I know, I know… long-time readers of the ol’ DV are saying to themselves, “Boy, Thelen gets all the great assignments!”
I’m the one, after all, who tackled Having Fun With Elvis On Stage and Unfinished Music, Vol. 1: Two Virgins. It’s a surprise I haven’t tackled any of William Hung’s discography (and I won’t… I do draw the line somewhere).
So, here I am, reviewing yet another album that is absolutely reviled by an artist’s fanbase—we could only be talking about Music From “The Elder”, the 1981 release from KISS. Part soundtrack to a movie that never got made, part rock album, this disc captured a band in serious disarray—and brother, the music proved it beyond a doubt.
Founding drummer Peter Criss was gone, for starters, having quit following the recording of Unmasked (an album he never even appeared on, thank you very much). Lead guitarist Ace Frehley was all but out the door already on this one (though he does appear on the album, and even sings lead on “Dark Night”).
So, what better way to try and regroup with new drummer Eric Carr under your wings than to branch past the hard rock they had become known for and try their hand at a mixture of rock and orchestral numbers, all following a plot that was as convoluted as anything David Lynch ever came up with?
Yeah… it doesn’t work.
Look, Music From “The Elder” is not a completely insipid album. There are moments on this disc where one can hear the flashes of excitement that first drew them to their grease-painted heroes in the first place. Especially if you toss aside any idea of following a plot (which, allegedly, was further compounded when the track order was scrambled way back when—something the remaster allegedly clears up). “Only You” has some of those flashes in it; if only there were more moments like that which would get the listener—hell, even the band—excited about this swill.
And it’s not that anyone was against KISS taking some risks with their music; they’d earned that right. But “A World Without Heroes” hardly qualifies as KISS in terms of its style, and sounds more like a castaway from Gene Simmons’s solo album from 1978. Is it terrible? Honestly, no… but it’s off-putting.
Still, there is some effort that has to be recognized on this one. “Odyssey” is a definite stretch for KISS, but while it falls short of its mark, it does sound like something that could have been left off of Destroyer. “Escape From The Island” is an instrumental that does give Carr a chance to show he was a more technical drummer than Criss, and was ready to try to kickstart KISS as best as he could.
The problem is, for each “Odyssey” or “Dark Light,” there were tracks like “The Oath,” “Mr. Blackwell” or the abysmal “Finale” (whatever the hell it was supposed to represent) that undid any forward progress they made. Never mind the fact that KISS had been floundering the past couple of albums; this is the one that showed they had completely lost the plot.
All of that said, the sad fact is that Music From “The Elder” remains the weakest effort that KISS put out in their career. Perhaps it was necessary, though; by the time the dust settled from this one, Frehley was officially gone (though his picture would grace the cover of Creatures Of The Night), and KISS would begin its slow crawl back up to respectability. If you absolutely have to own this one to have a complete discography, don’t be surprised if you don’t find yourself going back to this one as often as other discs.
