EDITORS’ NOTES

The Very Best of Kiss is the only collection to straddle the band’s ‘70s and ‘80s incarnations and no album better highlights the breadth or consistency of their career. In addition to the early anthems (“Strutter,” “Deuce,” “Shout It Out Loud”), space is given to early live favorites like “Got to Choose” and “Hotter Than Hell.” By the end you have a clear sense of the bricks by which Kiss built itself into a rock institution.