Author Topic: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation  (Read 136022 times)

Spalding

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #135 on: June 24, 2009, 10:34:17 AM »
Quote
Ace's take on "2,000/2000 Man" works well.  It's faithful to the original while being a lot heavier.  Hey, it's a hell of a lot better than the crap on side 4 of Alive II.

Agreed, but how about an exception for "Rocket Ride?" It's a decent fast rocker (with modulation, even!) and helped bolster Ace's "space man" image, which helped keep him alive during the Frehley's Comet years, I would guess.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

$10 for the Gene solo album!?! It's probably become rare since most of them were used to re-pave roads in NJ. I remember getting the Paul & Peter solo records for 99 cents each a year or two after they came out (only to complete the poster mural, not for listening).

buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #136 on: June 24, 2009, 11:39:00 AM »
See my Alive II review.  "Rocket Ride" is ok.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

mcphee from the forum

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #137 on: June 24, 2009, 02:22:53 PM »
No! Don't download music! It's killing the record industry.

So says Chaim Witz.

Apparently you are allowed to download 23 songs. The 24th costs 1.5 million though
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mcphee from the forum

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #138 on: June 29, 2009, 03:16:20 PM »
buffcoat is the Terrence Malick of KISS reviews
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buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #139 on: June 29, 2009, 04:27:33 PM »
There are only a few to go... I figured I would parcel them out and only write when I felt inspired.



Don't worry.  This project will be finished, alongside Duke Nukem 3D.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

amiright??

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #140 on: June 29, 2009, 10:56:59 PM »

Don't worry.  This project will be finished, alongside Duke Nukem 3D.

I hope you don't actually mean Duke Nukem Forever...

buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #141 on: June 29, 2009, 11:00:19 PM »

Don't worry.  This project will be finished, alongside Duke Nukem 3D.

I hope you don't actually mean Duke Nukem Forever...

Too lazy to even look it up.  buffcoat, you have really let yourself go.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

nec13

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #142 on: June 30, 2009, 01:12:30 PM »
Too lazy to even look it up.  buffcoat, you have really let yourself go.

Who are you? Bob Dole?
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buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #143 on: June 30, 2009, 02:32:20 PM »
Too lazy to even look it up.  buffcoat, you have really let yourself go.

Who are you? Bob Dole?


Bob Dole doesn't talk like that.  Bob Dole would never refer to Bob Dole in the 3rd person.  Bob Dole.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #144 on: July 08, 2009, 09:43:26 PM »
#11 - Music from "The Elder"


One year before releasing their hardest rocking studio album (Creatures of the Night - you need to read {or reread} these reviews in order, son!), and two years after Gene Simmons sniffed and pouted about releasing a disco album, KISS released, um, The Elder.

The Elder is a concept album for (maybe) a movie that was never written (maybe) and never filmed or released (definitely).  It's what Gene Simmons came up with to end the commercial (starting with Unmasked) and (ha!) critical drought (starting with Dynasty) that the band faced.  

Keep in mind that this was the thinking MORE THAN 25 YEARS AGO:

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"From a marketing standpoint, the glut of Kiss merchandising that had cropped up in the late 1970s had led to a backlash from fans, who felt that Kiss was now more concerned with making money than with making music."


Oddly enough, the secret of the band's eventual return to some prominence was Paul's ability to write cheesy, MTV-friendly ballads.  But we're never going to get there.

An aside about my own KISS fandom, such as it was.  My neighbor dressed up as Peter Criss for Halloween in (I think) 1978, but I was short of record-buying age at that point.  I only became a fan, though, retrospectively (as I later did with REM during the Green {or G4een} period).  In both cases, I liked the older stuff better than the new, but I officially joined the KISS bandwagon, fresh off the Duran Duran bandwagon, with 1984's Animalize.

