The thread where I look at each KISS album

[Presto-digitation]

I've done tons of album overviews and I've done little brief snippets about Kiss, along with Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, etc...but for some reason never really talked about each release much.

 

Kiss remains my favorite band of all-time, despite themselves...and it's the music that remains for me, forever lost in their clouds of foolishness and self-prescribed embarrassments. So to that end, let's talk about the most enduring and important aspect of Kiss (and any band)...their music.

 

One bit of something I want to qualify first and that's that each grade is relative to other KISS albums, not The Beatles or anyone else. So if something gets a friggin' A+ it doesn't mean it's a quintessential piece of music in the pantheon of rock's history. It simply means it's benchmark Kiss album....or a poor Kiss album, relative to others of theirs.

 

I'm putting my ipod on shuffle, so too will be each of these non-sequential commentaries. Whatever album comes up on a given day, that's the one I'll tackle. (That way people don't tune out after Love Gun. See, I'm thinkin'...!!)

 

First up is.....

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/116G3pOAmRL._SL500_AA170_.jpg

 

KISS: Peter Criss

 

Ok, I said it was on shuffle. GOD! I can't help it. But I'm a man of my word, so here goes.

 

Well, it might surprise some of you that I think it's a tad underrated. That doesn't mean great...and it doesn't suggest solid either. It's just that this record gets so much crap it doesn't deserve, especially when compared to some Kiss albums...(hint: Gene's solo offering will eventually pop up!!).

 

What's it got going for it? For one, it's a great sound for Peter Criss, despite not being what one would deem a Kiss sound. But then again it's a solo album and quite obviously not a Kiss band album. Peter's roots are R&B (along with swing, big band, etc)...and there's a lot of that here, as well as some contemporary dance beats and nice production from Vini Poncia. It was Criss that first "dabbled" in disco and with a really good pop producer at the helm. While Kiss claims to have HATED Peter's lame ass work here, they sure didn't seem to mind having Poncia produce Kiss's next TWO albums.

 

That said, Peter lends almost nothing to these procedings except his keen raspy vocals and that was nearly enough to pull off a decent moment in 1978; a year still admiring disco and, thanks to Grease, making the music and vibe of the early 1960s cool again. This album had both. Even most of the drumming was subbed out due to an "untimely car accident." Yet vocals are what Criss has going for him and these songs simply feel good because he sounds good doing them. Is it the kind of shit you drive around listening to in 2009 on a road trip up the coast? Probably not. I don't. But unlike some members of this band, Criss knew what his strengths were and put that foot forward in a way that was fairly entertaining.

 

Angst-filled softies like Don't You Let Me Down, I Can't Stop The Rain, and Easy Thing play up his Camel-induced crooning to wonderful effect. You almost expect to see some black 50s doo-wop group standing behind him in matching gold jackets and pants snapping their fingers to the beat. Criss lets the retro greaser rasp out too on belters such as Hooked On Rock & Roll....replete with "whooping" female background singers.

 

In the end it's all pretty light stuff. It's not quite good enough a dabbling in disco to scare K.C. and his Sunshine Band, nor was the retro rockin' cool enough to land a damn thing on the charts, despite some really convenient pop culture timing. So in the end, we're not talking about anything earth-shattering here. Since he really doesn't write his own material, it reads as nothing more important than a covers album...but vocally Criss is clearly inspired and the songs are generally either fun or emotional, even if they're still busy being average. But nothing here is BAD either; it's simply not Kiss and for many fans, that was FOUL enough. But it is 100% in the veins of Peter Criss, for what it lacks in "originality." For a series of albums designed around accentuating individuality, on that level if nowhere else, Criss succeeds.

 

Grade: C-

 

Production: I like Vini Poncia. Most Kiss fans can't stand him. He was a really solid pop producer. This is a nice sounding album, quite honestly. No real quips.

 

Cover: I love the solo album covers, as painted by Rush's Fly By Night cover artist Eraldo Caraguti. They were painted from photos used for the cover of Kiss's Love Gun Tour Book one year earlier.

Edited April 25, 2009 by Presto-digitation

[metaldad]

your i-pod picked a real winner here PETER CRISS made me want to play drums back in 1977/78 . KISS did no wrong for me back then but, this album blow's . really. same shit with GENE'S album, but i will wait till you get to that one. this was the start of the end for old PETER.

