Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century

by Chuck Klosterman

Kiss (1974): The first song on the first album is “Strutter,” which (coincidentally or unfortunately) might be the clearest, classiest rock song KISS ever produced. I suppose a cynic might claim it was all downhill from there. But that’s stupid: All five tracks on side 1 are unambiguously excellent—simple, chewy, and stylized (employing the best possible connotations of all those modifiers). “Cold Gin” makes poverty seem as exhilarating as alcoholism97 and “Let Me Know” remains the most underrated song in their entire forty-year history. The stuff on side 2 is slightly weaker . . . but if Paul Westerberg considers it halfway canonical, the plaintiff has no further questions. The straightforward reality is that if KISS had died in a boating mishap the week this record hit stores, the same people who currently hate them would insist this 35-minute document is a forgotten progenitor of punk, on par with the Stooges. KISS would be remembered as a catchier, savvier version of the New York Dolls, and only Morrissey would disagree. GRADE: A