Sunday, October 25, 2009
A+E, Music, Reviews

KISS

“SONIC BOOM” (KISS RECORDS)

Few partnerships make as much sense as KISS and Wal-Mart, the exclusive home of the veteran rock band’s newest album. Both seem to value commerce more than heart, and both work overtime to sell you things you don’t really need (KISS kaskets, anyone?). “Sonic Boom,” the first album of new KISS material in 11 years, doesn’t entirely erase that perception, but to its credit, it does attempt to recapture the spirit of the group’s ’70s heyday, when the salesmanship was backed up with showmanship and sharp classic-rock songwriting.

Surprisingly, given the band’s mediocre output since the late ’80s, it succeeds more often than not. “Modern Day Delilah” is a sturdy rocker of the kind Paul Stanley used to write in his sleep; “Russian Roulette” is an enjoyably disposable Gene Simmons double-entendre; “Never Enough” and the closing “Say Yeah” are emphatic, adrenaline-pumping anthems. It helps that guitarist Tommy Thayer appropriates original axe-slinger Ace Frehley’s blistering style throughout (even blatantly quoting a few specific solos), and does a passable vocal imitation on “When Lightning Strikes.”

Not everything works, of course. “Hot and Cold” and “Danger Us” are mired in lyrical clichés, while “Yes I Know (Nobody’s Perfect)” abandons any pretense of wit, with Simmons exhorting a female conquest to just “take off your clothes.”
 
“Sonic Boom” won’t make you forget the hits (handily included on a bonus disc of rerecorded “KISS Klassics”). But it does showcase a re-energized group, delivering an agreeable approximation of the music that recently earned them a nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 2.5 STARS—Kevin Forest Moreau