[naturalsciences101]

I had the Peter Criss album as a small-to-medium-small child. As an 8 yr. old, I was offered the option of any one of the four recordings. I'm sure that the rich parents got their kids all four. But, mine were not them. Actually, I shouldn't complain, because I was also given the Double Platinum collection during the same year...Things were good for young C.

 

I just remember that I was deeply disappointed in this recording. In fact, the only thing I remember being happy about was that it was Green...I liked Green. But, I also liked Blue and Red and Purple. Fact of the matter is that I had no idea who wrote the songs for this band called KISS. I quickly learned that it was not Peter Criss. I choose this recording for one superficial reason or another.

 

Actually, I have no idea what my line of reasoning was. But, I F'ed up pretty bad. lol. The only positive repercussion of these Criss sessions was that they fluffed up the drummer's ego even further so that he threatened to leave the band if they didn't use his producer, Poncia, on the next KISS studio effort...which they did with KISS - Dynasty...another LP I was purchased as a small-to-medium-small child.

 

Since then, I've only purchased one more of the solo albums...The Ace Frehley disc. It's usually considered to be the best of the lot. It's got about four really good songs and four or so stinkers. Which makes me think that the other two solo discs aren't worth even exploring. But, Ace was the George Harrison of the group. Of course, his album was going to be the best one. He didn't also have to write for the band like Paul and Gene did.

 

Ace also had the popular single with 'New York Groove'. I had the single. Can't remember what was on the flip-side. But, because of the the popularity of the Ace solo disc, the band and its management gave the lead guitarist two vocal slots on the next release. Dynasty. Love that album.

 

But, I am rather biased. I was just beginning to fall in love with Rock music at the height of the Disco-era. My twin cousins who were ten years older than I actually purchased me a T-shirt with the Pink Panther on it, dressed in a white suit and posing like Travolta in SNF. The caption below read simply, 'Disco Sucks'. I was 9.

 

 

 

[Steevo]

This one and Gene's were the two I struggled with, even way back in the early 80s as a kid. Cant remember much about it but I didnt mind I Cant Stop the Rain, he had that husky vox thing goin on which was a nice change. Both Paul and Ace's were pretty much even for quality and they still hold some merit when in the Kiss mood, which aint too often

[MCM]

QUOTE (naturalsciences101 @ Apr 24 2009, 11:55 PM)

In fact, the only thing I remember being happy about was that it was Green...I liked Green.  But, I also liked Blue and Red and Purple.

I purchased the Ace album completely on the strengh of the blue cover. Turned out to be a good decision in the end.. I guess at the age of 11 the color of the cover is a good indicator of the music inside..

 

This should turn out to be a very interesting thread..

[Presto-digitation]

QUOTE (naturalsciences101 @ Apr 24 2009, 11:55 PM)

I had the Peter Criss album as a small-to-medium-small child. As an 8 yr. old, I was offered the option of any one of the four recordings. I'm sure that the rich parents got their kids all four. But, mine were not them. Actually, I shouldn't complain, because I was also given the Double Platinum collection during the same year...Things were good for young C. I just remember that I was deeply disappointed in this recording. In fact, the only thing I remember being happy about was that it was Green...I liked Green. But, I also liked Blue and Red and Purple. Fact of the matter is that I had no idea who wrote the songs for this band called KISS. I quickly learned that it was not Peter Criss. I choose this recording for one superficial reason or another. Actually, I have no idea what my line of reasoning was. But, I F'ed up pretty bad. lol. The only positive repercussion of these Criss sessions was that they fluffed up the drummer's ego even further so that he threatened to leave the band if they didn't use his producer, Poncia, on the next KISS studio effort...which they did with KISS - Dynasty...another LP I was purchased as a small-to-medium-small child. Since then, I've only purchased one more of the solo albums...The Ace Frehley disc. It's usually considered to be the best of the lot. It's got about four really good songs and four or so stinkers. Which makes me think that the other two solo discs aren't worth even exploring. But, Ace was the George Harrison of the group. Of course, his album was going to be the best one. He didn't also have to write for the band like Paul and Gene did. Ace also had the popular single with 'New York Groove'. I had the single. Can't remember what was on the flip-side. But, because of the the popularity of the Ace solo disc, the band and its management gave the lead guitarist two vocal slots on the next release. Dynasty. Love that album. But, I am rather biased. I was just beginning to fall in love with Rock music at the height of the Disco-era. My twin cousins who were ten years older than I actually purchased me a T-shirt with the Pink Panther on it, dressed in a white suit and posing like Travolta in SNF. The caption below read simply, 'Disco Sucks'. I was 9.

