It
does no harm just this once, this editorial
lines will be like a column…or rather as
two columns, one about « Anomaly » and
another about « Sonic Boom ». An amazing
edito for amazing circonstances. How long
since
we run to our recordshop to buy at the
same time both an Ace Frehley and a KISS
album? Twenty years exactly! At the end
of 1989, Space Ace challenged his ex-band
with a superb “Trouble Walkin” while his
colleagues, not being prig, came out a “Hot
in The Shade” a lot more discussed. By
happy circonstances, the enemy brothers
would fight over a music signed Stanley/Child/Knight “Hide
your Heart”. We have to say, since then,
contrary to what the song says, they didn’t
mind saying what they feel.
Here
we are in 2009, and it all happens again!
20 years, then, after the last Ace Frehley
album, and 11 years after KISS' last studio
effort. Enough time to wait to
drive any patient fan crazy. And concerning
KISS,
very few people would long for a new album
coming from musicians who had become more
mythical than creative. Since the original
line-up had come back, indeed, Simmons
and co would highly take benefit of their
popularity at its highest. In 1998, the
band had worked out with effort but mostly
to capitalize on KISS Mark I nostalgia.This
line-up had only participated from time
to time to a mildy crazy “Psycho Circus”.
Of course, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss
had left the ship (Peter Criss would came
back later) we could have thought that
the two
leaders would have liked to prove to a
puzzled KISS Army that the two new members
(Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer, for those
who are lost) weren’t here just to pretend.
However, the tours that went on right after
the Farewell Tour (what a joke!) brought
good surprises but we realized that it
didn’t free KISS from the chains it had
itself tied up with after the reformation….And
at the end of 2008, news fell out: a new
album will come. Sonical or not, it came
out like a boom.
Let’s
start by “Anomaly”.
With this album, all we wanted to know is: has Mr Frehley lost his creativity
in the process of what we had called through so many months “the perennial
album to come” (we’ve
been talking about it since 1995). Listening to the anomaly, the answer is
obvious: no, a hundred times no! Heavy (the sound particularly compressed
reminds us of the black album), various, melodic, “Anomaly” puts Ace back
to where he belongs: the place of an inspired guitarist with undeniable writing
qualities. For we must admit that listening to this album, we are struck
by the quality of the Space Ace tracks. As he confessed, this album continues
his 1978 solo album work (remember at the time, Ace had been tricky to his
colleagues revealing a quality of songwriter they didn’t guess) and the
success was guaranteed.
Ace
opens the hostility with “Foxy and free” a
wink to Master Hendrix, making you think
of “Snowblind” this ode to the snow which
hurts your sinus, classified as a classic
for 31 years. Other tracks “Pain in the
Neck”, “Fractured Quantum” (new track following the “Fractured
Mirror” series launched in 1978), remind
us of the first solo album but we can’t
resume the album to a shameless try to
capitalize
on a glorious past. While in “Outer Space” – on
which the ever lasting friend Anton Fig
(behind the drums on most of the tracks
from Anomaly) shows all his talent – Outer
Space reveals an incredible rageous side
of Spaceman, other songs take a different
way being softer. Like for instance the
touching “A Little Below The Angels”,
a sweet track on which Ace invites his
daughter, Monique to sing in the chorus.
; “Change the World” and its singular singings;
or in another different way, the funky “It’s
a Great Life” brings a welcome freshness
to the whole album whisling an air of innocence.
Shadow and light, in fact. The eternal
antagonism Ace mentions in his mid-tempo
rock songs, besides very personal.
How
also not to evoke the great “Genghis Khan”,
fakely instrumental track which gives Ace
the opportunity to touch the stars he seems
to be coming from. Frehley? Page? “Genghis
Khan” clouds
the issue, so much that it sounds like
a unpublished
title of “Physical Graffiti”! Bluffing!
Adding to that a brilliant cover of Sweet
(“Fox On The Run”) and a modified version
of a so spectacular track/demo that it
already figured in a good place
in the Spaceman's setlists since 1995 (“Sister”).
