Ace Frehley [Original recording remastered, Import]

The general consensus is that Ace Frehley's solo album was the best solo album because it was the most rocking and Kiss-like. While I agree that it is a great achievement (and it sold the best) I prefer Paul's. Ace's gets four stars from me. Here's the scoop.

Ace's album was 9 tracks, which breaks down to 8 vocals and 1 instrumental. All but the instrumental were rockers. The standouts include "Rip It Out" which would have made a great Kiss tune. Here it is a fast and furious opener with a real great singalong melody. "Speedin' Back To My Baby" and "What's On Your Mind?" are a bit more pop and melodic but with Ace's guitar they're never too pop. They're just rock enough. "Fractured Mirror" is the instrumental and the first of a series of slower instrumental "Fractured" tracks for the Ace. It's great. It shows off some intricate fingering and clever chords that just sound "Ace".

"New York Groove" was the hit single, but not a song I'm partial to. To me it sounded like disco-Kiss that would emerge on Dynasty. I prefer the live versions that Kiss did later on, they had more thunder in the drums and more rock in the riffs.

"Ozone" was a song that aurally sounds very "spaced" and you can guess what the subject matter is. Foo Fighters, incidentally, did a great cover of "Ozone" back in '95. "Snow Blind" covers the same lyrical ground. "Wiped Out" spoofs "Wipeout" by its intro and again seems to be about being, well, wiped out. It has some challenging time changes and crunchy chords.

By and large this is a great album. I think some of the songs could have used more hooks. I still enjoy listening to it, and it does stand up as probably the best Ace solo album to date. (I have yet to hear all of Anomoly but it sounds great.) Ace's guitar playing is heavily showcased, without it being a "guitar" album. Anyone who thinks Ace can't play needs to listen to a song like "Wiped Out" which is just mindblowing.

Four stars for the Ace.

Ace Frehley (1978.) A solo album by the KISS member.

On September 18, 1978, KISS did something no other rock band has ever done to this day - all four members released a solo album on the same day. Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss would now not only be recognized for their music-making abilities as a group, but also as solo artists.

Although Ace Frehley was the guitar mastermind that ultimately made KISS such a great band (he even designed the KISS logo!), he tended to go very unappreciated by fans, who tended to favor Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. Fortunately, every member of the band got their chance to shine as solo artists in 1978 when they all released solo albums. How does Ace's measure up? Read on and find out.

Every one of the KISS solo albums featured a certain uniqueness when compared to those by the other members. Paul Stanley stuck close to the stylings of KISS. Gene Simmons experimented with the rock stylings of the day. Peter Criss did an album of rhythm and blues. But what about Ace? He'd give us a taste of things to come in the rock world. The first two tracks, Rip It Out and Speedin' Back To My Baby sound a good deal like the glam metal bands that would dominate the next decade. It really makes you wonder how big an influence this album was on eighties metal bands. Snow Blind is a hard rocker as only Ace could do, with some killer guitar riffs (this is NOT the Black Sabbath song.) For Ozone and What's On Your Mind?, Ace uses both acoustic and electric guitars, and in doing so creates something that sounds like a fusion of eighties metal and nineties alternative grunge rock. New York Groove was the only charting hit from any of the KISS solo albums, and with good reason. It's an excellent song that fuses elements of Queen and Led Zeppelin, two of the biggest rock bands of the day. Ace closes the album with an instrumental entitled Fractured Mirror. The chiming bell intro to this song has been copied by god only knows how many bands (ACDC and Metallica to name a few.) This is a lighter and more melodic track than the others on the album. The keyboards and backing riffs add a lot to this song. All four KISS solo albums from 1978 end with a ballad, and this one's the best of all four of them.

This album is a rock and roll masterpiece. If you're a fan of KISS or classic hard rock/heavy metal, this is an album that you must own. All of the KISS solo albums from 1978 were excellent, but this one is (by far) the best of the lot.

after almost 30 years, this album (CD to you youngins) has undoubtedly stood the test of time...although i disagree with the review below in that, yes Gene's album wasn't even close to the KISS sound, but, save for "When You Wish...", the songwriting is fantastic (very eclectic and Beatle-esque)...on the other hand, we have this, the Ace Frehley solo album, which was the only one TO stay true to the KISS sound...every tune on here is top-notch...a true testament to the theory that KISS, as we originally loved them and their sound, died when Ace dropped out...too bad because they (KISS) SUCKED in the 80's and most of the 90's (that's right, until Ace came back to the fold)...and here's a side note>>>"NY Groove" was NOT written by Ace; it was penned by Argent lead-singer, Russ Ballard who actually never recorded the tune himself.....peace (ya can't spell peace without "ace")