You're missing out by avoiding Paul's...I'll just say that.

[goose]

QUOTE (Presto-digitation @ Apr 24 2009, 09:51 PM)

Cover: I love the solo album covers, as painted by Rush's Fly By Night cover artist Eraldo Caraguti. They were painted from photos used for the cover of Kiss's Love Gun Tour Book one year earlier.

This album is best appreciated as wall art. Great cover, but you're better off leaving the celophane on.

 

[Presto-digitation]

Today's rotation offers forth:

 

 

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PNDX8FZYL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

 

MUSIC FROM "THE ELDER"

 

I have mixed feelings about this album. On one hand the band is way over their heads and out of their element here. Pink Floyd or Queen they're not. On the other, the songs aren't half bad on their own...some being downright excellent in places. But overall, even the most ardent Kiss diehard has to confess that The Elder was a misdirected and ill-timed effort by Kiss to "legitimize" themselves, while at the same time exploring a little bit of Gene-driven fantasy. What it may have in ambition in some of its bits and pieces, it lacks entirely in conceptual cohesiveness....which isn't a compliment when you're creating a concept album. It also helps to actually (or at least eventually) create a film around the story for which you've written the soundtrack. Music from....what?!?!

 

Oops.

 

Still there are moments to appreciate here, especially on Gene Simmons' songs. Tunes like the haunting and atmsopheric Only You (a holdover from the pre-Kiss days with different lyrics), Under The Rose, and the incredibly poignant A World Without Heroes (lyrics by Lou Reed) are fine efforts on their own, regardless of the band's inability to thread the big picture fantasy needle. Paul Stanley has his moments as well, such as on the anthemic The Oath, which, lyrics aside, probably sounds the most like Kiss. On The Oath we get a good (double-kick) sense of the heaviness Kiss newcomer Eric Carr would bring to the band in the years to come. While many fans disagree, I even enjoy Paul's successful falsetto-fest Just A Boy.

 

Only clunkers Mr. Blackwell (just plain odd) and the overly-ambitious and terribly flowery Tony Powers cover Odyssey fall flat, the latter featuring a valiant-but-laughable vocal effort by Paul...clearly in training for his Phantom Of The Opera lead as early as 1981 from the sounds of things. Ace Frehley almost begrudgingly shows up on two songs (plays leads on a couple more), the enjoyable-though-phoned-in Dark Light and the fun but out-of-place instrumental dubiously called Escape From The Island; a title more than not befitting Frehley's desires at this point in the game.

 

The problem here isn't the music or the melodies, many of which are very mature and complex efforts by Kiss standards...thanks in large part to the return of producer, maestro Bob Ezrin (The Wall) for the first time since the Destroyer album. Most of the shlock lies in the lyrics and the band's almost Spinal Tap-ish efforts to tell the tale of a boy hero growing up, becoming a man...yada, yada; in other words, all that homo-erotic shit no one needs to hear Paul Stanley, of all people, croon about.

 

In the end maybe Paul Stanley sums it up best. To paraphrase, it's not that The Elder isn't a good album, it's just not a very good Kiss album. And while I'm not necessarily of the belief that Kiss only stick to suck-me/f*ck me songs, it's pretty easy to realize the band bit off more than they could chew here. It's a bit like the sonic equivalent of watching their television movie-of-the-week from 1978, Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park...during which you both enjoy the cheesy goodness, all while slinking under your seat beneath the weight of it all. In few ways was the PROJECT Music From "The Elder" a success (a total flop, commercially), but there's no denying that despite the failed concept, many good songs came out of this project.

 

Thankfully a much-appreciated return to form was an album away. Strange, too, to consider that in just over two years, Kiss had released the incredibly poppy Unmasked, a heroic coming-of-age fantasy concept album in The Elder, and arguably their heaviest (metal) album in Creatures Of The Night. The band was in the midst of a pretty awful identity crisis as the 1970s disappeared in the rearview...and The Elder was Act II.