You would have understood that this “Anomaly” is
a grand, amazing album. We just would have
liked the guitarist to take care more of
his solos. Just like those signed by his
successor in KISS, for example…
KISS,
the ugly duckling of Rock History. The
band the elits have always mocked. Think
about it! A new studio album in 2009, after
the fact that the two leaders had kept
on saying they didn’t want to make a new
album out, it would jeer in the “Inrocks” home
(NDLT: equivalent to the Rolling Stones
US or Musical Express UK) Then the first
critics arrived and gave us a shock: KISS
is coming back! KISS comes back to life!
KISS has made a great album! Even “Rolling
Stone” was
full of praise for a work made to redeem the musicians to the eyes of all the
skepticals. Rolling Stone! Some fans would have committed suicide for less than
that! Overnight, the microcosmos of the rock critics inflames for a band they
had always dragged down…Finally, fireworks or wet bangers, this “Sonic Boom”?
The first title “Modern Day Delilah” had got us a flea in our ear, even before
the album came out. We thought we couldn’t
be disappointed by this overflowing heavy sound. It feels like we come back to
the “Revenge” era, near the one of “Carnival of Souls”! Thinking deeply about
it, wasn’t it there a will to go back even further? True! There were also parts
of “I Stole Your Love” in this relentless riff. And we shall not forget that
the maked-up stars had themselves declared that “Sonic Boom” situated itself
in the right continuation of their seventies productions. The impact of a declaration
used many times in the past! Except that this time it was true!
Even
if it does reflects the 80’s or the 90’s
by some aspects, “Sonic Boom” is a successful
try to go back to the situation where KISS
was with “Love Gun”. This is musically
true, with titles like “Yes I know (Nobody’s
Perfect)” (it disconcertingly sounds like “Dressed
to Kill” ) or “Hot and Cold” (a “Love ‘Em
And Leave ‘Em” of the 2000s) on which Gene
gets back to his writing style we haven’t
seen for years. But this is all true also
of the whole band: written and recorded
without any outside collaborators, “Sonic
Boom” is the result of a real collective
effort, the kind of album KISS used to
do when they had everything to prove. Quite
a long time ago then! How many years since
we’ve heard all the musicians sharing the
chorus on all the songs, Gene’s fingers
joyfully gliding on his bass, Paul crying “yeah” every
now and then. Of course these are only
details.. But they show the great desire
that leads to this album. Nothing seems
to be forced on “Sonic Boom” and when they
wink at the past in a solo or a riff, these
last ones just flow. Operation attraction
for the most ancient members of the KISS
Army? No doubt. Who would blame KISS for
not
committing themselves to seducing a
new fanbase? Not yours truly anyway.
Return
to basics so, but not only. For summing
up KISS to a period from 1974 to 1978 would
be a big mistake. And the band has understood
it, offering a musical journey through
35 years of good and loyal uses and abuses…!
As Gene comes back to his first love, he
also doesn’t forget to remind us how frightening
he could have been on “Creatures of the
night”. He takes the advantage to throw
a “Im an animal” heavy like never, reptilian
track full of deaf threatens that only
the libidinous Demon knows the secret of
and it proves to us if we needed this to
be proved, that the farewell to arms is
not for tomorrow. I’m talking about “Love
Gun” of course. Stanley, just plounges
himself with delight in shiny melodies
which had built the success of “Crazy Nights” with
titles like “Never Enough” and “Danger
Us” and he shares the singing with his
longtime partner on “Stand”, hypnotizing
hymn with charming contrasts between the
very rock verses and a truly melodic chorus.
The
musical spectrum swept over by “Sonic Boom” goes
on, and “All For The Glory” a superb track
sung by Eric Singer, shows that KISS can
still innovate. Even if his voice sounds
close to the voice of his predecessor,
it’s not easy to link this track with any
anterior KISS track. Surely one of the
strongest moment of “Sonic Boom”! Tommy
Thayer is not left aside, and he sings
a convincing “When Lighting Strikes”, with
a very AC/DC riff. Let’s remark that while
the guitarist has a nice strand of voice,
it’s
not his only quality. Far from that! Therefore,
the new Space Ace co-signs quite a lot
of songs and definitely gets his place
within the band offering very good quality
solos, on which he fully assumes the Space
Ace’s influence adding fluidness and velocity.
In a word: classy!
More
than a return to basics, “Sonic Boom” marks
a return to essentials for KISS who, along
11 tracks without ornements, demonstrates
that the band hasn’t stolen his status
of heavy metal legend. A revelation for
some people. Only for a few…
*Translation: Noémie
