10 Musical Shifts That Fell Flat On Their Face
1. Music From the Elder - KISS
Everytime you turn on a KISS song, life just feels like a non-stop party. Ever since the band was formed by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, the goal was always to leave their fans happy with some of the most care-free rock music ever created. So how do you screw that up?....you start to care too much.
After a few years of losing the plot with disco and power pop detours, KISS decided that the best way to get back in good favor with their audience was to release a concept album to show their musical strengths. Telling a long winded story about the Chosen One, Music From the Elder feels like what happens if you ask a band like Cheap Trick to cover the Wall, with disastrous results all around.
Even when pulling in heavyhitters like Lou Reed and producer Bob Ezrin, this album feels like a desperate plea to find a new audience, with Stanley and Simmons playing up the more fantastical elements of their convoluted story. Nowadays, almost everyone involved in the project said it was a mistake, with Stanley and Simmons only keeping “A World Without Heroes” in the setlist. Though the band recovered quite nicely with the venomous spit of Creatures of the Night, they really had their work cut out for them after this went belly up.