You know how I feel about KISS. I know all the arguments against the band, I realize that the majority of the catalog of work they still perform was originally written and recorded 40+ years ago, I know the costumes are outlandish or whatever. Still my band.
I saw and heard some of the clips of the New Year's Eve record-setting extravaganza the band put on in Dubai. It was their first concert performance since the (bogus) pandemic put pause on their massive End of the Road final victory tour. It had been almost a year since they last took the stage (297 days, I think). Yet despite all that rest, Paul's voice strained to keep up. He even struggled with the stage patter. It's gone. The rest of the band sounded solid despite being in their 60s and 70s. But Paul's voice is shredded. If the pandemic ever ends and if the band makes it to the final show (now tentatively scheduled to run into 2022 at some point) that needs to be the end.
It's time for KISS (at least in this version) to fold. I know they have plans to gradually replace all the members and keep it going but it's time for Paul, at least, to hang up the seven inch heels.
OTHERS WHO NEED TO FOLD
Paul McCartney
His new album is drab and clumsy. His voice sounds like he's struggling to gargle golf balls and his "whimsical lyrical style" doesn't hold up with his age. Pretty much everything he's done for the last 20 years or so has been pretty bad. Despite the reputation, Paul was always the weakest of the solo Beatles. I'd rather have more Ringo. Harrison was better and so was Lennon. He looks and sounds like somebody's great grandmother trying to be cutesy cool.
David Lee Roth
All the things that made Lee great in the 70s and 80s are the things that drag him down now. His cringy stage banter is stale, his dance moves come off as creepy when a 70 year old man is capering around on the stage and his voice is blown.
A FEW WHO NEED TO HOLD
Kansas
Little known fact. Kansas released an album in 2020, The Absence of Presence. It's not great, but it still "sounds" like Kansas. There's no Dust in the Wind on there, but the music is relatable for those who enjoy the operatic Kansas style. It fits in with the rest of the catalog. I don't think you'll find fans on their tour clamoring for these new songs, but they're solid enough to be listenable.
Ozzy
Other than the dismal collaboration with Post Malone (what a talentless sack of kookaburra excrement that fool is) Ozzy's most recent effort Ordinary Man is solid from start to finish. The title track (with an assist from Elton John) is poignant and really resonated with me -- an older guy trying to figure out what his legacy is going to be (if anything). It stands with some of my all time favorites of his. Fits in the same realm as Mama I'm Coming Home. This album comes ten years after his last studio album and given Ozzy's age, it's quite possible that this is his last full studio effort. If so, it's not a bad exit.
AC/DC
Their most recent album PWR UP broke absolutely no new ground. But it is still pure, raw, AC/DC and it melts your face off. There are no classics on the album, nothing that's going to replace Back In Black, Thunderstruck or any of the other immortals in their set list, but it's really comforting to hear a band that's been doing this as long as they have sound this tight. This album could easily have been released before or after Back in Black (40 years ago) and it fits as well or better in their catalog than any of the albums released since about 83. It's classic classic rock. You know three seconds into the song below that you're about to get a dose of AC/DC. It's unmistakable.
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