508. Kiss / Hot in the Shade. 1989. 3/5

Since the band had decided to go sans-makeup, and with a couple of departures from the band, the line up of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Bruce Kulick and Eric Carr had been able to create a solid foursome, and in the process through the mid-1980's had recorded and released albums that began to bring the fan base back to the band. “Animalize”, “Asylum” and “Crazy Nights” had not only increased record sales around the world, but also produced singles that had attracted attention on the charts both in the US and worldwide.
There is a deliberate step away from the synth driven tracks that the band delivered on “Crazy Nights” to what is composed here for “Hot in the Shade”. Whether the band through its two main writers in Stanley and Simmons could feel the wind of change in the air, and were looking to steer the band into the faster waters in open to question. What is obvious is that, in the same way that many bands were looking for a more stripped down sound when it came to their albums as the 80’s decade was about to close out, Kiss were thinking along the same lines. That didn’t mean toning down any of the vocals in the way they had been performed in the band’s history, but with the guitars at least being doused down to a more basic level. Bruce Kulick, in his article review of the album on its 25th anniversary, mentioned that to further this effect, the band elected to use the demos they recorded and polish them up via overdubs instead of re-recording the songs. This was not information that was about in the days when the album was released, but with hindsight, it actually explains a lot about the album and the sound it has. Given that Kiss albums have almost always been highly produced, in order to give them the glossiest finish they could possibly have, this decision by the album's producers, who also happened to be Stanley and Simmons, on the surface appears to be a measured one. It could also explain why they decided to have 15 songs on this album, perhaps unable to decide which songs perhaps needed to be removed at the end of the production. Whatever the case may have been, this was an album with a change in direction, with these ingredients coming out of the oven with the title of “Hot in the Shade”.

This album has 15 tracks on it, which is a lot. The most of any Kiss album. One of the longest of any Kiss albums at almost an hour in length. For a band that had spent their career writing catchy songs that sit in that 3.5 to 4.5 minute range, this album is a real extension of that. The song lengths remain the same, the number of songs does not. And the writer combinations on “Hot in the Shade” are like a who’s who of Kiss song writers. Co-writers on songs on this album include the ever-present hit maker Desmond Child, Bob Halligan Jr who had helped write with Judas Priest and many other bands in the past, future Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer, and former Kiss producer and composer Vini Poncia, along with Bruce Kulick and Eric Carr as well. These writers all swapped and jumped around with Stanley and Simmons to help create the album that this became. And it all became very much split down the middle vocally, with Paul singing lead on seven songs and Gene also singing lead on seven songs, with the other sung by Eric.
All of this leads to the question as to how the direction of the album could be maintained with so many outside influences coming into the album. Obviously, Paul and Gene were still the main songwriters and would have kept a strong hold on the reins, but then to listen to the album does raise the odd eyebrow.
I mean, what is with the slide guitar opening to the album as a part of “Rise to It”? Are we going for a Bon Jovi sound now? Is that the direction Kiss wanted to take? Fortunately, it is all a sham as the song breaks out into the kind of song that Kiss has made a living out of writing and performing. Double down on this for “Betrayed” which follows the same course, in a typical Gene vocalled track and the heavier drum and bass rhythm throughout that always provide the best Simmons led songs. Then we have “Hide Your Heart”, written by Paul along with Desmond Child and Holly Knight during the “Crazy Night” sessions, but not used until this album. Of course, it was also recorded by several other artists in this 12 month period, including former guitarist Ace Frehley! As I mentioned in that episode, I prefer Ace’s version of the song to this one, but this version still has good qualities.
The middle section of side one of the album levels off a tad, with songs that don’t truly grab the attention you would expect of a Kiss album. Gene and Bruce’s “Prisoner of Love” has an upbeat vibe about it but never really takes off, Paul and Bob’s “Read My Body” sounds like a Def Leppard rip off song, and Gene and Vini’s “Love’s a Slap in the Face” sounds like something Gene has experienced a few times in his life, and the drum machine taking the place of Eric Carr is a terrible decision.
“Forever” is the single off this album that charted higher than any other for Kiss during their non-makeup years, reaching number 8 on the US charts. It was co-written by Stanley and Michael Bolton – yes, that Michael Bolton. And yes, you guessed it, it is a sugar sweet power ballad, so much so that you can almost hear Bolton singing the chorus himself. Like I said, it was a hit, and it funnelled fans into buying this album, so you can’t really blame them, can you? Or even suggest it should have been the first song cut off the album. Can you? This is followed by “Silver Spoon” that is a far better track, much more on the Kiss plane, and ends the first half of the album on a high note.
The second side of the album dishes up more atypical songs from the writers as you would expect. Paul’s tracks have the more commercial sound, the songs that could be hits about himself, such as “King of Hearts” written with Poncia. He sings in a different style on “You Love Me to Hate You”, and it sounds as if he is trying to change things up, which for me doesn’t really work. Gene’s have the attitude he likes to bring through in his vocals, but with a very 70’s style in “Cadillac Dreams”, the street-smarts and De Niro like portrayal in “The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away”, and one of his weaker efforts lyrically and musically in “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell”. “Little Caesar” is co-written with Eric Carr and another Kiss writing alumni in Adam Mitchell, a song which Eric also sings, and again has 70’s tinges about it (tell me the bass riff isn’t from Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition”). The album is then closed out by Gene’s “Boomerang”, one of the most upbeat songs of the album, which at least give it some momentum as its finally reaches its conclusion.

