1. Modern Day Delilah
2. Russian Roulette
3. Never Enough
4. Yes I Know (Nobody's Perfect)
5. Stand
6. Hot And Cold
7. All For The Glory
8. Danger Us
9. I'm An Animal
10. When Lightning Strikes
11. Say Yeah
This is the final installment in my four part series on key Kiss albums. This week we'll look at the band's most recent release, the
2009 album Sonic Boom. Why is this album important? Because it means
Kiss can still get in the studio and make pretty decent music. I say
pretty decent because I don't think this album is as good as the vintage
stuff. I also don't think it's as good as the post 70's output for the
most part. But I do think it's a pretty good album. It features
eleven songs written by only the members of the band, no outside
writers. For years Gene and Paul said they would not do new music,
stating reasons ranging from "illegal downloading" to "nobody wants to
hear new music, they only want the classics". But they finally came to
their senses and got us something new. Now we can only hope that they
follow this up with another album, and from what I've read, that is a
very good possibility.
First lets look at Paul's songs. The album opener is easily the strongest song here. "Modern Day Delilah" has taken its place as a show
opener and continues Paul's tradition of strong opening songs. Next up
is the Poison song (just kidding) "Never Enough". It is quite
reminiscent of the Poison tune "Nothing But A Good Time". It sounds
more like late 80's material than 70's, but I do like it. "Stand" has
trade off vocals between Gene and Paul, which I've always liked. To me,
the verses are pretty strong, but the chorus is week. I do like the
breakdown and harmonizing that remind me of "God Gave Rock And Roll To
You II". I also get an 80's vibe from "Danger Us". Again, it's a very
decent song by Paul. In my opinion, his second strongest song on the
album is the closer, "Say Yeah". This is an excellent rock song and
Paul should be proud. I don't dislike any of Paul's songs
here, I just don't think they are quite as good as his better material.
For Gene, his songs, for the most part, are stronger as a whole than he's been in years. "Russian Roulette" starts it off nicely, and I
really like the change in speed from the verse to the chorus. Other
than some cheesy lyrics, "Yes I Know (Nobody's Perfect)" is a really
good song. "Hot And Cold" is also really good and I like the backing
vocals on this song. I think "I'm An Animal" is Gene's weekest song,
but it's not bad. It's actually grown on me since I first got the
album. The scream at the end of the song is fantastic.
And finally, we get lead vocals from Eric Singer ("All For The Glory") and Tommy Thayer ("When Lightning Strikes"). I think these
songs are okay, but they are the weakest on the album. Both guys do a
great job on the lead vocals (they both have good voices), but the songs
just aren't that good. "All For The Glory" got some exposure on ESPN
during football season last year, but the song is just a little
contrived in my opinion.
So there you have it, an important album in that hopefully it will lead to another and another, but not the best in the catalog by a long
shot. This was a Wal-Mart exclusive so you can probably still pick it
up for 12 bucks there or used for any range of prices on Amazon.
Special Note:
This album was packaged with a disc of 15 re-recorded Kiss classics like Hotter Than Hell, Deuce and Shout It Out Loud. Although I'm not
big on bands re-recording their own material, it doesn't bother me if
it's included in this type of package for no additional charge. Also,
there was a 3rd disc, a DVD of 6 songs live in Buenos Aires. This was a
great package for 12 dollars. The artwork isn't bad. They tried to
somewhat re-create the Rock And Roll Over cover, but came up a bit
short. It's still not bad.
Singles
Modern Day Delilah
Say Yeah
Never Enough
Best Album Cuts
Russian Roulette
Yes I Know (Nobody's Perfect)
Hot And Cold
Danger Us
Hidden Gems
None