Customer Reviews

A**hole

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(53)

 

 

I've been a huge Kiss fan since 1977. So, forget all other reviews, I'm about to tell you the 100% truth. Put the CD in, press play, and the first song "Sweet And Dirty Love" will totally kick your ass. This should have been recorded by Kiss. Second, "Firestarter"...a little bizarre but decent. Third, "Weapons Of Mass Destruction"...the heaviest song Gene has ever done, and it's good. THE REST OF THE CD IS F**KING HORRIBLE!!! As a Kiss fan, songs 4-13 are embarrassing! As a footnote...the two extra songs on the Japanese release are very good songs. It's a shame that most people won't hear them. They should have been on the American release and replaced two of the crappy songs. Gene was my childhood hero, but, by NO means, do I recommend this CD.

When I got this CD, I had the lowest of expectations, but even with that in mind, I found very little if anything salvagable on this horrible excuse for a CD. With lyrics like "you got a personality, yeah, just like a bucket full of pee...," we're scraping the bottom of the "creative" barrel here. Is this the stuff Gene was busting at the seams to put onto disc? Even Gene's '78 solo album (which out of the four comes in at a #3, just barely nudging out Peter Criss's) was miles ahead of this.

Much of the album sounds like bad karaoke. Listen to "Beautiful" and "1000 Dreams." It sounds like Gene programed a 1984 Casio keyboard's drum machine and went to town. The same goes for "Waiting for the Morning Light." Damn, he tries hard, but with Gene single tracking his voice, uh, the straining... it's fingernails on a chalkboard. Gene threw a curveball on his first solo album with "When You Wish Upon a Star," but in an odd way it fit. "1000 Dreams" sounds like it was supposed to be this album's radical departure, but it only serves to embarrass...kind of like how I feel when my elderly uncle, after a few too many drinks, starts singing "What's New Pussycat." He likes it, but no one else does.

The two good songs are "Dog," which sounds kind of like the Beach Boy's "Kokomo" on an acid trip, and "Black Tongue," a tip of the hat to Frank Zappa. These two songs show a little bit of inspiration -- just a little.

As much a Gene has been known to criticize Peter Criss and Ace Frehley's ability to write songs, this CD gives him absolutely no ground to stand on. I know Gene intended this to be a departure from Kiss music, but all this CD shows me is that in his heart of hearts, Gene would like to be Barry Manilow.

Let me preface this review with the fact that I like Gene and respect what he has accomplished in the music industry. Also I am not a hard core Kiss fan, but I do enjoy their earlier work like Dressed to Kill. I liked the raw minimalist approach Gene and his band used back then. Unfortunately, Kiss as a band and Gene as a solo performer lost their way. I thought when they put the makeup back on and had Ace back in the band they would get away from the shredding 80's joke that they became, and get back to basics. This album has some of that basic stuff I like so much all those years ago, but it only rears its head on occasion. That being said, on with the review.
Sorry Gene but, I don't think the world needs to hear you sing Prodigy's fire starter, or a cover song about a transsexual. I know you want to be edgy and come across as hip, but prodigy has not been hip or cool, ever. Plus, someone of Gene's vision could have picked a better song to cover than a Prodigy song. To me that is pandering. But pandering to whom? Does Gene think that this will be played in clubs and at raves? I think it would only be used to clear the dance floors. I mean this is the guy along with Paul Stanley who came up the concept of Kiss, and that was one heck of a cool and ground breaking vision.
Now you would think that by including a song he wrote with Bob Dylan that he would handle it with care and precision. (Well he didn't.) For some insane reason Gene produces this song with cheesy synths. Huh? What? Yep, what could have been a cool song comes across as light weight 80's Casio keyboard fluff. In fact with all the money Gene is worth he could have had decent production values for this outing. Now if this was the sound he wanted to have, he must have a lot of ear wax blocking up the works, cos it does not sound raw (which is I think how he may have envisioned this project). On the contrary, it sounds badly mixed with very poor arrangements. There is some okay stuff on here, the title track is hilarious, and hard. The opening song takes from Queens "Tie Your Mother Down," and sounds like it could have come off Dressed to Kill. However, as a total listening experience this album just sucks. I could go and grab a thesaurus and come up with a profound way to say it sucks, but that would be redundant. It is as simple as that, it sucks, and it sucks on allot of different levels. Oh well, Gene is rich enough to do whatever he wants and rich enough to take it like a man when I say this is one of the worst records I have ever heard from a major recording star.
One other thing, what is up with Gene wanting to have group sing alongs with some of these songs. It sounds like he just got tired with some of these songs and just dragged hobos and barflies from off the street to sing back up. Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, this is an excellent example of when you surround yourself with to many yes men, or women you get something like this, which is a mish mosh of an album by an iconic rock star sadly out of touch.

