Revenge by KISS
Revenge is the 16th studio album by American rock band Kiss, released on May 19, 1992. It was the band's first album after the death of long-time drummer Eric Carr in November 1991. Carr was replaced by Eric Singer. It was Kiss' first album since the 1979 Dynasty to reach Top 10 in United States, although it would quickly fall off the charts. The album was a success over the world, reaching the Top 20 in seven other countries. It was certified gold by the RIAA on July 20, 1992. The album was dedicated to Carr, and the last track ("Carr Jam 1981") was a demo he had recorded soon after joining the group. One modification to the song was the dubbing of Bruce Kulick's guitar over Ace Frehley's, which originally appeared. The main riff of the song was used as the basis for the Frehley's Comet song "Breakout", from the 1987 album Frehley's Comet. "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll to You II" and "Unholy" have remained regular Kiss live staples. "Domino" was performed during the Revenge Tour and Kiss My Ass Tour. "I Just Wanna" and "Take It Off" were only performed during the Revenge Tour, while "Every Time I Look at You" and "Spit" were, along with "Domino", performed during the MTV Unplugged show.
A mere 11 months passed between the release of <i>Lover</i> and its surprise follow-up, but it feels like a lifetime. Written and recorded remotely during the first few months of the global pandemic, <i>folklore</i> finds the 30-year-old singer-songwriter teaming up with The National’s Aaron Dessner and long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff for a set of ruminative and relatively lo-fi bedroom pop that’s worlds away from its predecessor. When Swift opens “the 1”—a sly hybrid of plaintive piano and her naturally bouncy delivery—with “I’m doing good, I’m on some new s**t,” you’d be forgiven for thinking it was another update from quarantine, or a comment on her broadening sensibilities. But Swift’s channelled her considerable energies into writing songs here that double as short stories and character studies, from Proustian flashbacks (“cardigan”, which bears shades of Lana Del Rey) to outcast widows (“the last great american dynasty”) and doomed relationships (“exile”, a heavy-hearted duet with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon). It’s a work of great texture and imagination. “Your braids like a pattern/Love you to the moon and to Saturn,” she sings on “seven”, the tale of two friends plotting an escape. “Passed down like folk songs, the love lasts so long.” For a songwriter who has mined such rich detail from a life lived largely in public, it only makes sense that she’d eventually find inspiration in isolation. This <i>long pond studio sessions</i> Deluxe Edition also includes live versions of each of <i>folklore</i>’s tracks, performed with Dessner, Antonoff and Vernon.
