Gene Simmons — ***hole

In this months issue of Chart, Gene Simmons admits to having no credibility and that a song "doesn’t need to be good." After creating Asshole, Simmons’ first solo album in 28 years, KISS’ bass player may want to rethink that advice.

Asshole (or ***hole as it’s written on the CD cover), is sub-par at best. Mediocre tunes combined with KISS’ flashy stage show may have cut it in the ‘70s, but as a solo act Simmons’ merits rest solely on the songs. "Sweet And Dirty Love," sounds like KISS and feels like KISS, but is missing the all-important "it" factor that made the band so popular.

Another bomb is "Weapons Of Mass Destruction." To successfully use a term bandied around by every newscaster and late night talk show host takes some inventive writing to pull off (which Simmons doesn’t), as it always sounds more parody than political.  To his credit, the album isn’t all KISS, and is actually an eclectic mix of rockers, ballads and Steve Miller influenced tunes. 

Despite the variety, Simmons often has trouble finding his own voice, especially on "1,000 Dreams," as he steals a page from Beck’s vocal stylings. By far the worst contribution to this disc is Simmons’ cover of Prodigy’s "Firestarter." His vocals don’t do the song justice and it’s almost bad enough to disregard the entire disc.

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