Music Blvd. Psycho Circus Review

Psycho Circus
Kiss - Psycho Circus (Mercury)
Review by: Allstar
September 1998
by Don Kaye

You can't go home again. As thrilling as it was to see the original Kiss lineup in all their made-up glory on their hugely successful 1996 reunion tour, it's sad to hear them attempt to recapture the same magic on Psycho Circus, the first new recording by the combination of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley in nearly 20 years. It may have seemed like a logical progression for the band to record again, following the overwhelming response to the tour, but someone should have realized that the personality, style, and even sonic ambience that turned their early albums into hard rock classics would be difficult, if not impossible, to recreate more than two decades later. Most of the record, frankly, sounds like any one of the many interchangeable albums that later editions of the band cut in the '80s, cluttered with big, slick overproduction, sappy, desperate- for- a- hit ballads, and hollow rock anthems. No one ever mistook Simmons and Stanley for Lennon and McCartney, but the lyrics here are among the worst ever written by men in their late '40s. Only two songs, "I Pledge Allegiance" and Frehley's zany "Into the Void," come anywhere near the party- rock excitement of Kiss' mid-'70s peak, although the title track as its share of arena-rock spectacle and drama. With most of Psycho Circus, however, it's painfully clear that Kiss should just stick to the nostalgia route, play the old songs, explode the old fireworks, and forget about making new music. You wanted the best? You won't get it here.

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