As I related in the previous episode of this podcast, this album came out within days of Ace Frehley’s “Trouble Walkin’” album, and it was this one that I plumped for when I went to my record store to load up on a new album. I adored “Crazy Nights” - still do – and I was pumped to hear what the band was going to offer me as a follow up. Well, it wasn’t “Crazy Nights”, and I still remember the intense disappointment that I had over what I heard when I listened to it over those first couple of weeks. It was a different style to that 80’s synth-based rhetoric that “Crazy Nights” gave us, and obviously at that moment in time, that was not what I wanted from Kiss. Many years later I dragged it out again, and though I was not averse to what I heard, it still had nothing that interested me.
Flash forward another few years, to a decade ago, and I had begun to start working my way through band discographies again, looking for albums I may have underappreciated in the past. And I came to Kiss and felt my way through their albums in order of release. And having once again gone through complete joy on reaching “Crazy Nights”, I came to “Hot in the Shade” with trepidation. Could this album convert me to what it has to offer, or was it destined to continue its life on the shelves collecting dust for eternity? The short answer is, I found more than I had in the past, mostly because now I wasn’t trying to judge it against the other albums I was listening to at the time. The style of song on this album had definitely changed again which I still know is why it threw me for a loop back in 1989, but the album was now better to listen to.
To the past few weeks, and “Hot in the Shade” has come out of its CD case again (my original vinyl copy having been lost in that flood from 24 years ago) and has been doing the rounds at work and at home. And it hasn’t been a difficult task, but it also hasn’t been an easy one. Most of the albums I review for this podcast are ones that I really enjoy listening to while I am in the zone, and some become firm favourites for a time after I am done with the episode. “Hot in the Shade” was not one of those albums. It was a tough slog. Is there a case to be made that this album needed to be shorter, that the band could have put a line through a few songs to bring it back to say 45 minutes, thus not only making it an entertaining listen but just cutting out some of the chaff from the wheat?
There are some catchy songs and some tracks that are fine to listen to, but overall it just tends to drag out. Is it uninspiring? Is it the multitude of writers? Is it just that in 1989 the band didn’t quite fit the profile of what was going on? Or is it just an average album. Given my history with the album, and the fact that I have just never ever been able to get on board with it, I would suggest that... it is just an average album. I can listen to this album, and have done for this episode, but I gain no inspiration from it like I do so many of the band’s albums and songs. How I felt about it 35 years ago is pretty much how I still feel about it today.