"If I Had a Gun" I'd shoot myself if I paid for this CD. I apologize to anyone who bought it, but I think Gene is trying to say if you bought this CD you're an "A**hole" and every time you look at the CD, it will remind you of that.

A sample of the wonderful, deep and thought provoking lyrics on this "If I had a gun, I'd have me some fun." My 2 year old daughter can write better lyrics.

I'm VERY disappointed, Demon. :(

I'm ashamed to say I was once a very big fan of Kiss. Gene Simmons is the reason I'm now ashamed of that fact. If you've bothered to watch any of the interviews or monitor Gene's activities over the past six years, you know that he's made it blatantly obvious that he cares about one thing only, and that is taking other people's money. He put this album out knowing that enough die-hard Kiss fans would buy it to put some more money in his pocket. He doesn't care about the fans, and obviously never has. He's taken what was once my childhood inspiration and reduced it to a crude reference to the human anatomy. Thanks, Gene. Your selfishness has made me appropriately suspicious in this day and age.

After reading all the negative reviews on this site, I decided to buy my copy used for cheap. In fact, this CD is in my regular playlist and I would not have been dissatisfied if I had paid full price.

It is my belief that the most caustic reviews must be coming from fans who were hoping for a hard-edged, KISS-inspired sound. This CD definitely does not provide one. It has been compared, several times, to Gene's 1978 solo album, but ***hole is, I think, a much superior effort.

If you are a music fan who recognizes the names of Harry Nillson, Randy Newman, Tom Petty, and World Party, you may well be quite pleased with this CD. A lot of people have suggested that Gene is too busy trying to follow popular trends on this CD, but on the contrary, I get the vibe that he is truly just following his own musical tastes this time around--at least, a lot more than he usually allows himself.

The only two tracks that I thought broke the mood of the disc were #3, "Weapons of Mass Destruction," and #11, "Carnival of Souls." Both have at least some merit, but to me they both sound like what they are--salvaged tunes from the COS sessions, and a little out of place.

I'm not educated about The Prodigy, so can't compare Gene's "Firestarter" to theirs, but Gene's is not bad on its own merits.

"Waiting for the Morning Light" is highly listenable, with Gene singing with what sounds like genuine heart. This one reminds me very much of World Party. "Beautiful" also has touches of this, and got me thinking of Harry Nillson. The title track I thought came off pretty fresh--again, I'm not a big afficionado of the chart-topping music scene. Many people have slammed the lyrics on this tune, but guess what--Gene didn't write this one.

The "children" singing backup on "Now That You're Gone," are, I am pretty sure, all Gene himself, tricked up.

"Whatever Turns You On," is, to me, a happy, rollicking knock-off of 70s Funkadelic party music. It sounds like it fell off the soundtrack to "Car Wash". But I like it a lot.

"Dog" is much subtler than the harsher critics give it credit for, and I think it runs off perfectly on the tails of the previous song.

"Black Tongue" has stretches that, improbable as it sounds, sound a LOT like 1980s-era Yes. Kinda cool.

"If I Had a Gun" and "1,000 Dreams" I think are both good tunes. I like the way they close out the album, and again I get hints of World Party and Nillson.

Many fan-critics have slammed the CD's production values, comparing them to what might be achieved by a highschool garage band on lousy recording equipment. Well, I've been in many highschool garage bands that used cheap equipment, and college bands, and bar bands, etc. so I know a little about this, anyway, and Gene's CD doesn't stand out as particularly shabby in the production department. I just don't see exactly what is drawing all the fire from the haters of this CD.

I think Gene actually put a lot of himself into this disc, whether he will be willing to admit it or not, and I believe most general pop music fans could find several things to like inside it.

