Kiss
Lick It Up

THE REVIEW

1983: the end of an era for KISS. 

The successes of "Alive!" (I and II) and "Destroyer" seem light years away, and recent works like "Music from the elder" and "Creatures of the night," although artistically valid, turned out to be commercial disasters. At that point, Kiss (who were evidently under pressure like Galeazzi's toilet seat) attempted to solve the situation with a drastic and surprising decision: to abandon their iconic makeup and present themselves to the public with a new sound, that of hair metal, which would be very popular during the '80s, with Kiss as its precursors.

"Lick it up" is thus presented as the album of rebirth, at least from a purely commercial point of view; in reality, the album is not exactly a masterpiece, despite the opener "Exciter" suggesting otherwise: a dark guitar intro creates a sense of anticipation until the drums explode and the Starchild enters, proving (once again) to have a great vocal range, singing at very high tones; the refrains are excellent, and Vincent's solo is good, although once again there is a feeling that he's playing with chains on his wrists, unable to fully express himself. The second track "Not for the innocent" is a good mid-tempo sung by the demon but is already a step back compared to "Exciter"; "Lick it up" will become a hit, consistently featured in live performances, but it's a mediocre song; "Young and wasted" is a strong hard rock track but then makes way for the bland filler "gimme more"; "all hell's breaking loose" continues in the vein of "Lick it up" but at least is a bit more varied and boasts catchy refrains that stick in your head from the first listening. Halfway through the album comes a noteworthy song, "A million to one", a semi-ballad with a rather powerful sound that leads to a beautiful Vincent solo; an excellent performance by the starry one, always at ease with ballads. In my opinion, this is the highest point of the album and its "unofficial" end: the album, indeed, continues with "Fits like a glove", literally and musically obscene (I skipped it in 1 second and 1/2, I think it’s a record); "Dance all over your face" is a very negligible song, while the modest "And on the 8th day" is tasked with closing the album.

Ultimately an unsuccessful album, which leaves a bitter taste in the mouth as it fails to even remotely reach the qualitative peaks of previous releases, qualities sacrificed in the attempt, yet successful, to appeal to a new audience capable of embracing the sound that would accompany Kiss throughout the '80s and into the early '90s, until the nostalgia effect would bring the historic original lineup together once again to bring "Psycho Circus" to life; but that is definitely another story...