My favorite album then was Alive II (sides one to three), followed by Rock and Roll Over.  I completely lost touch with KISS right after Crazy Nights in 1987, surfacing only to take notice of the MTV Unplugged Show.  Some of the stuff I've listened to for these reviews was the first time I'd heard it since then - and in the case of Unmasked, the second time I'd ever heard it.


Anyway, before "Heaven's on Fire" and "Crazy Nights" and "Forever," Gene had to take his shot first, and this was it.  The result was that Ace couldn't take it anymore.  He'd be around for another cover, though not another album, and not most of this one.

As befits the #11 of 13 albums in a critical reevaluation, The Elder is mostly a miss.  It has two really good songs, and two more pretty good numbers and a bunch of awful junk.

Bob Ezrin blames it on his cocaine addiction.

The cover is the first to not feature any members of KISS.  Which is a shame, because if you want a good laugh, you should check out the band's hairstyles around this time.  Gene's knotted ponytail could possibly be considered "tough," but Paul Stanley's hair screams one thing to people who lived through that time "aerobics."

There's not much to be said here about the muddled Andrew-Lloyd-Webber style story that the soundtrack hints at.  Several of the songs are made worse by the fact that they shoehorn in the dumb-ass concept.   It's something like this (using all the song titles!):

There's "Fanfare," as this kid, who's "Just a Boy," is led in to determine whether he should undertake an "Odyssey."  "Only You" can do this, they tell him.  He must decide whether to take "The Oath" to live "Under the Rose" (whatever that means).  A "Dark Light" opposes him on this journey, where he will face "Mr. Blackwell," and eventually must "Escape from the Island."  Doing this will prevent there being "A World Without Heroes" (not the sandwiches, presumably).  Finally he sings a song of victory for him - or for "I."

That's how Simmons must have pitched it.  It's not as good a tale as the backstory to "Pinball Wizard."

Wikipedia sums it up this way:

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"The basic plot of Music from "The Elder" involves the recruitment and training of a young hero (The Boy) by the Council of Elders who belong to the Order of the Rose, a mysterious group dedicated to combating evil. The Boy is guided by an elderly caretaker named Morpheus. The album's lyrics describe the boy's feelings during his journey and training, as he overcomes his early doubts to become confident and self-assured. The only spoken dialogue is at the end of the last track, "I." During the passage, Morpheus proclaims to the Elders that The Boy is ready to undertake his odyssey."

Close enough.

Also, regarding that precious storyline:

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"The version of Music from "The Elder" released in the United States and Europe contained a different song order than the one originally intended. This order was chosen in order to emphasize "The Oath" and "A World Without Heroes" as potential singles (the two songs started each side of the record). One effect this alteration in song order had was to disrupt the narrative flow of the album's story."

Ha ha ha!  Good job, Gene!

The songs:

"The Oath" is the first song (before "Fanfare" - good job again).  It's heavy falsetto from Mr. Eisen.  It's bad but not awful.  Grinding guitar, though again, probably not from Ace Frehley.  

"Fanfare" is a minute of horns.  A bit out of place on a KISS record.  It establishes one of the musical themes of the album (musical themes - also out of place on a KISS record), the main riff from "Just a Boy."

Speak of the devil, "Just a Boy" is OK.  More falsetto.  Stupid lyrics.  

"Dark Light," played on the Best Show, is one of the better second level songs.  The guitar work is better than anything Ace did on Unmasked.  More stupid lyrics, but, hey, it's Ace, and they made him rewrite the lyrics to match the theme, which he surely did not understand or care about.

"Only You" is more Simmonsian nonsense, with a guest vocal from Paul.  I imagine that for most of these songs (as on Pink Floyd's Animals, they just took old riffs and forced them into shape with the story.  Suffice it to say that Gene Simmons is no Roger Waters).  More "Just a Boy" echoes.  Dumbass - and I do mean dumbass - vocal effects.  "Tell me the secrets..." Tra la la.

"Under the Rose" is also not very good.  Pretentious - the choiry voices would not be out of place on "Phantom of the Opera," nor would the lyrics and the dumb guitar.