I wish he hadn't called it ***hole, though. I mean sure, he is one, but does he have to make us all SAY it to refer to his CD?

I say, if you're put off by the vast majority of reviews, which have been brutally negative, give this CD a chance if you can get it cheap, and like me you will probably find you like it.

As a lifelong KISS fan, I have to ask, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, GENE??" KISS started out as a heavy '70's band to top ALL heavy '70's bands, then seemed to seamlessly blend in with the pop rock music of the mid-late '70s. They fell out of favor a bit in the '80s, but as great musicians will do, they superceded the times and KISS was back on top in the mid-late '80s to early '90s.

Then came Carnival of Souls, which was very grunge-like. Very UN-KISS-like. They made a nice comeback, IMO, with Psycho Circus as their coda.

Then.... Gene Simmons decided to cut this solo piece of crap.

I don't know the inside story, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Gene was responsible for dragging KISS into that terrible album Carnival of Souls, and Paul was responsible for pulling the band back toward their roots with Psycho Circus. I don't know this, but it seems to fit their most recent musical tastes.

NOW.... Who in the WORLD is Gene Simmons trying to appeal to with his latest solo 'effort' A**hole?? He CAN'T be trying to appeal to KISS fans. The vast majority of us reject this garbage outright. He CAN'T be trying to appeal to non-KISS fans. They would never buy a Gene Simmons album in the first place. So again, I ask, WHO in the world is this man trying to appeal to?? If this is the best solo offering the former 'Demon' can do, then I say to him, go back to where you belong. Go to Hell!

The songs on this CD are mean, dark and downright unnecessarily filthy. Oh, and not very good, either. This CD reminds me of when Spinal Tap, in the movie, decided to go in a 'new direction', and the fans that were listening to their new age, progressive trash were giving them the thumbs down. That's what I'm giving Gene's 'new direction.' A big TWO THUMBS DOWN for this crap.

All I can say is I'm truly shocked and dumbfounded by this record. I got screwed out of (...) - plain and simple. It's truly amazing what a turd this disc turns into, and while you're listening to it, in fact!! It starts out well enough; Sweet & Dirty Love, Firestarter, and Weapons of Mass Destruction are pretty decent tunes... Now, keep in mind that Firestarter is NOT an original - it's a tune from "The Prodigy" and in fact - sounds almost *identical* to the original version. But it's tolerable... Then, the disc turns into some kind of sick joke with Waiting for the Morning Light, only Gene is serious when he sings it. The next track, Beautiful, isn't. And then by the time you're put thru that torment you get to the title track and you just CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE! I mean this disc truly saps your will to live.



I guess what I'm trying to say is - save your money and buy some WASP or Rob Zombie or ANYTHING ELSE... But not this...

The best thing you can say about this record is that it's actual new material from an original KISS member. KISS has been my favorite band for the past 27 years, but this is easily one of the worst albums I've ever heard. No exaggeration.

These days, Gene simply plays the role of what he thinks a rock star is (or rap star, if you've seen the stupid video for Firestarter). The lyrics are not funny, clever, or shocking (Gene obviously thinks he's got a great album title here) in any way. There is zero authenticity or passion behind any of Gene's musical output anymore and this has been going on since the 80's. Following Gene's mutiple careers is like watching someone die a slow agonizing death right in front of you.

This record is just the absolute low if you're a KISS fan who has hung in there all these years.

Hey, while you're savoring this record, don't forget to spend your $1000 to attend the 6th annual KISS farewll tour featuring the phony Ace and fake Peter (sorry Eric - we don't blame you). If Tommy and Eric don't work out, I'd recommend Gene and Paul call those guys who played the "evil KISS" in KISS Meets the Phantom for Summer 2005.

Paul, please make your solo record good - anything to restore some of our faith and make us not be ashamed to be KISS fans.

Anyone else buying into his ego? I, like the rest of you are probably HUGE Kiss fans & were figuring not to get another Kiss-type record from his solo project, but this is the most lackluster offering I've ever heard. Worse than Carnival of Souls or This Left Feels Right by Bon Jovi. I have to give it 1 star just to bring the overall rating as much as possible. If you are dumb enough to buy this, buy it here, because it's cheaper on CD Universe. Might as well go big & waste your money along with your time listening to this.