CAUTION: Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
Okay, first disclaimer, I'm not a massive Kiss fan. That's not to say I don't think they're fucking cool, and great at what they do, I just never got into them back in the day. As I've previously documented, I was more into the M3T4L than the R0CK.
Anyhow, the latest (okay, last year's) Kiss Album, Sonic Boom came highly recommended to me, and I do like a bit of Rock these days. I listened to it today, and something struck me within the first 10 seconds of putting it on. Now, I know I'm not the first person to have noticed this, but I feel it warrants sharing...
What the fuck, guys? Looking around online, I found this quote from Paul Stanley (found it after I made the video, hence me calling Simmons out in there):
www.PaulStanley.com
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"I thought I heard a Pearl Jam/'Even Flow' influence on 'Modern Day Delilah'
Delilah's actually close, at least for me, when I came up with the riff, the spirit was more "I Want You" -- early KISS. There are only so many notes in a scale."
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"Influence"..? "Close"..? "So many notes in a scale"..?
You'll be telling me next you've got an infinite number of fucking monkeys writing your songs. It's not so much the 'notes in the scale', as the notes in the scale, the tempo, the beat, and the intro to another fucking song! IT'S IN THE SAME KEY!
I can only imagine that Kiss have surrounded themselves with so many yes-men, that no-one had the balls to point out the bleeding obvious. Jeez.
Anyhow, I'm sad to report that the rest of the album is rather dull. The production and the attitude are just about there, but the songs just aren't that good. It's like they recorded a load of songs, split them into ones that would go on the album and ones that would be b-sides... then the work-experience kid in the studio sent the wrong disc to the pressing plant.
It's not bad, you understand, it's just not that good. Kiss can do better than this. Track 10, When Lightning Strikes is a good one, but that should be the standard, not the stand-out. Ah well, maybe I can fall back on the Greatest Hits?
I RECKON: 5/10 ~ Okay if you're drinking. Or driving fast. Not both, obviously.
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
