OFF: Thoughts on KISS' Psycho Circus

[John A Swartz]

O.K., here's some quick thoughts on Psycho Circus.  First -
nice packaging.  Yeah, it sort of evokes images of "toys",
but then again, that's classic KISS.  Now, the music - I
hear a lot of recycled KISS tunes and themes built in to
this, but in most cases the recycled stuff is better than
what it was recycled from.  So, while there may be not a
lot of new musical territory being explored here, much of
it is an improvement upon earlier themes.  Hey, who better
to do KISS than KISS?

The opening track, "Psycho Circus" sounds similar to some
of Paul Stanley's previous heavy album-opening tracks, but
this is perhaps his best effort to date - I love this track.
Next up, Gene's "Within" is one of the more original sounding,
and has a nice modern heavy flavor.  "I Pledge Allegiance to
the State of Rock 'n' Roll" - classic KISS anthem by Paul -
yeah, kinda stupid (then again, in retrospect, "Shout it Out
Loud" was not exactly brainy either), but the music kicks.
Ace's "Into the Void" sounds like KISS playing Frehley's Comet
material - very nice.  "We Are One" - a mellow tune by
Gene - guess he wants to prove he can sing heartfelt songs -
it's pretty good, but Gene is better as the monster than the
crooner.  "You Wanted the Best" - mixed feelings about this
one - musically it's great, and having all of the band sing
it, taking turns, is cool - but another anthem - I guess
maybe I'm starting to outgrow this kind of theme, and obviously
KISS is ripping off one of their own cliche's here.  The thing
that I find laughable though, is the Gene-sung line "The fans
wanted us to play, we hear and we obey" -- Gene is so
unabashedly materialistic - the line should be "The fans want
us to play, so they better get ready to pay".  LOL.  Still, a
pretty good song.  From here, the album loses a bit for me.
Paul's "Raise Your Glasses", "I've Finally Found My Way", and
"Dreamin'" are good, but fairly unspectacular.  And, the final
track, Gene's "Journey of 1,000 Years" sounds in places like an
earlier work of his ("Childhood's End" from the Carnival of
Souls album), and ends the album on too wimpy of a note.  One
comment about "I Finally Found My Way" - it could be called
"Paul's ballad for Peter to Sing" - Peter does a great job
with it, but why he's gotten pidgeon-holed as the "gentle
one" is beyond me.  Yeah, he sund "Beth" and "Hard Luck Woman",
but he also song hard-rocking tracks like "Baby Driver",
"Hooligan", and "Black Diamond".  Pete's got a great rock 'n'
roll voice (a little like Bob Seger, I think) - I wish they'd
let him belt it out more.

Overall, 1/3 of the album is probably some of the best stuff
KISS has done, 1/3 is fairly decent (but sort of a continuation
of their work on "Revenge" and "Carnival of Souls"), and the
other 1/3 will be long-forgotten when the book of KISStory is
finally closed.  Perhaps not being the bleeding-heart KISS
fan I once was has made me a bit harsh of a few of the tracks,
but overall, this is KISS' finest album in the 90s (although
I have a great affection for the "Unplugged" album).

I do have some gripes about the so-called "Enhanced CD" though.
First of all, you need a PC to take advantage of the interactive
stuff (access to the new KISS website, screensaver).  Yeah,
maybe over 90% of the world uses PCs - but there are a significant
number of Macintosh users, and it would take a rocket scientist
to have designed a Mac interface as well.  For a band as rich as
KISS, there's no excuse for not going the extra mile.  Also, for
whatever reason, my CD-playing software "hiccups" many times (at
different places) while playing the disc on my computer, causing
me to have to restart it -- I don't have this problem with any
other CD.  Finally, there were some soundfiles that I was able
to play, which are supposed to be used when you use the interactive
portion of the disc - it has the band talking about the interactive
section, and the new KISS website.  It sounds as if the band just
read stuff off of cue cards.  Paul did most of the talking, and
he was o.k., but Gene sounds terrible - he sounds like he has
absolutely no clue about what he's saying.  But, then again, I
bought this CD for the MUSIC, and it did not dissappoint.

John