The Year Of KISS: Unmasked (1980)

“All I want is a little conversation….”

KISS entered the 1980’s in a state of flux. Peter Criss was out of the band and Ace Frehley was becoming disenchanted with the direction of the group. Despite this, he soldiered on and wrote two songs, co-wrote a third song, and provided lead vocals for all three on KISS’ 1980 effort, Unmasked. In many circles this album is considered to be one of the band’s worst recordings. While I don’t entirely agree with that, I must say that this album is one of my least favorite KISS releases.

Even though Criss was out of the group, KISS still used his image on the album and credited him as a performer. He also appeared in the video for the album’s first single, Shandi. All of the drums on Unmasked were provided by Anton Fig. Fig had previously provided drums on KISS’ Dynasty album and Ace Frehley’s solo release. Most people probably know him best from his time in the World’s Most Dangerous Band headed up by Paul Shaffer on Late Night With David Letterman.

The album was KISS’ longest studio release at the time, featuring eleven tracks. It featured a lot of outside contributors as far as writing is concerned. Vini Poncia co-wrote almost all of the songs on the album with input from Simmons, Stanley, and Frehley. Gerard McMahon wrote Is That You? Three singles were released from the album. Shandi was the first single released. It peaked at #47 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart but proved to be much more popular outside of the United States. It made top ten lists in multiple countries. The next single was the Ace Frehley track Talk To Me. It only reached the top ten in Switzerland and was never released as a single in the United States. The final single, Tomorrow, was released worldwide but only charted in Germany.

Track Listing:

1. Is That You?
2. Shandi (single)
3. Talk To Me (single outside of United States)
4. Naked City
5. What Makes The World Go Round
6. Tomorrow (single)
7. Two Sides Of The Coin
8. She’s So European
9. Easy As It Seems
10. Torpedo Girl
11. You’re All That I Want

Personnel: (please note that for simplicity’s sake, I am only giving a general listing of each contributor) Paul Stanley (lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass guitar), Gene Simmons (lead and backing vocals, bass guitar, rhythm guitar), Ace Frehley (lead and backing vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, bass guitar), Peter Criss (credited as drums but did not perform on the album), Anton Fig (uncredited but provided all drums), Vini Poncia (keyboards, backing vocals, percussion), Holly Knight (keyboards), Tom Harper (bass guitar), and Bob Kulick (guitars).

I believe that this album is more of a disco album than Dynasty despite that album being declared the “disco” album by most fans. Unmasked strayed even farther from KISS’ classic hard rock sound. While it isn’t a very strong KISS album it is a very solid pop record. Whether you like the album or not, you cannot deny that there are a number of catchy tracks on this release. Easy As It Seems, Is That You?, Tomorrow, and She’s So European are all solid pop tracks that would most likely have been better served by being recorded by established pop acts of the day instead of being recorded by KISS.

My favorite song on this album and one of my favorite KISS tracks of all time is Shandi. There’s just something about this ballad that gets to me. Another favorite of mine from this album is Talk To Me. While it’s a bit tame when compared to other Frehley tracks, it’s his best performance vocally in my opinion. Other tracks on the album, especially Naked City and You’re All That I Want, left me wanting. Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t terrible songs. They just don’t seem to fit in with the rest of KISS’ catalogue.

KISS toured in support of the album but only played one show in the United States. Played at the Palladium Theatre in New York, the group used the performance as the official reveal of Eric Carr as the new drummer. They then set out on a successful European and Australian tour. Their costumes on the tour were basically the same as the ones that they used during the Dynasty tour except for Eric Carr’s Fox costume. Although a few tracks from the album were played on that tour, only Shandi has been heard infrequently ever since over the years. It’s played almost always in Australia and makes appearances on KISS Kruises and pre-shows for hardcore KISS Army members.

The message from U.S. fans was clear with Unmasked sales. They wanted KISS to get back to their hard rock sound that hadn’t been heard since Love Gun. KISS made promises to do just that with their next album, released in 1981, but you’ll have to wait to see just what happened with that album next month.

Thanks for checking out my review of Unmasked. The Year Of KISS continues next month with one of the band’s most polarizing releases and one of its most beloved recordings. After that we’ll take a Summer Solo Break before tackling the “No Makeup” era, the Reunion tour, and the final days of KISS!