 

Grade: C+ all things considered...bordering on B- when you just forget the whole concept and simply take them as individual songs

 

Production: The production's a little muddy for my liking and not quite as crisp as Destroyer, but all the Ezrin-isms are here: rich instrumentation, overlayed strings, horns, Gregorian monks, choirs, bickering dialogue between council elders, and just about everything else you could imagine. Of course Ezrin also admits to being coked out of his flippin' mind while making the album too...

 

Cover: Well, appreciate for one moment that it's one of the few Kiss covers that doesn't feature the band...(although that is Paul Stanley's hand). Outside that it's a bit odd, but it seems to fit the projected theme of the album. The vinyl version features a fecking annoying-ass clear plastic album sleeve that always crumpled and made it difficult to return the vinyl to the jacket. Overall I like the cover.

 

Reflections: I remember buying this album the day it came out. Strangely I wasn't confused by the concept or the curveball Kiss was throwing here. To me, at age 12, it was just another new Kiss album. True that it was different, just as soon as the needle hit the first groove...but I didn't hold that against the band. I was naive and eager, so I didn't much mind. I still don't, though it's the not the success I once believed it to be in my pre-teens either. On a comical note, I called my local record store and bugged the shit out of them about the album before finally making my way down there later that day; what did the cover look like? Had you guys listened to it? What did you think? Their reply: "Well, it'different."

Edited April 26, 2009 by Presto-digitation

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Presto-digitation @ Apr 25 2009, 09:08 AM)

QUOTE (naturalsciences101 @ Apr 24 2009, 11:55 PM) I had the Peter Criss album as a small-to-medium-small child.  As an 8 yr. old, I was offered the option of any one of the four recordings.  I'm sure that the rich parents got their kids all four.  But, mine were not them.  Actually, I shouldn't complain, because I was also given the Double Platinum collection during the same year...Things were good for young C. I just remember that I was deeply disappointed in this recording.  In fact, the only thing I remember being happy about was that it was Green...I liked Green.  But, I also liked Blue and Red and Purple.  Fact of the matter is that I had no idea who wrote the songs for this band called KISS.  I quickly learned that it was not Peter Criss.  I choose this recording  for one superficial reason or another.  Actually, I have no idea what my line of reasoning was.  But, I F'ed up pretty bad.  lol.  The only positive repercussion of these Criss sessions was that they fluffed up the drummer's ego even further so that he threatened to leave the band if they didn't use his producer, Poncia, on the next KISS studio effort...which they did with KISS - Dynasty...another LP I was purchased as a small-to-medium-small child. Since then, I've only purchased one more of the solo albums...The Ace Frehley disc.  It's usually considered to be the best of the lot.  It's got about four really good songs and four or so stinkers.  Which makes me think that the other two  solo discs aren't worth even exploring.  But, Ace was the George Harrison of the group.  Of course, his album was going to be the best one.  He didn't also have to write for the band like Paul and Gene did.  Ace also had the popular single with 'New York Groove'.  I had the single.  Can't remember what was on the flip-side.  But, because of the the popularity of the Ace solo disc, the band and its management gave the lead guitarist two vocal slots on the next release.  Dynasty.  Love that album.  But, I am rather biased.  I was just beginning to fall in love with Rock music at the height of the Disco-era.  My twin cousins who were ten years older than I actually purchased me a T-shirt with the Pink Panther on it, dressed in a white suit and posing like Travolta in SNF.  The caption below read simply, 'Disco Sucks'.  I was 9. You're missing out by avoiding Paul's...I'll just say that. Paul's and Ace's are both great.   I don't bother with the other two.   Peter was in hospital for most of the allotted time of his recording schedule so they had to cobble together an album of covers and bits and pieces. That's the main reason Peter's is a poor album.   Gene's album is interesting but not really something for repeated listening, it's more of a souvenir.

