KISS - IKONS [4 CD Set]
![IKONS [4 CD Set]](/images/IKONS-4-CD-Set-B001G5IJVK-L.jpg)
|
List Price: Our Price: $21.19 You Save: $18.79 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $15.87 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for IKONS [4 CD Set]
Free Music Review: awesome Ace
Hit: 5 Stars
Loved the Ace CD - almost perfect except Torpedo Girl would have been better than Two Sides of the Coin (never did care for that song). Peter's was better than expected - especially Strangeways and Mainline. Liked that Paul's and Gene's included some rarer stuff but I would have liked some more songs that weren't on all the other compilations. How about Flaming Youth, World Without Heroes, Tommorrow & Tonight and Burning Up With Fever? But overall, I was thrilled with this collection.Free Music Review: Best of Simmons, Stanley, Criss & Frehley
Hit: 5 Stars
Review this product:
Such choice as this once I wanted as little boy. I made it on tape cassette.
Today I have 40 and I am very pleased. I would be enjoy also vinyl record published.
Free Music Review: Kiss is one of few bands in which each member made some sort of impact individually
Hit: 4 Stars
The Good
Ikons is the latest box set by Kiss. It's a four CD collection that features highlights from each individual member of the group. The packaging is exceptional with high gloss photos of the group and each disc is color coded to the shade that best represents the band member. Through the the little hole of the disc is the face of the member it is highlighting. The pictures are similar to what Kiss did when the released solo albums in the seventies. Now on to the music.
The Demon (Red) highlights the Kiss material that Gene wrote and performed with the group. The material ranges focuses on Kiss material from the 70s and Gene's solo album. "God of Thunder" (oddly written by Paul Stanley) kicks the set off. This of course is Gene's signature track when performing live. It's a little different than the one you're used to, as this is the album version. The bass still rocks you foundation. Other Kiss classics include "Calling Dr. Love," "Chirsteen Sixteen," "Deuce," "Rock and Roll All Nite," "Cold Gin," and "Parasite." Lesser known songs such as "Ladies Room" and "Larger Than Life" are good, but it is obvious why they have not appeared on any greatest hits albums.
The Star Child (Purple) highlights Paul Stanley. As much as Simmons is tied to some Kiss hits, without Stanley's tracks (and vocals), the group would have never flourished."Detroit Rock City," "Love Gun," "Strutter," "Do You Love Me," "I Stole Your Love," and "I Was Made for Loving You" are all instantly recognizable. Paul too keeps it in the 70s. "Wouldn't You Like to Know Me" is a stellar track from Stanley's solo album.
Space Ace (Blue) highlights the fact that Frehley may actually be from the great beyond. "2000 Man," "Dark Light," and "Rocket Ride" truly have Ace reaching for the stars. Sure they're aren't as many hits on this disc than on Gene & Paul's, but there still are some quality tracks and minor hits for the group. "New York Groove" has a great beat and rhythm that will make your head bounce. "Speeding Back to My Baby" was co-written by Jeanette Frehley and has a sweet tone to it. Most of the tracks revolve around Ace's blusey guitar tones and gritty vocals. "Rip It Out" was quite the shocker as it sounded every bit as good as a Kiss hit. It came from his solo effort, as did most of the material here. Ace even has a track from the 1998 Kiss reunion album Psycho Circus. What's that say about Paul and Gene's contribution to that effort?
The Cat Man (Green) highlights drummer Peter Criss who, despite being assigned the sappiest ballad ever ("Beth"), manages to crank out a few rock tunes. Every Kiss fan knows "Hard Luck Woman," but "Dirty Livin'" is the perfect personification of the group. I wonder why it never caught on as a fan favorite. "Black Diamond" is the only other (minor) hit Criss contributed to the group. His disc is solo album heavy. On top of that, Criss is more of a crooner than a rocker. Think of Barry Manilow with more guitar. It's not necessarily bad, but sometimes a drummer should be a drummer.
The Bad
Each member has a song or two (from their 70s solo efforts) that could have been left off without any complaints. How many more Kiss compilations are we going to get?
The Verdict
Kiss is slowly closing in on the record for most compilation albums in a career (I think The Beach Boys have a good lead), but Ikons is a bit different. Kiss is one of few bands in which each member made some sort of impact individually. Kiss is also one of the few bands that you know each band members name or face (who are the guys in Linkin Park again?). Ikons is material you've heard over and over again, although the way it is packaged and presented, does make it worth getting your hands on. Besides, Kiss IS all about the packaging.
Free Music Review: A Box Set For Ikons
Hit: 4 Stars
KISS has made an impact in music, no doubts on that. They are still around today and made some great music, the fact that they are still known today proves that. There have been many compilations out there and a box set already so what could another of these do that hasn't been done? Well, "Ikons" released in 2008, is a box set containing four discs representing each individual members of the band. There's been nothing like that before, usually you take all the hits and put them together to make a compilation, this time there is four discs and they represent each a member. It's noticeably different and in some ways much better, Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter are KISS but having a discs of material with some of each's music shows their distinct personalities and talent. The concept of Ikons is great and hasn't been done before but what about the music in there?
