What could be more American than four makeup clad musicians donning seven-inch leather heels and singing songs with titles like “Love Gun”, “God of Thunder”, and “King of the Night Time World”?
In 1976, KISS unleashed more flash bombs than a small army all while managing to release two of their most iconic records. The latter of those albums, Rock and Roll Over, saw the most unlikely American success story of the mid-70s finding its ability to connect at large with sugar-coated, pop-rock anthems and punchy, raucous, sleaze gems.
Songs like “I Want You”, “Take Me”, “Ladies Room”, and “Makin’ Love” show that while the four members of KISS may have been demons and spacemen in league with Lucifer, they also had a burning desire for pretty girls– all of the pretty girls!
One listen to the previous release, Destroyer, and you may be asking questions like, “How does an orchestra fit in with KISS? And, more importantly, “How does a man dressed as a cat end up singing an apologetic ballad to Beth?” RARO satisfies those concerns by getting back to the toe-tapping, rock n’ roll from earlier releases. Paul Stanley deserves special mention here. Not only does this album show tremendous bravado and vocal confidence from the Starman, but it also showcased his growing songwriting chops.
If you need proof of that fact just listen to the album’s only breather, “Hard Luck Woman”, a song written for Rod Stewart but made famous by Peter Criss. If “Rock and Roll All Nite” was a declaration from KISS, then Rock and Roll Over is the official invitation to join the party– or rather the army… The KISS Army!