[treeduck]

QUOTE (Presto-digitation @ Apr 26 2009, 12:15 AM)

Today's rotation offers forth: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PNDX8FZYL._SL500_AA240_.jpg MUSIC FROM "THE ELDER" I have mixed feelings about this album. On one hand the band is way over their heads and out of their element here. Pink Floyd or Queen they're not. On the other, the songs aren't half bad on their own...some being downright excellent in places. But overall, even the most ardent Kiss diehard has to confess that The Elder was a misdirected and ill-timed effort by Kiss to "legitimize" themselves, while at the same time exploring a little bit of Gene-driven fantasy. What it may have in ambition in some of its bits and pieces, it lacks entirely in conceptual cohesiveness....which isn't a compliment when you're creating a concept album. It also helps to actually (or at least eventually) create a film around the story for which you've written the soundtrack. Music from....what?!?! Oops. Still there are moments to appreciate here, especially on Gene Simmons' songs. Tunes like the haunting and atmsopheric Only You (a holdover from the pre-Kiss days with different lyrics), Under The Rose, and the incredibly poignant A World Without Heroes (lyrics by Lou Reed) are fine efforts on their own, regardless of the band's inability to thread the big picture fantasy needle. Paul Stanley has his moments as well, such as on the anthemic The Oath, which, lyrics aside, probably sounds the most like Kiss. On The Oath we get a good (double-kick) sense of the heaviness Kiss newcomer Eric Carr would bring to the band in the years to come. While many fans disagree, I even enjoy Paul's successful falsetto-fest Just A Boy. Only clunkers Mr. Blackwell (just plain odd) and the overly-ambitious and terribly flowery Tony Powers cover Odyssey fall flat, the latter featuring a valiant-but-laughable vocal effort by Paul...clearly in training for his Phantom Of The Opera lead as early as 1981 from the sounds of things. Ace Frehley almost begrudgingly shows up on two songs (plays leads on a couple more), the enjoyable-though-phoned-in Dark Light and the fun but out-of-place instrumental dubiously called Escape From The Island; a title more than not befitting Frehley's desires at this point in the game. The problem here isn't the music or the melodies, many of which are very mature and complex efforts by Kiss standards...thanks in large part to the return of producer, maestro Bob Ezrin (The Wall) for the first time since the Destroyer album. Most of the shlock lies in the lyrics and the band's almost Spinal Tap-ish efforts to tell the tale of a boy hero growing up, becoming a man...yada, yada; in other words, all that homo-erotic shit no one needs to hear Paul Stanley, of all people, croon about. In the end maybe Paul Stanley sums it up best. To paraphrase, it's not that The Elder isn't a good album, it's just not a very good Kiss album. And while I'm not necessarily of the belief that Kiss only stick to suck-me/f*ck me songs, it's pretty easy to realize the band bit off more than they could chew here. It's a bit like the sonic equivalent of watching their television movie-of-the-week from 1978, Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park...during which you both enjoy the cheesy goodness, all while slinking under your seat beneath the weight of it all. In few ways was the PROJECT Music From "The Elder" a success (a total flop, commercially), but there's no denying that despite the failed concept, many good songs came out of this project. Thankfully a much-appreciated return to form was an album away. Strange, too, to consider that in just over two years, Kiss had released the incredibly poppy Unmasked, a heroic coming-of-age fantasy concept album in The Elder, and arguably their heaviest (metal) album in Creatures Of The Night. The band was in the midst of a pretty awful identity crisis as the 1970s disappeared in the rearview...and The Elder was Act II. Grade: C+ all things considered...bordering on B- when you just forget the whole concept and simply take them as individual songs Production: The production's a little muddy for my liking and not quite as crisp as Destroyer, but all the Ezrin-isms are here: rich instrumentation, overlayed strings, horns, Gregorian monks, choirs, bickering dialogue between council elders, and just about everything else you could imagine. Of course Ezrin also admits to being coked out of his flippin' mind while making the album too... Cover: Well, appreciate for one moment that it's one of the few Kiss covers that doesn't feature the band...(although that is Paul Stanley's hand). Outside that it's a bit odd, but it seems to fit the projected theme of the album. The vinyl version features a fecking annoying-ass clear plastic album sleeve that always crumpled and made it difficult to return the vinyl to the jacket. Overall I like the cover. Reflections: I remember buying this album the day it came out. Strangely I wasn't confused by the concept or the curveball Kiss was throwing here. To me, at age 12, it was just another new Kiss album. True that it was different, just as soon as the needle hit the first groove...but I didn't hold that against the band. I was naive and eager, so I didn't much mind. I still don't, though it's the not the success I once believed it to be in my pre-teens either. On a comical note, I called my local record store and bugged the shit out of them about the album before finally making my way down there later that day; what did the cover look like? Had you guys listened to it? What did you think? Their reply: "Well, it'different."

