 |
YEAR: Oct 1989
PRODUCER:Gene Simmons & Paul Stanley
LABEL:Mercury
BAND:
Paul Stanley
Gene Simmons
Eric Carr
Bruce Kulick |
+
Stanley's Songs
Eric Carr
-
Filler, Cheesyness SimmonsProduction |
TRACKS:
1.Rise to It 2.Betrayed 3.Hide Your Heart 4.Prisoner of Love 5.Read My Body 6.Love's a Slap in the Face 7.Forever 8.Silver Spoon 9.Cadillac Dreams 10.King of Hearts 11.The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away 12. You Love Me to Hate You 13.Somewhere Between 14.Little Caeser 15.Boomerang |
OVERVIEW
I can't understand why KISS just couldn't get it together in the 80's. All of the albums show so much promise, but none of them deliver. On various occasions Gene has laid blame to himself, sighting he was to focused on acting and the celebrity scene. I happen to agree with him. Stanley still manages to squeeze a little life out of the band, thanks mostly to Kulick's excellent playing and Eric Carrs hard rocking preferences. This would turn out to be Carr's final album prior to his death; unfortunately it doesn't live up to his 5 star personality.
SONGS
A different approach starts the album with Rise To It. Which ads a little country flavour, and Paul and Bruce nearly pull it off too. They ramble through Simmons's Betrayed before the fantastic Hide Your Heart; arguably their strongest rocker in years. They blaze through a stack of unmemorable filler before surfacing with the Bolton/Stanley masterpiece Forever. Silver Spoon continues a high note of the record and probably one of their most underrated. Cadillac Dreams isn't too bad, but King Of Hearts is a mile better. The album fades into boredom from there, with Somewhere Between Heaven And Hell lifting the game for a short moment, and showing there's still life left in Gene
CONCLUSION
Much the same as what you'd expect from the other 80's releases. There are 15 tracks here (probably 10 to many). I'm actually a big Kulick fan, and it's obvious that he helps hold this album together. Though it is full of sub-par songs, there are moments that show KISS is still alive. They've lost a little of their early 80's cheese and are starting to get tighter again. But it would be Revenge that would get the Army going again.
