Album Pick of the Year
06. Ace Frehley Ace Frehley 1978 (Casablanca)
Hard Rock
I’m the kind of guy that likes feeling high!
Overview
When each member of Kiss released a solo album at the same time, the 17th September 1978 history was certainly in the making here. Now band members from highly popular bands releasing solo sets was nothing new of course, but what was new was doing it in a clever commercial ploy the way that Kiss did. So instead of releasing a Kiss studio album in 1978, the band were now effectively releasing four studio albums in the same year! Kiss were easily one of the biggest grossing bands on the planet at this time and 1977’s
Love Gun had been their last studio album, but since that they had released the highly successful
Alive II and the reasonably successful greatest hits remix
Double Platinum. So these solo projects were therefore another way to tap the band’s huge commercial appeal. Now bright and safe observation would’ve revealed that the best solo stuff would come from the band’s most consistent writer in Paul Stanley, with Gene Simmons then fighting it out with ‘dark horse’ Paul Criss for second spot and Ace Frehley bringing up the rear….. but just how wrong everybody would’ve been! Now when band members release solo material they often use this as an exercise to do something different, as they aren’t weighed down by the usual confines of their band. Paul Stanley though decided to play it safe and released the most Kiss like album of the four and if anything if Kiss as a band had released a studio album that year, it probably would’ve sounded like this. Overall though and despite some good material, the album was a very average bit of work that didn’t do Paul Stanley any credit at all. Gene Simmons the other main focal point of the band, did decide to branch out stylistically and his flirtation with Beatlesque pop, 1970s funk/disco and good old fashioned rock & roll would’ve raised some eyebrows, as Gene Simmons had always been largely associated with dishing out Kiss’ heavier material. The overall result was an album largely inferior to even that of Paul Stanley, which had been nothing special either. Dark horse Paul Criss whose ability at the power ballad as shown on “Beth” and his love of rocking hooks made his release eagerly awaited, but the end result though was an album as flat and boring as a pancake without any toppings, and the album was a woeful piece of work. All was not lost though, as the Eddie Kramer produced
Ace Frehley was head and shoulders above the other three albums and turned out to be an enviable piece of work, and an album that displayed hard rock at its very best!
Ace Frehley- Guitar/Rhythm/Bass/Vocals
Will Lee- Bass
Anton Fig- Drums
Production- Eddie Kramer
Album
Rip It Out- A pounding opener with a venomous bite, that basically craps all over the rest of the material found on the other three solo albums!
Speedin’ Back to My Baby- With its hokey kokey singing at the start, the song surprisingly then falls into a fun and highly enjoyable melodic tale, with some really catchy lyrics and a song which sums up the gist of Ace Frehley.
Snow Blind- One of the heaviest tracks on the album and also one of the most solid. It sounds like the kind of song that Gene Simmons could’ve written on a Kiss album and a pity that Gene himself couldn’t write anything like this on his debut set.
Ozone- Another heavy song to lead on from the previous effort and despite its repetitive feel, it has enough songcraft to fill out its almost 5 minutes of listening time.
What’s On Your Mind?- Probably the most Kiss sounding song on the album (well the introduction is anyway) The song overall would’ve fitted nicely on any Kiss album and the song has a great combination of both heaviness and fun melody, which makes the whole thing a fun listen.
New York Groove- One of the many songs that were penned by Russ Ballad in the 1970s and like a lot of his material it was aimed at glam bands, of which British glam band Hello were the band to debut this song on their 1975 album. Not a bad song but really doesn’t fit on this album, given the feel of the rest of the songs on offer.
I’m in Need of Love- A quality album track that doesn’t let up on the heaviness for one moment and it has a great uptempo guitar section halfway through the song which lights up proceedings.
Wiped-Out- With a heavy drumming intro by Anton Fig, the song quickly reveals itself as a track built around great lyrics and then the whole thing explodes into a haphazard chorus to great aplomb.
Fractured Mirror- One of my favourite instrumentals from a leading band/artist at this time, so nuff said here really!
Verdict
This debut album sets its stall out from the word go on the biting “Rip It Out” which gives the listener the bit between the teeth from the word go and also shows that this guy wasn’t planning on messing around and stacking up the songs to make the numbers! This album is heavy and this heaviness along with a fair dosage of substance, are provided on addictive songs like “Snowblind” and the even heavier “Ozone” a song that really shows the ability that Ace Frehley was able to harness on some of his songs. These songs which despite being reptetive at times, were really able to keep the listener engaged from start to finish, with a combination of both heavy music and catchy riffs. Now Ace Frehley shows us that he’s no one trick pony and that he can actually put out some great songcraft on a song like “What’s On You Mind?” where he is able to combine both heavy elements with fun melodies, and then chuck in some cute sounding lyrics…..ah what bliss! Then there is a track like “Wiped-Out” which probably ranks as my favourite on the album and a track that seems to encompass everything that was great about this album on all its previous tracks and then the album finishes on such a high with the instrumental “Fractured Mirror”. Even the low key efforts like “Speedin’ Back to My Baby” all just seem to fall into place on the album, largely due to their catchy lyrics and melody. In fact every song on this album with the exception of the Russ Ballad penned cover “Back in the New York Groove” are great rocking songs, as the Russ Ballad cover is largely a glam song that just doesn’t fit in at all, with the harder rocking and jovial material on the rest of the album. Even more impressively and with the exception of the one cover song mentioned above, Ace Frehly writes on every song on this album and by and large this is with hardly any assitance from others. The Ace Frehley debut is a tight hard rocking album, that’s full of clever melodies and even cleverer lyrics, that at times all seemed to be just chucked together in a nonchelent lapsidasical style, but the whole just sits together so well and the aforementioned song “Wiped-Out” just seems to sums all this up nicely! The whole album is a great example of chucked out hard rock, that’s written off the cuff and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry would try something similiar a few years later on his first solo album…..but it ’s nowhere near as good as Ace Frehley’s effort!