music.wikisort.org - Composition

Kissingsohard is an album by the American musician John Doe, credited to the John Doe Thing.[2][3] It was released in 1995.[4] Doe promoted the album by touring with Juliana Hatfield, and then with Shane MacGowan.[5][6]

Kissingsohard
Studio album by John Doe
Released	1995
Label	Forward/Rhino[1]
Producer	Don Gilmore, John Doe
John Doe chronology
Meet John Doe (1990) Kissingsohard (1995) Freedom Is... (2000)

Production

The album was produced by Don Gilmore and Doe.[7][8] Doe desired to make an album in an alternative rock style, in contrast to country sound of his solo debut.[9] He considered many of the songs to be of a more personal nature, compared to the ones he wrote in X.[10]

"My Goodness" and "Love Knows" were cowritten with Exene Cervenka.[11] Brad Houser, Chalo Quintana, Smokey Hormel, and Joey Waronker played on Kissingsohard; Sandra Bernhard and Cervenka contributed vocals.[12][13][14] "Willamette" was inspired by the lives of homeless people in Portland, Oregon.[15] Doe considered adding a cover of "Vigilante Man" to the album.[16]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[18]
Entertainment Weekly	A–[19]
Los Angeles Times	[14]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	[20]
Orlando Sentinel	[8]

No Depression wrote that "crash and burn guitars, string arrangements, and tape loops overwhelm some of the songs, and leave enough space for others to breathe."[11] Entertainment Weekly thought that Doe's "bracing, sinewy vocals provide the perfect complement for these unsettling vignettes."[19]

Trouser Press stated: "Avoiding the kind of sweeping statements that tend to bring such proceedings to a screeching halt, Doe zeroes in on the details of lives under extreme stress."[21] The Los Angeles Times determined that "the full-bodied songs, stained with tragic tears and sloshed beers, feature fine fretwork from Blasters guitarist Smokey Hormel and a distinct country twang."[14] Newsday concluded that "by filtering the downbeat ethos of hard country through a continually evolving post-punk consciousness, Doe has come up with rare album that reaches across the alternative and adventuresome adult markets."[22]

AllMusic wrote that "no one seems to understand Doe's music like his old bandmates in X, and his strong vocals and lyrics just can't carry the record on their own."[17]

Track listing

References

---