Kiss
Rock And Roll Over

In 1976, Kiss released what is considered by many to be their masterpiece, 'Destroyer'. Shortly after Destroyer, still in 1976, Kiss produced another excellent album, 'Rock And Roll Over'. However, while the previous 'Destroyer' was a pompous album with more lavish and Bob Ezrin-esque (allow me the term) sounds, 'Rock And Roll Over' is a sharp return to the origins of the "Kiss", with some very raw Hard Rock tracks that are close to the initial sounds of the quartet (Hotter Than Hell, Kiss). After my usual premise, I will start to talk about the album more specifically.

The album opens with "I Want You" which introduces us with its sweet acoustic guitar chords while Paul sings a sweet melody. But after a few seconds, the Hard Rock explosion occurs, and Ace starts grinding riffs while the choruses sing "I want you, baby baby I want you". This is a very beautiful and unique song, very hard with drums and bass in full Hard Rock style. Paul has an exceptional voice; special attention should be given to Ace's excellent guitar performance, which interweaves beautifully with Paul Stanley's vocals. But Gene's bass also doesn't joke around and provides excellent reinforcement to a well-structured musical base by a fully-formed Peter Criss. Great album starter, but now let's move on and listen to the Kiss-like "Take Me", a brief intro in full Frehley style, and then Paul starts singing and showcasing his voice. After a while, the mischievous and catchy chorus, with very cheerful tones, manages to stick in your head on the first listen, a good track that doesn't excel in technique but manages to captivate listeners and turns out to be a very nice track that pleases.

Now we come to one of Kiss's most well-known songs, "Calling Doctor Love", with its famous initial guitar riff and then, after a brief drum roll, the bass starts to roar, and Gene's voice begins to growl in our ears. The chorus is beautiful with its choirs repeating "Calling Doctor Love" and Peter going wild on the drums. Ace is a little monotonous, but the song doesn't suffer much thanks to the excellent performances of Gene and Peter. Surely the song (which in the collective imagination has remained along with "Hard Luck Woman" as the symbol of Rock and Roll Over) is an excellent track worth listening to, beautiful! Right after comes another nice song, "Ladies Room", where we again find Gene Simmons on vocals, another nice piece, hard and direct, with perfectly fitting drum parts and excellent bass performance by Gene, while Ace continues to grind his hard and gritty chords. The singing, especially in the lively chorus, is cheerful and carefree, another excellent track. Now the very hard "Baby Driver" starts with Peter Criss on vocals, a gritty and hard song with very Hard tones, where only Peter's raspy voice can fully exploit the potential of the piece, a song without compromise, hard and direct to the bones, a charge of pure energy, a very beautiful piece fully showcasing that Kiss had returned to the way they were with their first albums.

Guitar and bass duet in the intro of "Lov 'Em and Leav 'Em", a very predictable and unlistenable song, terrible, Ace Frehley's guitar solo is akin to the most useless noise, Gene's bass goes its own way, and Peter's drums can't fix this mess alone, making themselves a burden as well, a very poor piece. Forgetting this sad interlude, let's move on with "Mr. Speed", then, from the beautiful guitar intro, we realize that this is going to be a nice and carefree song. This time we find Paul on vocals, Ace's guitar is a gem and a fundamental piece of the track, Peter's drums excellently mark the time. The song is really nice and relaxing and makes us forget about the awful previous song, good guitar solo, a song that inspires sunny landscapes (I think of California) and seems made for having fun and forgetting bad thoughts, a hidden gem of the album. Now "See you in your dreams" starts, from the beginning the song gives the impression of something heard a thousand times, a song neither notorious nor praiseworthy, a piece that one can easily do without and that doesn't attract much attention now we move to a song that is not at all superficial. Rather, to what is surely the most beautiful song of the album, ladies and gentlemen, "Hard Luck Woman". My beloved Peter is on vocals, an incredibly sweet song, acoustic guitars and so much melancholy in what is the best song of the album. No need to spend more words on a song I suggest you listen to, simply ecstatic, I suggest you close your eyes while listening to this track and enjoy its magic. Now here’s the last track, "Makin' Love", a song with very fast riffs, also very beautiful in its bass and drum structuring (if the "Deuce" riff reminded a lot of "Bitch" by the Stones, the riff of "Makin' Love" strongly recalls "Whole Lotta Love" by the Zep). A truly loaded and adrenaline-pumping song, the guitar solo is the best of the album, a small drum solo by Peter Criss makes this song even more beautiful and loaded.

'Rock and Roll Over' proves to be an excellent Hard Rock work. It is certainly not a milestone of the genre and doesn't deserve to be elevated to a masterpiece, but it contains some gems and beautiful songs. An excellent Kiss album, a return to the raw initial style of the Kiss, one of my favorite albums, I would recommend it to anyone looking to listen to some uncompromising good Hard Rock.

Cheers from Axl Spark