Buy Now
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Feb 24, 2015First Kiss presents few surprises, mostly because Kid Rock's journey from abrasive rap metal to unreconstructed heartland rock has landed him in a sweet spot: big guitars, big drums, big choruses and gravelly vocals.
-
Feb 23, 2015It’s no stylistic revolution, but the ambling melodies and smirky hooks of “Johnny Cash” and “Drinking Beer With Dad” make an undeniably solid soundtrack for domestic-beer hoisting.
-
Feb 24, 2015First Kiss picks up where 2012’s “Rebel Soul” left off, with Rock continuing to mix classic rock, country, pop, and, to a far lesser extent, hip-hop to craft odes to parties and the good old days, as well as to parties in the good old days.
-
Feb 24, 2015That weary yet warm acceptance of his middle age is why First Kiss works: it's a bit bumpy and sometimes sleepy but it finds old Bob Ritchie settling into his comfort zone, knowing that he's in it for the long haul.
-
Feb 23, 2015Whereas 2010's Born Free's presentation of a gentler, more ripened Rock occasionally came across as calculated, here the singer--who also produced most of this album--fits comfortably into a modern country-rock landscape that seems practically tailor-made for him: a God-fearing good old boy with a hard-rock heart and an outlaw-country spirit.
-
Q MagazineFeb 25, 2015The first few tracks are like The Black Crowes without the cosmic sophistication. [Apr 2015, p.104]
-
Kerrang!Mar 10, 2015There's a certain dumb fun attached to the gonzo country rock of Drinking Beer With Dad, but, in truth, we'd be lion to you if we said First Kiss was good. [14 Feb 2015, p.53]
-
Feb 24, 2015Kid obviously lusts for the Man in Black’s bad boy image, but he ignores the demons that fueled it. Even the album’s production misses its role model’s core.
-
Feb 23, 2015I don’t know if those [other Kid rock] records feature as many torturous lyrical cliches as this one (whisky, Jesus, Johnny Cash and beers with the old man all feature, and that’s just the track titles), or are sung with such constipated insincerity.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 1 out of 19
-
Mixed: 5 out of 19
-
Negative: 13 out of 19
-
Feb 26, 2015
-
Oct 20, 2018Be honest, who would actually wanted to kiss Kid Rock on the mouth? Even if it's for a million dollars?
-
Mar 3, 2015