737. KISS / Love Gun. 1977. 3.5/5

In my experience with the band – and don’t get me wrong, I love the band in all of its era’s and enjoy pretty much everything they have ever released – I still find that KISS tend to have an unnerving ability to write albums that are so uneven that it makes it hard to listen to, review or rate without bias. Apart from what I consider to be three or four outstanding exceptions, this could well be true of every KISS album. And, for me at least, It most certainly is the case with “Love Gun”, an album with two or three brilliant songs, mixed with some songs that almost defy explanation. Then it becomes a question as to whether the love of the band outweighs the possible unevenness of the tracks on the album, because if you desperately desire to, you can always find a way to make an album feel as though it is better than it perhaps in reality is.
“Love Gun” came on the back of some pretty heady years for the band. Their double live album “Alive!” had risen them from a good band with reasonable popularity to supergroup status, and this was followed up by the amazing “Destroyer” album that kicked them into the stratosphere. “Rock and Roll Over” came next and had great sales as well, and the band was flying. Their coverage seemed to be everywhere, on radio and TV, and the stage get up and personas only increased their interest. Something they didn’t have at this stage was a number one album in the US, and going into the studio that was something that was on all four band members minds.

When it comes to the songs here on “Love Gun”, I really believe that the good is brilliant. The opening track "I Stole Your Love" kicks everything off in the right direction, a jaunty rocking number of the type that Paul Stanley does so well. Just a great opening track. This is immediately followed by the much more sappy and less energetic "Christine Sixteen", which apart from the song's lyrics can just end up annoying you with the repeated ‘Christine Sixteen’ words from Gene, which are then repeated again by the other three members. This, along with Gene’s quite provocative spoken word in the middle of the song makes it a pretty creepy kind of song listening to in the 2020’s. It’s a tough one to completely love, but it is one of those songs that I mentioned earlier that you tolerate because of the band and not for the song’s greatness. And I do. I don’t know what it is about it… well, yes I do. It is quintessentially Kiss. And if you love Kiss you will like the song. Another Gene song "Love For Sale" is next, and it holds itself up better until the last minute of the song, where we just hear "I've got Love For Sale" over and over. That's great Gene, sell away, just come up with a less pop song ending to your song. Again, I enjoy this but through somewhat gritted teeth.
Ace Frehley's first lead vocal track, his own number "Shock Me" is a good song that is probably made a little average by the fact that he is singing it. Written about his own electrocution on stage on the previous tour, apparently he wrote it for Gene to sing, who then suggested he do it himself. Personally I think Paul singing it with enthusiasm would have made it a much better track. "Tomorrow and Tonight" closes out side one (for those that remember vinyl) on an upward note. Once again Paul's ability to write a track that gets you rocking is highlighted here. Apparently it was supposed to be this album’s “Rock and Roll All Nite”, but it certainly doesn’t reach those heights.
More is to come with Paul's title track. "Love Gun" is the best song on the album, and is still one of my favourite KISS songs. This is the moneyshot when it comes to this album. Gene’s bass line through the song is probably the highlight for me, it plays off Paul’s vocals superbly. Still one of the greatest ever Kiss songs. Peter Criss's solo vocals of "Hooligan" is another to add to the good songs category, but there is more unevenness in "Almost Human" and "Plaster Caster". They're not top shelf, but not complete losses either.
The pièce de résistance is the final song on the album, a cover version of The Crystals' 1963 pop song "Then He Kissed Me", reverse gendered to be "Then She Kissed Me". Now, I do not like the original song, so I may be biased from the start. But this version lacks any great enthusiasm, it hasn't been improved, and it feels as though it is forced. The question is, why is it on this album in the first place? Did they need one more song, had no ideas, and then just threw this on there? I don't know what the answer is, but I really, REALLY dislike what they have done here. It ends the album on a sour note that is hard to take. I’d almost settle for a power ballad...

How do you rate an album that probably has as much average material on it than absolute gems? I guess it depends on how often you play it, and how you are able to ignore the ordinary to get through to the brilliant. It may not be their best overall, but there are those timeless great songs on here that just keep you coming back for more. This album in particular gained a lot of late support with the release of the 1999 movie “Detroit Rock City”, which focused on a bunch of mates trying to get to a Kiss concert. “Love Gun was the album focused on it the opening scenes, and the opening credits rolled with the title track blazing over the top.
“Love Gun” was one of the first Kiss albums that I heard regularly. My older cousin was a huge Kiss fan in the days this was released, and the room he lived in at our grandmother’s in those days was covered in Kiss posters, and he would play this and “Destroyer” very loud from his bedroom. At the time I didn’t really get it, but when hard rock and metal music began to take hold of my senses a few years later it was Kiss and this album that again came into focus.
As you can probably imagine with many Kiss songs and albums, as they get older they tend to date a bit, perhaps more in subject matter than the music. But as I’ve said, I’ve known this album for a very long time, and it was easy to love it for what it is at the age I grew up with it. On occasions now when I listen to it I may offer the odd cringe moment – especially that closing track, I mean, really, what the hell were they thinking of with that? But for me “Love Gun” remains one of the band’s highlights, and is one of those albums that I didn’t listen to a lot in the process of recording this podcast episode, because I still put it on more often than not all these years later, because it is one of the classics.