Masochist Music Review: KISS - Music from "The Elder"

What can I say, I’m a masochist when it comes to music.  I like to have complete catalogues when it comes to my favorite musicians.  Sometimes this is a good thing (Alice Cooper, AC/DC) but oftentimes it’s not.  Not only that, but I used to fall into the trap of hearing one or two great songs and purchasing a whole album because of it, which sometimes produced a diamond, but usually only coal.  During this series, we will dwell on some of the albums I have in my collection that are downright terrible.  I will re-listen to them all and give you my impression of them.

Now this is only my opinion, so don’t take it as gospel.  If you like a particular album in this series, let me know, we’ll open up a discussion about it.  I’m always open to discussing the merits of any particular album, and if you have any suggestions (and especially if you have the album itself and are willing to share your views) then let me know and I’d be happy to add it to the list.

Album Name:  Music from “The Elder”

Artist:  KISS

Release Date:  1982

Why you bought it:  I had all of the original KISS albums (the ones with all of the original members) and I had recently started to branch out and purchase the later albums from the 80s.  I remember hearing negative reviews of this album, but like Unmasked, I wanted to determine for myself whether it was a bad album or just a poorly reviewed album (as many of the original KISS albums were). 

First impressions:  I didn’t really get it, to tell you the truth.  It wasn’t like anything I had heard from KISS before.  The only song that I recognized was “A World Without Heroes” from the KISS box set that my girlfriend at the time had given me for Christmas that year.  It was odd, better than Unmasked in terms of the fact that it wasn’t so poppy, but the whole album just felt like it was trying too hard.

Impressions upon listening to it recently:  I can still sense a bit of desperation when I listen to it now.  KISS really wanted a hit after Unmasked was a flop, so they put a lot into this album, it was just not a good album.  The music on it is actually pretty good, with a few decent guitar solos by Frehley, but the fact that it was a concept album really hindered anything interesting that it could have been.  Instead of singing about women and rock and roll, they were singing about the training of a boy into a secret society.  That being said, some of the songs, or at least parts of the songs, aren’t that bad.  There’s a nice guitar solo on “Just a Boy”, “Under the Rose” isn’t horrible, and “Dark Light”, Frehley’s lone vocal contribution, is one of the standouts and sounds the most like a traditional KISS song from Love Gun or Rock and Roll Over.  One of the things that really surprised me about going over these “bad” KISS albums is just how much Ace Frehley contributed to the band and kept them on the old school path.  Whenever there is a bad KISS album that Ace is a part of, there’s a good chance that the best song on that album will be the one that he is singing (he also saves the best guitar work for those songs as well).  I understand why things happened the way they did between the members of KISS, but up until this point I was almost blindly following Paul and Gene while dismissing the contributions of Ace and Peter, which is wrong.  Ace had his demons, sure, but listen back to the KISS albums that people aren’t generally a fan of and you’ll hear an incredible amount of talent and consistency out of Ace.

Any saving grace?:  Ace does a great job on the guitar parts, and honestly, if you just listen to the music, it’s a decent album.  “The Oath” has almost a pre-80s hair metal feel to it, like KISS were a few years ahead of their time, and “A World Without Heroes” is a decent ballad.  Taken on their own, the songs stand up a little better.  They are not the highlights of a massive catalog of songs, but they are solid role players, the Jarrod Saltalamacchias of the KISS catalog (for all you Red Sox fans out there).

Was it worth the purchase?:  At the time, no not at all.  Looking back on it, it was worthwhile, especially since, being so poorly regarded, it’s probably infinitely cheaper than most other KISS albums.