With a massively catchy chorus with a nice dose of AOR-ish hook-lines, the tune is a winner – and this isn’t mawkish or cheesy at all, only infectious. It opens with a Bruce Springsteen sounding piano riff and continues with some more New Jersey outlooks as the early Bon Jovi influence returns within the melodies. The brilliant Danny Vaughn of Tyketto fame guests Mitchell for a duet on the Classic Rock goes AOR stomping second single “The Mighty Fall”.
Three songs in and the album couldn’t have started any better. It’s an uplifting and stage-friendly, crispy rocker, melodically riff-driven with another spot-on refrain that holds more hooks than a fisherman’s hat. On a stompy, bouncy and fat-grooved rhythm, “In And Out Of Love” mixes 80’s Melodic Rock, American Arena Rock and Classic Rock in the finest of ways. Somewhat 80’s laden, it is a straight-forward rocker with more hooks, a positive outlook and a massive, slightly AOR-flirtatious chorus that sticks faster than super-glue. The leading single “Living On The Run” follows and it is an uptempo pop-rocker with a clear nod towards Classic Rock and an early Bon Jovi influence inserted. With shitloads of hooks everywhere, striking melodies and a massive chorus, this song deserves to be a big hit. It kicks off with a big, dramatic and heavy pipe-organ and continues in a Classic Rock way that holds both a gospel-oriented choir, a Soul influence and a massive groove with a pumping rhythm and some crispy guitars. However, a promo-link of Mitchell’s second solo album – I was also oblivious to the fact that he had released an album called Beggars Gold back in 2018 – turned up in my mail-box and when I found out it was the same Mitchell who fronted Kiss Of The Gypsy, my interest level rose high. I’m not familiar with any of those projects and I only find out about them when I googled Tony’s name for this review. Turns out that leader/lead singer/guitarist/song-writer Tony Mitchell licked his wounds and formed Kingdom Of Dead Men who released their sole album Black Rhapsody in 2010 and then Death Rattle And Roll with Boneyard Zombies two years later. Also, I wasn’t familiar with the members of the band and hardly knew them by name.
So what happened to the guys from Kiss of The Gypsy then? Damned if I know because I lost track. Kiss Of The Gypsy disbanded only two years later. Sad, because there were many bands just like Kiss Of The Gypsy out there which never stood a chance to make it big. Grunge was lurking around the corner and even though older acts within said genre still did good business, very few – if any – debuting acts were able to find a fan-base of any signification. But in hindsight, 1991 wasn’t the best year to be a debuting Arena Rock/Melodic Hard Rock act. Being the music-geek I am, I went out and bought said album directly after spotting the video for their debut single “Whatever It Takes” back in the day – and I really dug the record. I’m sure there are a few of us who can raise our hands on both.
Ok, now hands up everyone who has even heard of the band. Hands up everyone who owns Kiss Of The Gypsy’s self-titled debut – and only – album from 1991.
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