Kiss the Lips of Life Trouser Press reviewer Ira Robbins called
Kiss the Lips of Life "dismal" and the band "cynical" and "wretched", adding that "[their] lasting cultural significance amounts to its inclusion of ex-
Zodiac Mindwarp keyboardist/guitarist
Jimmy Cauty, with whom [Bill] Drummond concocted the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (JAMs)".
AllMusic were a little more generous, calling Brilliant an initially "promising act: a more soulful take on the aggressive funk-rock of Killing Joke" but added that, after being teamed up with Stock, Aitken and Waterman, they "came up with a generic pop-dance album that fell well short of the original concept". Awarding
Kiss the Lips of Life two stars out of five, they added that "What aggression there is comes courtesy of Jimmy Cauty's metallic guitar solos; the sterile synth whitewash of SAW dominates the rest of the mix, and vocalist June Montana isn't strong or distinctive enough to fight through it". In
Music Week, a review of the
Kiss the Lips of Life stated that "Brilliant are a very 1986 band with a strong image", but criticized the "lack of punch" and "pale vocals and dance rhythms" on this album. Helen Mead awarded the album a 7/10 score, considering that Brilliant "produce some highly memorable soul with bubbling horns and piano, and some extremely electro-junk full of zappy sound effects"; she also added that with Brilliant "you never get bored", as "they're always trying something different, one minute calm and collected, the next furiously funky". However, even Bill Drummond – the A&R man who had signed them – had harsh words to say about the project: "I signed a band called Brilliant, who I worked with, we worked together, and it was complete failure. Artistically bankrupt project. And financially deaf. We spent £300,000 on making an album that was useless. Useless artistically, useless... commercially." Pete Waterman said: "We did a record with this band called Brilliant, the reviews were phenomenal and it got to 58 in the charts. I remember saying to the guys, fuck that for critically acclaimed music, you can't pay the fucking rent with that."
Singles • "
Love Is War" Jerry Smith of the
Music Week magazine praised "Love Is War", produced by SAW, and the cover of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" as "excellent" songs. Robin Smith of
Record Mirror called "Love Is War" a "cumbersome" single with a "pretty disinterested tune, low on atmosphere and extremely diluted". In the same issue of the magazine,
James Hamilton stated that "those masters of the soundalike, producers Stock-Aitken-Waterman now copy
Change's "
Change of Heart" for a purposefully pushing bpm tense builder". Simon Braithwaite of
Smash Hits described the single as a "brilliant" and "powerful dance record" similar to
Princess' previous record which "deserve[d] to be a hit". In 2023, Alexis Petridis of
The Guardian listed the song at number 17 in his "Stock Aitken Waterman's 20 greatest songs – ranked!", adding: "A more sophisticated, US soul-inspired production style than that which made SAW famous – still sounds great". • "
Somebody" Regarding "Somebody", Stuart Bailie of
Record Mirror noted "the very wonderful June Montano moving more to the front, and
Youth involving himself in outside ventures", and said the song "is a fine, but never outstanding, dance track, vaguely reminiscent of Man Parish". Jerry Smith of
Music Week considered "Somebody" as being "well constructed and produced", but "not as powerful as previous singles". ==Discography==