The quilt of their third album, Dressed To Kill, recommended KISS had been already flush with success. Suited and booted, their extravagant make-up was the one factor to point that these 4 bandmates weren’t younger executives who’d simply made a killing and invested in mansions in Monte Carlo.
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Appearances, nevertheless, could be misleading. In actuality, whereas they’d constructed up a fanatical US following, KISS’ future nonetheless hung within the steadiness once they recorded Dressed To Kill. Although each had been extremely promising albums, their self-titled debut and its briskly-released follow-up, Hotter Than Hell, didn’t set the charts alight, and once they posed for the Dressed To Kill album cowl in New York, drummer Peter Criss was the one group member who really owned the swimsuit he wore to the photograph session.
“Kicks with ten greats tracks”
KISS’ future, nevertheless, wasn’t as precarious as their report label’s. On the daybreak of 1975, Casablanca Data was on a knife edge, and their president, Neil Bogart, desperately wanted a success report to show his imprint’s fortunes round. Having already delivered two studio albums in precisely 12 months, KISS hadn’t supposed to chop a 3rd fairly so shortly, however after Bogart himself insisted they return to New York’s Electrical Girl Studios – the place he personally took over manufacturing duties – they threw themselves into recording Dressed To Kill.
Regardless of the circumstances, KISS dug deep and labored up their strongest set of songs up to now. Accordingly, whereas it clocked in at a comparatively temporary half-hour, Dressed To Kill was as trendy and sharply executed as its title recommended. Any of its ten songs may have been cherry-picked as standalone singles.
With its strutting, Rolling Stones-style riffing and infectious choruses, opener “Room Service” set the tone for a slew of quintessential KISS rockers to observe, with the album’s crisp, vibey first aspect additionally together with the Free-esque “Rock Bottom,” Gene Simmons’ swaggering, glammy “Two Timer” and Criss and Ace Frehley’s easy however insanely catchy “Getaway.”
“No frills, KISS in their prime”
Dressed To Kill’s second half, nevertheless, was full of classics. Each the quick’n’unfastened “C’Mon And Love Me” and the sluggish, intense “She” (the latter rescued from the repertoire of Simmons and Paul Stanley’s pre-KISS outfit, Depraved Lester) would stay within the band’s dwell set for years to return. The grandstanding “Roll And Roll All Nite,” in the meantime, arguably stays the daddy of all KISS anthems to this present day. Its full-tilt refrain (“You’ll drive us wild/We’ll drive you crazy!”) continues to be absolutely considered one of rock’s most seductive mission statements.
Casablanca rush-released Dressed To Kill on March 19, 1975, however regardless of the album’s apparent high quality, it wasn’t the magic bullet Neil Bogart hoped for. It did, nevertheless, considerably increase KISS’ profile, peaking at a really respectable No.32 on the Billboard 200, setting the stage for his or her subsequent launch – the much-acclaimed live performance album, Alive! – to supply the decisive breakthrough the band had labored so arduous to realize. Whereas that album was capturing up the charts, Donna Summer season’s “Love To Love You Baby” additionally went gold; Casablanca’s future instantly appeared an entire lot brighter.
Primarily as a result of it arrived previous to each Alive! and the all-conquering Bob Ezrin-helmed Destroyer, the significance of Dressed To Kill in KISS’ wider story has since been considerably ignored. Nonetheless, it stays one of many flamboyant US quartet’s most constant data, and it richly deserves the latter-day plaudits it’s picked up, reminiscent of Pitchfork’s 2003 reappraisal, which declared, “Dressed To Kill kicks with ten great tracks in just a little over half an hour – no frills, no duds, just KISS in their prime.”
Dressed To Kill could be purchased right here.
