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Track List
01) Burning Love
02) Cool Kids
03) Love Pollution
04) Body Talk
05) Loco-Emotion
06) Mighty Mouth
07) Nice on Ice
08) Get Your Monkeys Out
09) For Shame
10) Restless Blood
01) Burning Love
02) Cool Kids
03) Love Pollution
04) Body Talk
05) Loco-Emotion
06) Mighty Mouth
07) Nice on Ice
08) Get Your Monkeys Out
09) For Shame
10) Restless Blood
3:08
3:33
4:08
3:43
3:33
3:48
3:29
3:25
3:16
3:50
Data Complete
70%
Total Rating
70%Total Rating
(0 users)
Back Cover
CD Art
3D Case
3D Thumb
3D Flat
3D Face
3D Spine
First Released
1983
Hard Rock
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Rock/Pop
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Medium
Album
0 copies
Album Description
Available in:
Cool Kids is the second studio album by the glam metal band Kix. Released in 1983 on Atlantic Records, it is the only Kix album to feature Brad Divens of Wrathchild America and Souls at Zero on guitar.
Cool Kids reached position #177 on the Billboard charts. It showcased a slightly more commercial side of the band. In addition, it started the trend of including material written by outside songwriters, which then continued on their following studio albums.
"Body Talk" was the first single to be released off of the album and one of the album's three cover songs. First released as "(She Talks) Body Talk" on the 1981 Body Talk Muzik album by Nick Gilder (earlier of "Hot Child in the City" fame), and co-written by Gilder and his longtime musical associate, Jamie Herndon, this song was believed to have been included on Cool Kids to appease the group's label. The band was also urged to shoot a video for the song, which featured the Kix members cavorting with ladies in full-on workout garb.
The album also included the Spider cover "Burning Love," co-written by Spider's keyboardist Holly Knight - who later became a member of Device and a hit songwriter (incidentally, sometimes co-writing with Gilder) for artists such as Heart and Cheap Trick - and singer Amanda Blue (later of the group Shanghai), along with the title track "Cool Kids," a cover of a Franne Golde song from her 1980 album Restless, co-written by Golde with producer Peter McIan and Billy Steele.
User Album Review
This 1983 album pushes Kix in a more new wave direction than their hard-rocking debut outing. On this surface, Cool Kids might seem like a commercialized cash grab: it contains a handful of tracks penned by hired guns like Nick Gilder and Holly Knight and also adds a layer of new wave-styled synthesizer shadings to Kix's pop-metal sound. However, this impression is soon revealed to be wrong as soon as the album is spun because the outside song contributions fit neatly in with the group's own songs and the sonic embellishments enhance the group's sound instead of watering it down. The standouts among the outside contributions are the title track, which blends new wave verses driven by staccato guitar lines with a hard-rocking, shoutalong chorus, and "Body Talk," a danceable fusion of hard rock firepower and a synthesizer-layered new wave beat. The group's songs live up to the standard set by these carefully constructed tunes by presenting an equal amount of hooks and inspiration: "Mighty Mouth" is like a bubblegum song played at hard rock speed and "Get Your Monkeys Out" blends glam rock drum beats with jungle noises and a singalong chorus. However, its finest achievement is "For Shame," an soulful, acoustic power ballad with lovely harmonies that predates all the hair metal ballads that would become popular during the mid-'80s. Pete Solley's slick production manages to bring all this strong material to life by effectively balancing the group's guitar-fuelled power with an array of arrangement frills (voice-box guitars, drum machines) that draw attention to the strong pop hooks in each song. The end result is an underrated gem that is begging to be rediscovered by fans of pop-metal.
- Cool Kids Review by Donald A. Guarisco (allmusic.com)
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User Comments
Available in:
Cool Kids is the second studio album by the glam metal band Kix. Released in 1983 on Atlantic Records, it is the only Kix album to feature Brad Divens of Wrathchild America and Souls at Zero on guitar.
Cool Kids reached position #177 on the Billboard charts. It showcased a slightly more commercial side of the band. In addition, it started the trend of including material written by outside songwriters, which then continued on their following studio albums.
"Body Talk" was the first single to be released off of the album and one of the album's three cover songs. First released as "(She Talks) Body Talk" on the 1981 Body Talk Muzik album by Nick Gilder (earlier of "Hot Child in the City" fame), and co-written by Gilder and his longtime musical associate, Jamie Herndon, this song was believed to have been included on Cool Kids to appease the group's label. The band was also urged to shoot a video for the song, which featured the Kix members cavorting with ladies in full-on workout garb.
The album also included the Spider cover "Burning Love," co-written by Spider's keyboardist Holly Knight - who later became a member of Device and a hit songwriter (incidentally, sometimes co-writing with Gilder) for artists such as Heart and Cheap Trick - and singer Amanda Blue (later of the group Shanghai), along with the title track "Cool Kids," a cover of a Franne Golde song from her 1980 album Restless, co-written by Golde with producer Peter McIan and Billy Steele.
User Album Review
This 1983 album pushes Kix in a more new wave direction than their hard-rocking debut outing. On this surface, Cool Kids might seem like a commercialized cash grab: it contains a handful of tracks penned by hired guns like Nick Gilder and Holly Knight and also adds a layer of new wave-styled synthesizer shadings to Kix's pop-metal sound. However, this impression is soon revealed to be wrong as soon as the album is spun because the outside song contributions fit neatly in with the group's own songs and the sonic embellishments enhance the group's sound instead of watering it down. The standouts among the outside contributions are the title track, which blends new wave verses driven by staccato guitar lines with a hard-rocking, shoutalong chorus, and "Body Talk," a danceable fusion of hard rock firepower and a synthesizer-layered new wave beat. The group's songs live up to the standard set by these carefully constructed tunes by presenting an equal amount of hooks and inspiration: "Mighty Mouth" is like a bubblegum song played at hard rock speed and "Get Your Monkeys Out" blends glam rock drum beats with jungle noises and a singalong chorus. However, its finest achievement is "For Shame," an soulful, acoustic power ballad with lovely harmonies that predates all the hair metal ballads that would become popular during the mid-'80s. Pete Solley's slick production manages to bring all this strong material to life by effectively balancing the group's guitar-fuelled power with an array of arrangement frills (voice-box guitars, drum machines) that draw attention to the strong pop hooks in each song. The end result is an underrated gem that is begging to be rediscovered by fans of pop-metal.
- Cool Kids Review by Donald A. Guarisco (allmusic.com)
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