Ace Frehley (180 Gram Vinyl)

Personnel: Ace Frehley (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar, synthesizer, bass); Will Lee (bass); Anton Fig (drums, percussion); Carl Tallarico (drums); Bill "Bear" Scheniman (bell); David Lasley, Susan Collins, Larry Kelly, Bobby McAdams (background vocals). Recorded at the "Mansion," Sharon, Connecticut. Includes liner notes by Robert V. Conte. All tracks have been remastered. Ace Frehley's 1978 Kiss solo album is often rightfully considered the best of the bunch. Like Paul Stanley's album, it follows in the expected heavy Kiss style, but Frehley had something to prove with his album. Ace was just gaining confidence in his songwriting and singing at the time, so it served as a much-needed showcase to prove that he was as integral to Kiss as the band's main songwriters, Stanley and Gene Simmons. Ace's album was the only one of the four to spawn a true hit single, the funky rocker "New York Groove," while the rest of the album is a consistent set of guitar-fueled heavy rock. Lyrically, several of the songs deal with alcohol and drug abuse ("Snowblind," "Ozone," and "Wiped Out"), something that both Frehley and drummer Peter Criss had succumbed to (eventually leading to their dismissal from the band). Other standouts include the pretty, multi-tracked instrumental "Fractured Mirror," the vicious album-opener "Rip It Out," the Zeppelin-esque "I'm In Need of Love," as well as a pair of melodic compositions, "Speedin' Back to My Baby" and "What's on Your Mind?" Although Frehley would issue several other solo albums in the '80s, he never topped his inspired '78 Kiss solo album.