In a recent conversation on Justin Richmond‘s Broken Record podcast, KISS frontman Paul Stanley offered a definitive look into his personal top five albums from the band’s legendary catalog. His selections reveal a deep appreciation for records that captured KISS‘s essence in unique ways, from their explosive live energy to their meticulous studio craft.
Stanley places the groundbreaking 1975 live album, Kiss Alive!, at the pinnacle of his list. He emphasized how it revolutionized live recordings by truly immersing the listener. “For different reasons, the first has to be ‘Kiss Alive!’,” Stanley explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “Because Kiss Alive! really captured the essence of the live experience. Now, that couldn’t have happened without us going in the studio and enhancing it and surrounding you with people… Live albums were boring for four hours. You didn’t even know they were live until the end of the song where you heard some clapping. But for KISS, we wanted an album that immersed you, immersion in the experience, which means being surrounded by people, which means bombs going off that are deafening, which means fixing any mistakes or a broken string. Snobs or purists may have looked down their nose at that idea, but the truth is that album is still considered, if not the greatest, one of the greatest, and in a lot of circles greatest live album ever. Not because everything was live, but because it captured the live experience.”
Taking the second spot is 1976’s Destroyer, an album that marked a significant sonic departure for the band with Bob Ezrin at the production helm. Stanley views this record as a crucial educational experience. “Destroyer’, even though it didn’t sound much like its predecessors, but working with Bob Ezrin was such a education, such a schooling, discipline and upping the writing and putting aside at least temporarily all the songs about sleeping with this one or this group of your parties, and it raised the bar,” he stated. Many tracks from Destroyer, including “Detroit Rock City“, “God Of Thunder“, “Beth“, and “Shout It Out Loud“, remained staples of their live show throughout their career.
Stanley‘s third favorite is Sonic Boom, the 2009 album that introduced Tommy Thayer on lead guitar. He lauded this record for its strong connection to the band’s origins and its palpable team spirit. “Sonic Boom was a great album by a band that recognized its roots and recognized where it came from and picked up the slack and kept moving forward,” Stanley reflected. “I love that album, and I love the spirit that went into it, where everybody knew what they wanted to do, and at our best. And most people’s best, I think, comes from trying to make the team or the band or whatever you’re involved in better, and that will make you look better than just trying to make you look better. And the team spirit on Sonic Boom was really, really palpable. And a great album. Great album. And if [a song like] ‘Modern Day Delilah‘ had been on Rock And Roll Over, it would be a classic. But songs take decades to gain that kind of patina or to have that life connection of when you heard that song at a certain time in your life. So, as time went on, songs could be great, but they didn’t have the luster of being tied to the past. So whether it was ‘Modern Day Delilah‘ or ‘Hell Or Hallelujah‘ [off KISS‘s 2012 album Monster]… And I just found myself going, ‘That’s as good as it gets.’ And it’s a different time now, and people don’t connect to songs as time pieces or a sonic photograph of a certain period. So Sonic Boom would be in the top three.”
The 1976 release Rock And Roll Over earned a spot on Stanley‘s list for its distinct sound and clear artistic direction. He found its recording process particularly focused. “I like that album. It doesn’t sound anywhere near what we sounded like, and that’s after Kiss Alive!,” he noted. “It was very elusive for us, perhaps because of some of the people we were working with. It just escaped us. We did something with real focus and clarity of what we were doing, so that’s really good.”
Completing his top five is Kiss Unplugged, the 1996 album recorded for the MTV Unplugged television series. Stanley highlighted the raw power and songwriting strength demonstrated in the stripped-down setting. “I love Kiss Unplugged,” he shared. “That album, I just listened to some of that couple of days ago. The band at that point was just on fire. No effects, no amplifiers, no running around — us with guitars and drums and singing our a**es off. And also it gave a chance to showcase the songs, because I’ve always adhered to the idea that a good song can be played on one guitar. If you have to go, ‘Well, wait till you hear the sound effects on this song.’ No. A great song can be stripped away, and it’s fantastic. So to hear ‘Sure Know Something‘ or ‘I Still Love You‘, you hear those songs and there’s a ‘wow’ factor just because it’s that good. So Kiss Unplugged, I would put in there… I love the simplicity and the fact that it’s undeniable. I mean, it’s just four guys with their instruments.”