The list is there and shows which song is where already so I won't do that. Gene's disc has the essentials "Deuce", "Calling Dr.Love" and "God Of Thunder" amongst others. "Radioactive" from his solo album was a predictable move, but it's a good song. Not much surprise with the song selection except for "Larger Than Life", also"Charisma" is odd but a good choice. Same thing with Paul, "Detroit Rock City", "Love Gun", "Strutter" and many others are no brainers. "Wouldn't You Like To Know Me" is a god choice from Paul's solo album. Ace and Peter's discs are more interesting because they aren't what you usually have on greatest hits and so this is something different. Of course there will be "Shock Me" and "Beth" but they have more songs from their solo albums. I found it great that included "Dark Light" from "The Elder" on Ace's disc as you don't see a lot of Elder stuff near KISS compilations.
Gene and Peter's discs have 1 song from their 1978 solo albums while Ace and Peter get 4 each. There's an easy explanation to this: Ace and Peter have written or been showcased in less songs than Paul and Gene have so it only seems normal that they would get more of their solo recordings on their discs. I find interesting that Ace and Peter each have a song from the "Psycho Circus" album (not that I personally care for Peter's track "I Finally Found My Way" but I thought "Into The Void" was one of the best things ace ever did).
I think this set does a good job at showing how unique those people are while being in the same band. All in all these four individuals once were the collective force that is KISS and this set shows it. The songs chosen are both very representative and good. It's not something to get for a fan like me who has every album (including the solo ones) but if you don't own any KISS or you want to buy a compilation maybe this would be something to check out for, it's much more worth it. The thing is that it costs more than the average compilation so you have to shell out more cash which means you pretty much have to be a fan with nothing to buy this otherwise you may find it pricey. KISS themselves, as has been said in other reviews, did not endorse this release and they did not decide to do this but they thought the idea was pretty cool. Overall Ikons does a good homage to true ikons and is a good set.
Free Music Review: Better than your average KISS compilation
Hit: 4 Stars
Not that anyone needs yet ANOTHER KISS compilation (or should that be kompilation?), this one actually almost does something that I've been thinking they should have done a long time ago. Since they don't seem keen on putting out an album of new material, put out a newly recorded CD of under-appreciated old songs instead of just the same old hits. So they did the "newly recorded" part with that new Japanese CD, and they got the under-appreciated old songs with this set...now they just need to meld those two ideas.
Ikons pretty much hits the nail on the head with the choices for the lesser known songs on this. "Ladies Room," "Charisma," "Almost Human," and "Larger Than Life" would definitely be Gene choices I would consider for my dream compilation. Something like "She's So European" with a real rock production instead of the pop of Unmasked could really make that song cool if it were re-recorded. Getting back to this set, I probably would have chosen either "Mr. Make Believe" or "Man Of 1,000 Faces" over "Radioactive" if I had to choose only one song from his solo album to include.
"Mr. Speed," "All American Man," "Take Me," and "Wouldn't You Like To Know Me?" are pretty much exactly what I would list as the best Paul Stanley songs nobody knows. How "Wouldn't You Like To Know Me?" wasn't a single or at the very least on the Best Of The Solo Albums compilation was alway a mystery to me. An awesome Paul song that may finally be getting some recognition!
The Ace tunes make sense. The only ones he sang on a KISS release that weren't included are "Torpedo Girl" and "In Your Face." I probably would have replaced either "Snow Blind" or "Save Your Love" with "Torpedo Girl," but I'm fine with "In Your Face" being left off. Still would have been nice to have ALL the Ace KISS songs one one disc just for the heck of it. I'm REALLY happy to see "What's On Your Mind?" on there. Definitely the forgotten gem on his solo record, and the one that deserves to be heard.
All of Peter's KISS songs are on here. The only decision you have to make is what songs from his solo album you put on there to fill out the 14 songs. "I Can't Stop The Rain" and "Easy Thing" are by far the best songs on the record. After that it's kind of a toss up. I probably would have chosen "You Matter To Me," "I'm Gonna Love You," or "Hooked On Rock 'N' Roll," but they're all about the same.
All in all I'd say this is a pretty good compilation. Nothing new for the die hards (although pretty cool packaging), but would be something good for a new fan to get so they could be exposed to some of the best of the deeper cuts. The guys in my band came in one day knowing how to play "Plaster Caster" and "Two Sides Of The Coin"...I'm like, how do you guys know THOSE songs? Because they had Greatest KISS and liked those songs that the casual fan had never heard that just happened to be on that compilation. So people really do like those songs that at first glance may just seem to be filler material. You can absolutely tell that real fans had a hand in choosing the songs for this ikonic kompilation.