"Mr. Blackwell" is just goofy Gene trying to sound tough.  His voice is distorted.  

"Escape from the Island" is another rocker.  Its presence is notable because it marks the point in the song-by-song comparison that makes The Elder slightly better musically than Dynasty.  Kind of rocking.

"Odyssey" is the most embarrassing song on the album.  I swear that Andrew Lloyd Webber DID write this one.  So long, so pointless, so awful.  Worth a listen just to know what it's like.  Hey, it's only a dollar.

"Finale" is more horns, more babbling lines from a movie never made.  "He's got light in his eyes, and the look of a champion.  A real champion." - I swear this line is said by the guy who made the Smucker's/Cadbury Eggs commercials.  Mason Adams.  Somebody look that up.

There are two good songs on The Elder.

"A World Without Heroes" is good.  I think Gene cries a single tear in the video.  Lou Reed wrote the line, "A world without heroes is like a world without sun."  Why not?

"I," which shares the distinction with "X" from the Peter Criss solo album of being the shortest KISS song title (though the latter may in fact have been a tribute to Criss' illiteracy).  It's a good song, and a fairly honest attempt to write another positive ballad.  Definitely better musically and lyrically than several other attempts.



A final note:

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"Q Magazine ranked Music From "The Elder" 44th in their list of The 50 Worst Albums Ever."

This is the general thinking on The Elder, but it's only terrible.  It doesn't rise to the level of titanically awful.

The last album in the rotation has that honor.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

Wes

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #145 on: July 08, 2009, 11:05:17 PM »
I can't believe you actually went and listened to this piece of crap. What a chump.

THREAD OVER.
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buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #146 on: July 08, 2009, 11:11:59 PM »
WRONG!  You STOLE fizzy lifting drinks!  GOOD DAY, SIR!






My Masterwork Approaches.  I've been listening to it for three weeks saving up vitriol.



Then, the solos.  I may do them one by one to drag this shit out.  And I'll throw in the four songs from Killerz.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!

Wes

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #147 on: July 08, 2009, 11:18:24 PM »
"Dark Light" truly is something, it's the complex duality of Ace on full display. Was that really his best vocal take? I can never get enough of him trying to put an ominous tone to "and ya don't know what it is!" and "ya gonna be attacked and ya won't know WHAT it is!" Or him pronouncing the "or it's Soddom and Gamorrah...a malevolent oh-dah!" line. What is Ace's best vocal performance, anyway? New York Groove? And yet, beyond all that, the main riff and the guitar jam at the end are just straight up great. I think once somebody can accept those two halves of Ace, appreciating KISS for what they are/were becomes so much easier and more fun.

My favorite part of "I", which I do agree is a success for what they intended it to be, is the canned finger snapping solo that comes about two-thirds of the way through. Would any other band ever decide to do that? Maybe Sha-Na-Na. "I" also has Paul dropping "listen!" throughout it, so combined with the empowering magical music of KISS theme, it sort of acts like the musical equivalent of Paul Stanley Stage Banter.

The only other Elder song I currently have on hand to comment on is "Mr. Blackwell." I bet Gene wrote that and thought it was pretty cool, and then Ace came in and played Dark Light and Gene stormed out in a huff and cut Ace's dental plan.
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buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #148 on: July 08, 2009, 11:29:18 PM »
I always assumed Ace spoke about 300 words into a synthesizer in 78 and Gene simply assembled them together into a particular vocal take.  Each vocal sounds like a drunk guy on the subway rushing through the lyrics of a forgotten song from the old country.


But yeah, "New York Groove" or "Speedin Back to my Baby."
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buffcoat

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Re: KISS: An Album-by-Album Critical Reevaluation
« Reply #149 on: July 09, 2009, 09:35:42 AM »
Yes, the lyrics to "Dark Light" would not rhyme in written form.  Only in Ace's patois.
I really don't appreciate your sarcastic, anti-comedy tone, Bro!