Live to Win
It's taken a mere 28 years, but Kiss frontman Paul Stanley has finally followed up the, er, promise of his part of the band's 1978 quartet of post-Love Gunsolo ego-trips. Yet he's mostly eschewed Kiss's fist-pumping histrionics and sonic clichés in favor of a darker turn into the melodic nu-metal of "Lift" and "Bulletproof," the pop-punk sheen of "Wake Up Screaming," and obligatory power ballads like "Second to None," "Loving You...," and "Everytime I See You Around." The latter sensibility belies the touch of popmeister Desmond Childs as co-writer with Stanley of most of the material. Yet Childs, who's been churning out similar, chart-ready slices of rock dramaturgy for artists great and small since the '80s, can hardly be blamed by the Kiss Army for turning their sassy, beloved Star Man into Bon Jovi. That honor goes to Stanley himself, who self-produced his own post-punk-inflected reincarnation as Big Rock Balladeer. "Where Angels Dare," indeed.--Jerry McCulley