhere but pop.

Finally I got to the song that Eric co-wrote, called "Little Caesar" which struck me as an odd title. It took a few seconds, but I realized that Eric was singing it too! I was really happy about that. I always felt that Kiss needed to incorporate Eric Carr more in lead vocals, and his version of "Beth" from the previous album was a crappy way to give him his first lead vocal.

"Boomerang" was and probably still is the fastest song that Kiss has ever done, and kind of struck me as Kiss trying to emulate speed metal. It wasn't a great song but I was impressed that Kiss really were shedding the pop that we all so hated at the time.

In hindsight, Hot In The Shade breaks down to three good to great songs: the singles "Hide Your Heart", "Forever", and "Rise To It". "Little Caesar" is also pretty good, but not up to the standards of the singles. Other songs have interesting parts or catchy bits, but by and large are filler.

Herein lies the problem with Hot In The Shade. Kiss get an "A" for effort most certainly. The ship had been drifting for a little while and this album was turning the ship back around. It was only a first step though, and the next album Revenge was Kiss fully and completely back in the groove. I respect that Kiss were firing in lots of interesting directions such as speed metal, blues and slide guitar, horns, and Motown-style backing vocals. Those things are rooted in rock and have nothing to do with the pop that Kiss had been doing previously. I respect that Kiss self-produced the album, and used demos as the backing tracks. In hindsight, the album does suffer for it particular in guitar tones. However, it was a brave experiment for a band who polished their last two albums way too much. I respect that Eric Carr wrote and sang, and I respect that Kiss included 15 songs on the album which was almost unprecedented in the 80's. Maybe 10 songs would have made a better album, but you cannot argue with Kiss giving you extra for the same dollar value.

Sadly, Eric Carr would not live long enough to see the good ship Kiss right itself on Revenge. He passed away from cancer in November 1991, the day before Freddy Mercury, and only contributed backing vocals to his final Kiss song, "God Gave Rock And Roll To You II" which was released on a soundtrack and as a single in the summer of 1991. Eric Singer took his place, the guy who Eric Carr once eerily proclaimed "That guy is gonna replace me". (Singer played drums on Paul's 1989 solo tour.)

Hot In The Shade is not essential to casual listeners, but to fans, it is a key moment in Kisstory that should not be understated.

After the change of pace of the early 80's (Unamsked and The Elder), the heavy sounds of 82-84 (Creatures, Lick It Up, Animalize), and the glam-type mid to late 80's releases (Asylum, Crazy Nights, and the two new tracks on Smashes Thrashes), Kiss once again pulled out a new sound. These tracks are all pretty accessible, it's a bit surprising that they didn't do more singles as a lot of the material here is tailor made for hard rock radio. Standout cuts are "Hide Your Heart", "Prisoner of Love", and the big hit "Forever". A good CD, but if you're just starting with Kiss, go to Love Gun and then Destroyer for a better idea of how Kiss became legendary.

Kiss spent most of the late 80's insisting they were a band with a viable future and resisting every temptation to be branded a nostalgia act. And with the success of records like 'Lick It Up' and 'Animalize' they were doing a good job of driving their point home. But 'Crazy Nights' didn't sit just right with fans and the new tracks on the 'Smashes, Thrashes and Hits' best of compilation ('Let's Put the X in Sex and 'You Make Me Rock Hard') were simply dreadful output, corny, juvenille and closer to the one-note crotch rock of Warrant and Poison.

Then, with all eyes on them to deliver the goods, Kiss delivered their weakest record of all with 'Hot in the Shade.' While their hype machine kept pushing that this was 15 new tracks and no oldies but goodies, no record made this fan pine more for Kiss' back catalogue than this one. Aside from Paul's strong 'Hide Your Heart' most of this record is a forgettable mash of 80's pop metal, delivered by a band that had lost its personality somehow.

This is neither a metal album nor a pop record. It has no voice, the songs have neither charm nor attitude. Sadly, the band was firing on no cylinders with this one. Eric Carr's singing debut in 'Little Caesar' is as weak an effort as the band has ever put forth, not that Gene's 'Prisoner of Love' fares much better. Not even Paul Stanley can carry this album. His 'Rise To It,' 'King of Hearts' and 'Silver Spoon' all pass without notice. His 'You Love Me To Hate You' would be a good lost song if the record were better, but it could hardly be considered any sort of lost classic. He and Michael Bolton's 'Forever' is a fine enough power ballad but, again, it just gets lost in the sea of late 80's power ballads coming from hard rock bands.

The upside to 'Hot in the Shade?' If nothing else, the dead response to this record is what got Kiss to realize it was important to more strongly reflect their entire musical catalogue in concert as their slacking 14 song concerts on previous tours were finally replaced with 20-plus tune evenings that hit on the band's infamous past more squarely.

If the seeds of the eventual reunion were sown on this record, it was a desperation move at best. This record killed 'new Kiss' far more than the departure of Ace Frehley or Peter Criss ever could have.

But, it was also good to learn later, Kiss would get their 'Revenge,' next time out!

This last KISS album of the 80s and with Eric Carr was a major success. Great songs from Gene Simmons like "Cadillac Dreams", "Boomerang". Eric Carr's first lead vocals song which kicks... called "Little Ceasar". Paul came out with another bang and terrific ballad called "FOREVER" that is one of my alltime favroite KISS songs. other great songs like "SILVER SPOON", "Rise to It", and "Hide Your Heart." This is a KISS album that is a must buy.

There are many things that are wrong with 1989's Hot in the shade, but let's start with the good first. Paul Stanley's "Forever" and Eric Carr's "Little Caesar" are both gems. The former being one of KISS's biggest hits of the 80's and the latter being one of Eric's best contibutions to a KISS album.Now for the bad: The album suffers from having too many songs on it (15), and being too long (about an hour). Most of the album sounds like filler, with no real heart or effort being put into the songs. This tends to give the album a 'labored' feel to it. Another problem is that there is no producer, and it was recorded at bascially a demo studio which again points to the lack of soul this album has to it.Had the album been cut down to about 10 to 11 songs, been around 40 to 45 minutes, had a real producer AND kept the two songs mentioned above, this would have been a great album.Don't get me wrong though, it's not a horrible album, some songs are rather enjoyable to listen to such as "Hide your heart", "Silver spoon" and "Betrayed", but compared to the KISS magic these songs sound like nothing more than glorified late night jams from a 'B+' bar band.Then there's the ugly: Most of Gene Simmons contributions are weak. "Somewhere between heaven and hell", "Cadillac dreams" and "Boomerang" are just as bland and boring as they sound.So Unless you're a hardcore KISS fan, I wouldn't suggest purchasing this album.