I've always liked this album, it's not a "normal" KISS album but that doesn't matter, I like most of the songs on here and it has a mysterious kind of atmosphere, like on a film soundtrack. I don't get the hate you generally see for this record, to me it's good music, decent production and it gives fans a chance to see KISS in a different light (a Dark Light maybe). The only song I don't like is Odyssey which wasn't written by any of the band, I don't know why they included it. Maybe another Ace track was impossible to get since Ace wasn't interested in the project...

 

[nappy2112]

hate them both..........next.

[naturalsciences101]

"ill-timed effort" probably sums it up best. If KISS had embarked on a progressive, concept album during the height of the '74 -'77 years, I have no doubt that they would have been much more sucessful at breaching this genre'.

 

But, 'The Elder' was attempted at a low point of band camaraderie and individual creativity. The thing lacks continuity and focus. The only place where it actually resembles a concept piece is between the tracks, 'Only You' and 'Under The Rose'.

 

Both of these songs are among the strongest on the album, and the bridging that separates them actually works in the context of the 'concept album' formula. That's where this record is most convincing. But, this type of structuring isn't evident anywhere else on the record.

 

Most of the tracks sound like they were haphazardly inserted into the storyline. The intro, and the following two tracks are just plain sad. Every good concept piece needs its 'overture' and KISS simply were not classically-inclined or musically adept enough to pull this type of instrumental off. An outside writer was eventually called in for the track 'Odyssey'. And, the band sounds horrible enough doing their own horrible fare, let alone, someone else's crap.

 

But, there are a few good tunes which can be lifted from the lackluster and incoherent storyline. There's the two tracks mentioned above, as well as 'A World Without Heroes' and 'The Oath'. Two really good songs which stand on their own, apart from the ridiculous concept, with the latter track being a sort of template for Progressive Metal.

 

I happen to really like Mr. Blackwell, despite Presto's disdain for it. Escape from the Island is more evidence that KISS is no RUSH, and can barely assemble an instrumental, which is a mandatory skill-set if you're intend to tackle Progressive Rock. 'I' is pretty bad, and Ace's 'Dark Light' is probably the worst thing he's written. Well, if you don't look at the 'Unmasked' sessions. lol.

 

They called in Bob Ezrin to produce this because of his success on Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' the year previous. They were hoping that some of that magic would rub off on them. Mostly, it didn't. This album is definitely a case of a little something that could have definitely been a little more.

 

 

[ozzy85]

Hmmm... sounds like a KISS album I might actually like. I've never even seen a copy of The Elder. I have maybe a half dozen of their albums. It'll be interesting to see your take on their first album.. I like that one.

[naturalsciences101]

QUOTE (ozzy85 @ Apr 26 2009, 02:14 PM)

Hmmm... sounds like a KISS album I might actually like. I've never even seen a copy of The Elder. I have maybe a half dozen of their albums. It'll be interesting to see your take on their first album.. I like that one.

That's an undisputed classic. Probably the only one that's excellent in the whole catalog. Goes back to the old adage..."A band has got their first 20 years of life to put together their first album, and only eighteen months to assemble a second." But, back in the 70's, and especially with the band KISS, it was more like one album every eight months. Maybe if they didn't put them out so frequently, the quality of each individual release would have been better.

 

 

[treeduck]

QUOTE (naturalsciences101 @ Apr 26 2009, 11:24 AM)

"ill-timed effort" probably sums it up best. If KISS had embarked on a progressive, concept album during the height of the '74 -'77 years, I have no doubt that they would have been much more sucessful at breaching this genre'. But, 'The Elder' was attempted at a low point of band camaraderie and individual creativity. The thing lacks continuity and focus. The only place where it actually resembles a concept piece is between the tracks, 'Only You' and 'Under The Rose'. Both of these songs are among the strongest on the album, and the bridging that separates them actually works in the context of the 'concept album' formula. That's where this record is most convincing. But, this type of structuring isn't evident anywhere else on the record. Most of the tracks sound like they were haphazardly inserted into the storyline. The intro, and the following two tracks are just plain sad. Every good concept piece needs its 'overture' and KISS simply were not classically-inclined or musically adept enough to pull this type of instrumental off. An outside writer was eventually called in for the track 'Odyssey'. And, the band sounds horrible enough doing their own horrible fare, let alone, someone else's crap. But, there are a few good tunes which can be lifted from the lackluster and incoherent storyline. There's the two tracks mentioned above, as well as 'A World Without Heroes' and 'The Oath'. Two really good songs which stand on their own, apart from the ridiculous concept, with the latter track being a sort of template for Progressive Metal. I happen to really like Mr. Blackwell, despite Presto's disdain for it. Escape from the Island is more evidence that KISS is no RUSH, and can barely assemble an instrumental, which is a mandatory skill-set if you're intend to tackle Progressive Rock. 'I' is pretty bad, and Ace's 'Dark Light' is probably the worst thing he's written. Well, if you don't look at the 'Unmasked' sessions. lol. They called in Bob Ezrin to produce this because of his success on Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' the year previous. They were hoping that some of that magic would rub off on them. Mostly, it didn't. This album is definitely a case of a little something that could have definitely been a little more.

