Don't ask me for info on Kissin' Dynamite. I am going way out of my element as it is to review this sleaze rock/glam metal of an album. But then a lot of things have been out of element with me lately. I do have a booklet (a pretty colorful one too), but haven't made much effort to study it for band members names, the shout-outs they give, etc. One would not need to delve deep in a way of lyrics for Money, Sex and Power, it's all out there on the surface, sung legibly enough to be understood, and the picture of these five young German dudes gives away the intent as well. Play it loud, don't make it complicated, pose as much as you can, have fun and if your rock star status happens to take off in the process, all the better. Hey, it worked for Mötley Crew on some level at least.

The ticket to make it work for Kissin’ Dynamite is to stick with a classic rock song structures of verse-bridge-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus-solo-chorus repeated twice. Or something close to it. More importantly, and it should be obvious for just about any musician aspiring to make it in this genre, that the most important thing in every song here is the hook and how it gets executed. How complicated can this be?

From my uneducated guess perch, the Germans are largely successful on Money, Sex and Power. The album is like liquorice candy. It ain't nutritious, and you it isn't that good for you. Yet you chew on it and it seems to stick, to the point you have trouble scraping it off your teeth. The sugary rush enjoyment is there as well. I have left Money, Sex and Power in my car and played it on and off. Just a couple of songs at a time, here and there. And so in the end some songs clung to memory more than others, for no particular reason.

The opening title cut gives a full proclamation of sleaze and bombasts it's way through. The heavier I Will Be King and stadium rock chorus of Operation Supernova somehow didn't affect me much, but beginning with Sex is War with its tighter spiral, more prominent lead and huge hook, things looked more to the positive. The semi-balladic opening of Club 27 is how you pick up girls in high school. Dinosaurs are Still Alive is epic and slightly wistful, on the subject you don't necessarily expect to be covered.

The production on the album is kept a little noisy and dirty, on purpose. Perhaps Kissin’ Dynamite think it would not be enough rock otherwise. But then with the closer Six Feet Under, a semi-depraved yet heartening zombie manifest, the band cleans things up significantly and undoubtedly has a hit on their hands (I am sure they know it too). So isn't how gritty you sound, but more about the quality of melody you write.

The farthest thing from my cup of coffee, Money, Sex and Power has that inoffensive staying power that you keep it spinning until at a least some of it clicks.