Skin to Skin is the third album from Funny Money, Steve Whiteman’s post-Kix band. As you may or may not know, Kix disbanded after the 1998 Show Business album. Lead vocalist Steve Whiteman quickly formed a new band called Funny Money and the band has since become a mainstay in the club scene here in the Maryland / Virginia / Pennsylvania region. Naturally, Funny Money bears a strong resemblance to Whiteman’s former band, Kix. Skin to Skin is certain to please any Kix fan, and should give sleaze rock fans something to smile about as well.

The CD kicks off with the track Bad Luck. Steve’s ex-Kix mates Jimmy Chalfant and Ronnie Younkins make a guest appearance on this track. As you would guess, this track absolutely reminds you of the heyday of the band some 15 years ago. During the course of the album, Funny Money employs a rhythm-lead attack much like AC / DC. The riffs aren’t nearly as prominent and numerous as they were on albums such as Blow My Fuse, which is something I do miss. However, the Kix feeling is inescapable as Steve Whiteman & Co. do what they do best and don’t try to fix something that is not broken. Most of the songs are even given Whiteman’s harmonica treatment; a familiar sound for even the most casual fans of Kix. As for as Whiteman’s vocal performance, the man hasn’t missed a beat. His raspy, yet powerful delivery is still in tact. Steve has surrounded himself with some quality talent as well. While the music is exactly of the most difficult or technical in nature, it is well played and the songs come together quite well. Although I clearly have my favorite songs of the album, there are no boring moments to be found. The production is a bit lackluster, but by self released standards, this isn’t bad at all.

All in all, sleaze rock fans and especially Kix fans are the target audience of this release. No surprises and nothing new here, you know what you are getting from a Steve Whiteman release. Although the songs are enjoyable in their current state, I would have liked a more riff based song structure, but I guess that’s just a matter of taste. Still, this is a collection of very good, sleazy hard rock tunes that will refuses to compromise to trends or corporate influence.