"Nowhere To Run", this is the definitely the best of these 4 new songs. I think it pretty ok song (by Killers and 80's standards anyways), and it kinda has that feeling that reminds a bit of Paul's '78 solo-album. I like the arrangement, the chorus is very memorable and the guitar-solo is good also. All in all this good one, but maybe it could have been and should have been featured on some proper album. The song intro has really strong feeling and similarity to AC/DC's 2 songs (as already mentioned by @SizzleVonSizzleton).
Off the top of my head, I can think of the prechorus into the last choruses of "I've Had Enough (Into The Fire)" on Animalize and both "I'm Alive" and "Radar For Love" on Asylum. The latter two may not qualify because they are more like high-pitched "yowls" than a true falsetto, i.e., they are wordless. It just so happens that one of the songs mentioned is one of my five least favorite KISS songs ever, but no spoilers.
PARTNERS IN CRIME 1982 (Stanley, Mitchell) (3:46) Another song written with Adam Mitchell, “Partners in Crime” along with “Nowhere to Run” was considered for the album Creatures of the Night. Both songs were remixed to get the levels up to match the rest of the material on CotN, but both were ultimately dropped. The song came from an idea Paul had and let songwriter, Adam Mitchell, listen to it and song came together between the two of them. “Partners in Crime” is a mid tempo rocker with a decent bass line and whammy bar heavy guitar courtesy of Bob Kulick. It’s not an awful song in terms of the chord structure, but the lyrics are pretty bad and Paul’s vocals are a bit over the top. The song actually has quite a bit in common with the tune “Lick It Up” in terms of its main riff. I don’t really like the percussion effect that you hear at the very beginning of the song and becomes more prominent towards the end (shows up at 2:54 for instance). It's a bit irritating and sounds pretty dated. For whatever reason, I do kind of like the bridge a bit, but the song, overall, is a bit plodding and not very interesting musically. I don’t find “Partners in Crime” to be an offensively bad song, but it’s just kind of there. It doesn’t do much for me really. A standard hard rock song.
Partners in Crime is a boring, mediocre song - it just trudges along at this sloooooooooow pace and doesn't do anything ... until the solo. So, same disclaimer as always - beware of newest KISS diehard posting - if my sense of chronology of the songs is correct, I would argue this Kulick solo (which I adore to pieces) is the foreshadowing of KISS jumping head first into the 80s metal vibe at the time. The note choice, tempo, whammy, etc. are all staples of 80s metal, soon all became a cliche since it was so popular. And again, I love ALL of that ****. In other words, this solo bridges the gap between "pre-80s metal KISS" and COTN. And for that reason alone, I would argue this craptastic song is actually fairly important in the annuals of KISStory.
PARTNERS IN CRIME I have to say this one has grown on me over the years, and I enjoy both the original and remix. I really like Paul's angry delivery, which we also see on songs like Tough Love and Heart of Chrome. I think this would have made a nice addition to Creatures which is a short disc at 9 songs. Again, while we know this is Bob it could have easily been something Vinnie would have played. Structurally I think it has some things in common with War Machine.
"Partners in Crime" I agree with you about the tempo--it feels like you're trying to walk through taffy. Or like you're listening to it slowed down for transcription purposes. Slower tempos don't have to feel that way, of course, but there's something about the feel here that makes it seem like pulling teeth to get the next pulse to arrive. Kind of an AC/DCish riff again in theory . . . but to me, this tune is pretty boring both harmonically and especially melodically. There's no significant hook. There's no real tension and release to it harmonically or melodically, even though there's a (b)VII suspension in the main riff . . . the phrasing, voicing etc. make it kind of inert in my opinion. This one rather feels like it would go with an action montage in some direct-to-video knock off of a Chuck Norris-styled 80s film. The melody on the verses--or "melody" as it were--seem kind of like a half-assed redo of the "All American Man" verses. I realize I'm not saying anything positive. I actually don't think this song is horrible, but I don't think it's very good either.
Partners In Crime: A mediocre, disposable tune that could only have made a compilation... or Hot In the Shade. Yes the riff is sort of like Lick It Up, except wasted on a vastly inferior song. On a scale of one to ten, I give it a microwaveable meal that has been reheated three times, left on the table for somebody, dried out, and then microwaved a fourth time, and then had the whole salt container poured on it
Paul said to himself, I'm a legend tonight like every other night and then got down on his knees with his partner in crime and discovered there was nowhere to run.
Partners in Crime Yet another plain, basic, boring, unexciting song. With that pre-chorus going twice as long as usual I thought that it was really going to bust into a great chorus. Nope! Flaccid chorus. Pathetic song. I'm so glad that this and Nowhere to Run didn't end up on Creatures. I've barely listened to these 4 Killers tracks before this week. I don't think I'll ever need to revisit them again.
Agreed on the montage, but I don't find this offensively bad. I like the bass. Paul's singing fine. Outside of that, it's just decent. 4.9 out of 10.
Other than Nowhere to Run, I'm not crazy about the new tracks that appear on Killers. The one positive out of it for me was it got them closer to the sound of Creatures and away from The Elder. It was a move in the right direction. I do like the production of it though, and Killers as a comp was something I wanted badly growing up.
This was part of the booklet only found in the first Japanese pressing of Killers - which is your favorite word of the four, boys and girls?
PARTNERS IN CRIME This song grew on me after hearing the remix of it as it sounds like a Creatures outtake. I totally get the mixed feelings on this one. It's sort of there and not a great song or a terrible song. This has never made my Kiss Kompilation mix tapes,. I don't really have much to say about it actually. The remix is my go to version and on my IPOD so it's a middle tier Kiss song for me.
Yeah, I think the biggest problem with these Killers tracks are they're so basic and kind of boring. There's just not much to discuss with them. They were thrown onto a foreign compilation for a reason: they aren't that great. Seems like they're just leftovers from Paul's slag heap of stored up songs.
