KISS — Unmasked (review)

KISS — Unmasked album cover Album · 1980 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
AtomicCrimsonRush
“Unmasked” is a very sporadic recording from Kiss with some great tracks and a lot of filler material. The band were in turmoil and two members were on the brink of walking out. Criss decided to depart altogether. He was displeased with the squeaky clean cartoon image of the band that was drawing little kids to their concerts. He simply didn’t play on the album and was replaced by Anton Fig who played on most of the previous “Dynasty”. This was not revealed at the time and Criss appears on the cartoonish cover album art and he is the 'Shandi' promo.

As a young teenager, I did not have a problem with the album as I always liked Simmons voice the best and he really shines on this album, and Ace features prominently. In reflection today it has to be said that this album was very poor quality.

It was not very heavy and reeks of crass commercialism. The single ‘Shandi’ is a case in point right down to that cheesy film clip with the corny scene where they take off their makeup and she calls out only to see they are still in makeup. The single was appallingly radio friendly and did make some money for the group particularly in Australia where it charted in the top 10.

Simmons is fantastic on the tracks ‘Naked City’ and ‘She’s So European’ although they have a glitzy pop sound. The lyrics are terrific on ‘Naked City’ “In the naked city there are 10 million stories, I am not looking for pity, in this naked city...”

This was the last hurrah for Ace as he features on the album not only as a musician but as an accomplished singer; ‘Talk to Me’ was a huge hit charting well worldwide. ‘Two Sides of the Coin’ was a throwaway but I liked Ace’s energy on this. My favourite on this album is the amusing driving rocker, ‘Torpedo Girl’ complete with submarine effects and a cool bassline. Love those lyrics “By noon I was in the sunshine swimming around, but then all of a sudden I heard this rumbling sound, I saw a snake that looked a lot like a submarine, with a pretty girl sitting on the bridge, could this be a dream, I don’t know!” Magic.

Paul has the worst songs but he is excellent on the rocker ‘Is That You?’ and ‘Easy as It Seems’ is OK with its grooving bass line and very melodic verses. The lowlights of the album are ‘What Makes the World Go 'Round’ perhaps the worst Kiss song, and the awful ‘Tomorrow’ and boring repetitive ‘You're All That I Want’.

Overall “Unmasked” is another very flawed album, one of the worst for Kiss but it has some redeeming factors thanks to 5 excellent songs. ‘Torpedo Girl’, ‘Naked City’, ‘She’s So European’, ‘Talk to Me’, and ‘Is That You?’ After this album Kiss departed into a completely different direction and released something that shocked Kiss fans worldwide... “The Elder”
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