A friend of mine got a promo copy of "You Wanted..." today, and I have it here on my desk right now. All I can really say is that this is a big disappointment.
Tom was correct, the vocals on the four unreleased tracks are obviously recent. Their voices have that raspy quality and separation from the music that "Alive III" had.
The interview is over SEVENTEEN minutes long. They could have used that CD space for more music, and I find Jay Leno to be completely annoying. Not much new in the interview either, it's the same old stuff.
The packaging is bizarre. The jewel case is pink and yellow. There are some cool pictures, and there are two sets of liner notes. One is by Danny Goldberg, which promises a "renewed commitment to support Kiss in their commitment to you". The other liner notes are by someone named Robert V. Conte. I know that name from somewhere, but I can't recall from where. There is a cool picture from the press conference on the back of the case, and the CD has a drawing from the comic book. There is a 1976 live shot on the inside of the case when the CD is removed.
Well, I got a copy of the live compilation today, and I saw the packaging as well. the packaging is REALLY cool looking-it's in a yellow and orange colored jewel case, which compliments the cover nicely. It opens up to a live shot of fists in the air with a comment by Danny Goldberg, Mercury president, and it folds out again to a live 1975 shot and the track listing with 4 separate 1976 shots of each member. Cool package!
Now, as for the 4 unreleased tracks....I'm of the opinion that either 1 of 2 things are going on here:
They obviously overdubbed ALL of the lead vocal tracks recently, which is a REAL let down. It sounds great, but Gene & Paul in 1996 does not sound the same as in 1975 and
you can tell.
And secondly, either they triggered modern drum sounds from the original drum tracks to make them sound more modern, OR, and this is a big OR, I think the original KISS re-recorded all of these tracks in the studio recently.
The drums do NOT sount like Peter circa 1975, in fact the whole SOUND sounds very modernized to me. I think it all sounds great, but it's botherng me just what exactly is going on here. i'm very suspicious. and of course, there's the overdubbed crowd noise as usual to screw things up. I love it, but at the same time, I'm very upset that it wasn't left "as is".
All of the remastered tracks sound alot better-crisper, more full sounding. You won't be dissapointed at all.
Well, that's it-judge for yourself when you actually hear it.
"Got a copy of the "new" live album and felt like giving my opinion.
Of the four never released live tracks only "Let Me Know" sounds good enough to have made an album. "Room Service" sounds like they're playing it on 33, when it should be at 45. Paul's voice is real rough on this one and on "Take Me".
The song order I also think is lacking something. And as a friend of mine said, if Kiss is trying to reach some new fans, then they left out some real crowd pleasers (ig. "Detroit Rock City", "Cold Gin" etc.)
As for the interview, We've all heard it before, give me 5 more never released live tunes and I'm happy."