Escape from the island was an old Ace Frehley song that was re-worked for the album...

[Steevo]

QUOTE (nappy2112 @ Apr 27 2009, 12:46 AM)

hate them both..........next.

Know nuttin about The Elder. Dont bother going past Unmasked either, it's all shite after that.

[Tinwoodsman]

I appreciate the effort! especially since the only album that I bought of theirs was an 8-track ... their eponymous debut.

[Presto-digitation]

QUOTE (Steevo @ Apr 26 2009, 05:18 PM)

QUOTE (nappy2112 @ Apr 27 2009, 12:46 AM) hate them both..........next. Know nuttin about The Elder. Dont bother going past Unmasked either, it's all shite after that. That's simply not true...

[Presto-digitation]

QUOTE (ozzy85 @ Apr 26 2009, 02:14 PM)

Hmmm... sounds like a KISS album I might actually like. I've never even seen a copy of The Elder. I have maybe a half dozen of their albums. It'll be interesting to see your take on their first album.. I like that one.

You should preview it. Here are some choice listens. If this doesn't compel you, stay clear:

 

Only You:

 

 

Under The Rose:

 

 

The Oath:

 

 

A World Without Heroes:

 

 

 

[Presto-digitation]

For anyone curious and otherwise uninitiated, here are a couple choice Criss clips too. I'll start adding these to the tail end of the reviews when possible.

 

PC solo compilation:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90p8NL_QkeI...rom=PL&index=54

[WCFIELDS]

QUOTE (nappy2112 @ Apr 26 2009, 06:46 AM)

hate them both..........next.

both shit albums, if you ask me.........especially the Criss solo album........total crapfest.

[WCFIELDS]

QUOTE (Steevo @ Apr 26 2009, 04:18 PM)

QUOTE (nappy2112 @ Apr 27 2009, 12:46 AM) hate them both..........next. Know nuttin about The Elder. Dont bother going past Unmasked either, it's all shite after that. Not all shite...........but certainly a sharp decline with very little interesting past that point.....Creatures of the Night was pretty good.

[naturalsciences101]

That Peter Criss 'Pop-Up Video' history lesson is great. I haven't heard any of those tunes since I was a kid.

 

 

[treeduck]

QUOTE (WCFIELDS @ Apr 26 2009, 06:46 PM)

QUOTE (Steevo @ Apr 26 2009, 04:18 PM) QUOTE (nappy2112 @ Apr 27 2009, 12:46 AM) hate them both..........next. Know nuttin about The Elder. Dont bother going past Unmasked either, it's all shite after that. Not all shite...........but certainly a sharp decline with very little interesting past that point.....Creatures of the Night was pretty good. Creatures of the Night was really good and so was Lick it Up and Animalize wasn't bad and they were great on the 83/84 tours.

[nappy2112]

QUOTE (treeduck @ Apr 27 2009, 03:32 PM)

QUOTE (WCFIELDS @ Apr 26 2009, 06:46 PM) QUOTE (Steevo @ Apr 26 2009, 04:18 PM) QUOTE (nappy2112 @ Apr 27 2009, 12:46 AM) hate them both..........next. Know nuttin about The Elder. Dont bother going past Unmasked either, it's all shite after that. Not all shite...........but certainly a sharp decline with very little interesting past that point.....Creatures of the Night was pretty good. Creatures of the Night was really good and so was Lick it Up and Animalize wasn't bad and they were great on the 83/84 tours. Creatures Rocks !!