Kiss – Crazy Nights – 1987

Crazy Nights was originally released when I still bought vinyl, or should I say, people still bought vinyl. I purchased the single for this album, “Crazy Crazy Nights,” and I thought it was really, really good! It is a catchy song with a good hook, fun lyrics, a good beat, easy to sing along to, and so on. It was simply appealing. However, I didn’t buy the album, and I remember being a bit disappointed with Kiss during this period, not because the makeup wasn’t anything new, but because the disappointment hadn’t settled over this career choice. It’s entirely absurd since it has nothing to do with the music.

Nevertheless, I listen to Crazy Nights in today’s light, and I actually hadn’t done so until the past few years. I find that the single still holds up and is one of the best songs by Kiss overall. Unfortunately, the rest of the material is quite mediocre, even if there are more songs reminiscent of Crazy Crazy Nights. Certainly not exact, but it feels like the songs were written during the same period and with roughly the same ambition. It never becomes as good, and the rest of the album remains mediocre, even if it’s pleasant to listen to for the moment. There’s really only one song that makes the whole album better than it should be – Crazy Crazy Nights.