Let me be your Sunday driver.

Kiss - Kiss - 1974

One year before this album was released, the band played their first performance in Queens. They gathered an impressive audience of... three people!
At the time they pretty much didn't wear any make-up, and their flamboyant style wasn't fully developed. But it wouldn't take them too long.
Then they released this album and they would become a unique phenomenon in music history. They grew from glam rock roots, but I always thought that was just the image and show. Well, they also share with glam a tendency for cheeky, sexy lyrics, which would become more mainstream as years go by but, let's face it, most of early 1970s rock was way too interested in sounding intellectual and pretentious to have any fun.
And certainly if there's something this album is, it's tons of undiluted hard rock fun. One thing I always admired about Kiss is their honesty, for lack of a better word. They never pretended to be anything they were not, never tried to sound fancy or complex, and still they managed to succeed and give us a lot of unforgettable tunes.
As it happens many times with bands that have too strong an image, people sometimes tend to think that's all there is to them. Take a listen to this album. While far from perfect, it shows that, right from the beginning, these four New Yorkers could not only write great rock songs, but also give great performances too.

• When I said it didn't take them long to develop their style, I meant it. Already by mid '73, Simmons was doing his fire-breathing routine, generally during the song "Firehouse", which is one of my favourite Kiss songs. He was also, on occasions, accidentally setting his hair on fire. 
• The first song written by Ace Frehley was "Cold Gin" which, while not being a single, became a huge fan favourite and a staple at live performances. 
• It's hard to choose one song, or even two, so I'm going to put "Firehouse", because it's really a cool song, and "Black Diamond" because it's not only a great song, but quite different from everything else they would usually do. There's also a bonus track later on. 

A heart of steel and skin that's cold

Alice Cooper - Muscle of Love - 1974

And, as usual, because it isn't a year if there isn't an Alice Cooper album, here's this year's release. This would actually be the last album Alice Cooper released as a band. 

And after the success of the two previous albums, and the more experimental and original stuff the band had delivered, this one came as a bit of a disappointment to most critics, mostly because it is a much more straightforward, classic rock album. 

I still think it has some really great tracks, and while I agree that it's more rock oriented, there's the brilliant "Crazy Little Child", with a 20s jazz vibe I like a lot, "Hard Hearted Alice", a beautiful ballad, and I think one of the first ballads Alice wrote, and even a Bond song, "Man of the Golden Gun", although it never was picked for the movie. 

I think one of the problems that people may have with the album is that it starts much better than it ends, and while the second half contains famous hits, such as "Teenage Lament '74", the last few tracks sound a bit like filler. 

But there's enough good tracks here to redeem this album, and when it's good, it's as good as Alice can deliver. 

• According to Alice, lyrically the songs are about "urban sex habits". The closing track, "Woman Machine" is about "a female robot [..] If we had women robots, they could do anything, even sexual things". Alice could predict the future much better than many scientists, I'm sure. 
• The beginning of "Never been sold before" sounds to me exactly like Nazareth's "Hair of the dog", or it would be the other way around because Nazareth's one is from 1975. I would put it here but I can't find the Alice one. 
• I'm putting the title track here, which I'm not extremely pleased with (it's ok, though), but it's the only one I can find on YouTube.

Bonus track

• In 1992, Skid Row played together with Pantera, they invited Ace Frehley onstage, and they played "Cold Gin", which apparently was a song that Dimebag loved. This is every bit as much fun and as awesome as can be expected. Enjoy!