REVIEW: Peter Criss – One For All (2007)

PETER CRISS – One For All (2007 Silvercat Records)

I decided to be lazy tonight, and write an easy review on a shitty album.  It’s easier to tear something down than to build it up.  I dove into my Peter Criss folder, and grinned as I selected his 2007 post-Kiss reunion solo album, One For All.  Peter re-teamed with his Criss bandmates, Mark Montague and Mike McLaughlin.  He also called in some favors from the Letterman Show’s Will Lee and Paul Shaffer.

PETER CRISS_0001And then everyone took a giant shit, recorded it, and they called it an album.  A long, drawn out and painfully slow and tuneless album.  One For All consists entirely of slow, slow numbers.  Call ’em ballads, call ’em whatever you want.  It’s 100% schlock, 0% rock.  Peter: I am telling you right now man, and I’m sorry to have to be the one to say this, but your voice is gone.  It’s done.  It’s not pleasant to listen to anymore, especially when you try to reach notes so far out of your range that you’re whispering.  Note accuracy is also a problem.  It seems to be that if Peter didn’t hit the notes, but was in the general vicinity of them, that was a take.  I am guessing at the quality control standards; I wasn’t there in the studio with Peter, who self-produced this bad boy.  Not a good idea there, Pete m’boy.

The best tune is the title track and opener, “One for All”, on which Peter is backed by the mighty All Boys Choir from the Church of Transfiguration.  Their voices (which unfortunately don’t come in until close to the end) save this song and make it something a little more special.  It makes you wish they were singing on more of the album!  Also, any time backup singer Jen Johnson is audible, then everything’s fine.

Worst tunes: A tie between “Send in the Clowns” (yes, that “Send in the Clowns”) and “Space Ace”.  I’m not going to insult your intelligence and tell you what “Space Ace” is about.  Now that Peter has written songs about himself (“The Cat” from his EP) and Ace, I’m waiting for him to come up with “Star Child” and “The Demon”.  Milk it Peter, for all its worth.  May as well, since everybody else is too.

Quality control beef from the lyric sheet: the song “Doesn’t Get Better Than This”.

Remember George, and his guitar,
John and Paul, and Ringo Star.

Seriously, they spelled Ringo Starr’s name wrong in a song about the Beatles!

Sorry Peter.  This album gets the dreaded LeBrain Shit-Bomb.

0.5/5 stars

ONE FOR ALL_0002

20 comments

  2. Pete gathered a group of ppl, took a giant shit and recorded it…bahahaa!
    And, Send in the Clowns?? For the love of all that is right please retire that song! (hearing Krusty the Clown in my head…)

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  3. Hahah. WOOOOWWWWW, man! This was a chainsaw review, no doubt about it. With a machine gun added…
    I can only agree, this album is below all criticism. In fact, it’s one of the worst records I have ever heard, even worse than the latest Quiet Riot one – and that is an album that made Geoff Tate’s Frequency Unknown sound like a masterpiece in comparision.

    But I feel bad for Peter Criss, even though he has been living in his own reality all of his life, almost. He often get creited for being a shitty musician and a useless song writer and sometimes that is acurate, sometimes it’s not. I mean, Criss 1973 – 1977 was a groovy drummer in my book. And what would songs like Black Diamond, Getaway or Strange Ways be without his voice? Or Hard Luck Woman? That song would have been Hard Cheese Crapsong, had Paul Stanley sang on it.
    Also, he did write som really great songs in his day. I find both Baby Driver and Hooligan killer songs and make no mistake, it was Peter that made sure that Destroyer didn’t totally bomb. Even though I believe both Stan Penridge and Bob Ezrin probably wrote more than Peter on Beth, that song saved the album and maybe Kiss’ whole career.
    His 1978 solo album also gets an undeserved bad rap. Sure, the rest of Kiss members solo albums were better, but that didn’t mean that Peter’s was bad. Also, Peter didn’t play it safe with that one and did what you’re supposed to do when recording a solo album – record stuff that wouldn’t normally fit on your day job’s album. Ace and Paul just recorded Kiss albums.

    His first post-Kiss solo album Out Of Control is also an underrated piece of work. I just listened to it yesterday and I really like it. Half of that labum consists of his Dynasty demos, but those were awesome demos, most of them. Here’s a review for you, Mike? If you haven’t already and I missed it…

    But after that, not much to write home about has left Criss’ recording studios. Let Me Rock You and Cat #1 were both underwhelming and I guess it’s not by coincidence Criss didn’t get a song on Psycho Circus….

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    1. Hey Jon, I am very pleased that you enjoyed this machete attack of a review. The only place you and I differ is on Let Me Rock You. I like that album a lot…I’ve always considered it a peer record to Out of Control. I have to review those two still. But for the record I like both of ’em. Then he disappeared from the scene for a while until Criss came along…which as you know…SUCKED.

      And yeah totally agreed on how great Peter was in the vintage days, as a drummer. Absolutely agreed. In fact there is a live version of “She” on the Kiss My Ass DVD that blows me away. His drumming on it makes the whole song that much more powerful, and he had a swing to him. After Kiss went Disco, I don’t feel that Peter Criss ever came back as a drummer.

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  6. I tend to agree that this post-KISS efffort was not great. I listened to a couple of tracks online and did not buy it. It was probably as bad a Peter Criss album as Music From the Elder was as a KISS album. The best Peter Criss solo material came out after he departed from KISS in 1980. His 1978 solo album, while not very KISS-like, was a quality release. I listened to it far more that the Simmons solo. I remember buying Gene Simmons’ solo album first in 1978 thinking that it would would be classic, demon, hard-driving rock. What a shock to the system. That’s not a compliment.

    Peter made his mark in a number of the original lineup KISS albums. Destroyer was a great album. Beth, of course, put it over the top and gave KISS more credibility. It’s kind of pathetic that on the eve of the release of his autobiography Paul Stanley would challenge or make an issue about who wrote Beth. Stanley’s comments about Beth have gained little traction. I look forward to Peter’s next release which has already suggested will be a harder album.

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    1. Dude, The Elder was a great album as far as I’m concerned. It might not have sounded like a Kiss record, but neither did Dynasty, Unmasked, Crazy Nights or Carnival Of Souls – all of them are very good in their own right, I think.
      When it comes to Gene Simmons’ solo album, I can understand some of the criticism it has gotten throughout the years, but I think Gene did everything right with it. Yeah, Paul and Ace made great solo albums, but they were Kiss albums in sound and style. What’s the point of making a solo album that sounds like your day job? Gene experimented and did stuff that never would have taken a place on Kiss record style wise. Good songs or not, that’s just a matter of taste, but I think that album is really, really good.

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    2. Hey Rich! I agree, I really like Peter’s first two post-Kiss solo albums. I have not reviewed them yet but I will get there. I still listen to both fairly frequently and I was surprised how they weren’t bad at all!

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  7. Not sure how I missed this review, and when I finally get caught up I discover it’s a giant steaming turd! Alas. Sometimes these solo records really show where a band’s strengths lie. At least you gave it a half point. Hahaha Send in The Clowns, indeed. Oh man.

    Sincerely, Ringo Star.*

    *(not actually Ringo Starr. Ringo Star. I’m a plumber from New Jersey).**

    ** not actually from New Jersey or named Ringo or Star.

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