Spacewalk (A Salute To Ace Frehley) 1996

Spacewalk (A Salute To Ace Frehley) 1996 

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Spacewalk - A Salute To Ace Frehley is a tribute album by some well known faces in the music biz. This is another time were posting the track list is warranted to see who performs what.

1. Marty Friedman - Deuce

2. Gilby Clarke - Shock Me

3. Scott Ian - Rip It Out

4. Jeff Watson & Ron Young - Hard Luck Woman

5. Dave "Snake" Sabo - Snowblind

6. Sebastian Bach - Rock Bottom

7. Tracii Guns - Parasite

8. John Norum - Cold Gin

9. Bruce Bouillet - New York Groove

10. Dimebag Darrell - Fractured Mirror

The entire album is pretty good performance wise. They are all pretty faithful to the original songs with only a slight variations on a couple of them. I find this Tribute much more to my liking than I do with the one done for KISS. The head scratcher for this album is why the hell is Hard Luck Woman on here?  It's not an Ace Frehley song. It was written by Paul Stanley and sung by Peter Criss on Rock And Roll Over. Oh well....

Fave Songs: All of 'em. But Co-MVP goes to both Bruce Bouillet's version of New York Groove and Dimebag Darrell's version of Fractured Mirror

Album cover is ok, but it comes off as pretty amateurish and low rent. A rush job perhaps?

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Ace Frehley (12 Picks) 1997

Ace Frehley (12 Picks) 1997 

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12 Picks is exactly that. 12 songs of his that make up this Greatest Hits package. But only the first 6 songs are taken directly from previous albums with the final 6 songs being live recordings. Of those final 6, 4 of them are KISS songs. Not sure how it works, but I don't think Ace is allowed to use any song masters from any KISS albums. Thus the live versions are a way around that.

As for this set, it has his video hit singles. But it's missing some of his best stuff such as Fractured Mirror, Fractured Too and Fractured III, not to mention a few other choice songs that should be on here. This set more or less was a cash grab for the studio.

Album cover is clever in the 12 guitar picks, each representing each song on the album

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Ace Frehley (Anomaly) 2009

Ace Frehley (Anomaly) 2009

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Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn! Anomaly fucking rocks!!!! This is so unlike Ace, song writing-wise & guitar playing-wise. And that's a good thing. His playing and writing sound contemporary and relevant. It's so easy for an artist that's been around as long as he has been to just resort to his bag of tricks that got him here. The songs are full of hooks and tasty licks. Some pretty amazing leads on his part. Wow.

Sheesh! 20 fucking years between releases! It just boggles the mind that it's been that long. But because of the long wait in between releases, his band line up would of course change. The only person returning here along with Ace is Anton Fig on drums. John Regan is MIA on bass, replaced by Anthony Esposito.

A Little Below The Angels cracks me up. Only Ace can get away with writing a song like this. And I absolutely love it.  Quite possibly the MVP of the album for originality. The song reminds me of Dolls in a way. Sister kicks major fucking ass with an incredible riff and groove. This song much be played as loud as possible. Fractured Quantum continues his instrumental tradition. The melody within the song is hard to shake once you hear it. It will stay with you for awhile. :)

Fave Songs: Fox On The Run, Genghis Khan, A Little Below The Angels, Sister and Fractured Quantum

Album cover is pretty cool. I like it. As far as I know, there were no videos released in support of the album, which sucks as there are a couple of songs that need one.

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Ace Frehley (Trouble Walkin') 1989

Ace Frehley (Trouble Walkin') 1989

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Ace never puts out anything that sucks. And this record is proof that he was by far the most talented musician in KISS. Interesting thing about this record is that he also released the single Hide Your Heart a month or so apart from KISS' Hot In The Shade album that also had the same song on it. It was written by Paul Stanley, but he let Ace do his version of it. I don't know which version I prefer as they both sound pretty much the same.

Peter Criss, Sabastian Bach and Dave Sabo from Skid Row guest on this record with Anton Fig returning full time on the skins.

Fractured III continues the saga that he started all the way back in 1978. This one is a little more hard edge compared to the other 2, but it fits well as a whole in the series of instrumentals. 

With the release of Trouble Walkin', Ace had "disbanded" Frehley's Comet and taken on the name of...well himself, even though 3 of the 4 members are still within the band. Out is Tod Howarth. Back in is Anton Fig on drums who was replaced on Second Sighting with Jamie Oldaker. Also still on board on bass is John Regan and Richie Scarlet takes over the spot vacated by Tod.

Fave Songs: Shot Full of Rock, Do Ya, Hide Your Heart and Fractured III

Album cover is pretty cool and worlds ahead of all the Frehley's Comet covers. This isn't the best cover out there. But it's a step in the right direction.

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Trouble Walkin' Music Videos

Ace Frehley - Do Ya

Ace Frehley (Frehley's Comet - Second Sighting) 1988

Ace Frehley (Frehley's Comet - Second Sighting) 1988 

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Second Sighting is a pretty solid followup to his last full length album. It's more of the same. Just that Anton Fig does not play on this one. He wouldn't return until Trouble Walkin' album that follows this one.

Stand out songs on this one are Insane. Hot hot hot Nurses in the video is always a good thing. Also It's Over Now is another great song. I actually try to avoid listening to this one as much as I can, because it always turns into an earworm that last for 2 weeks non stop. But Tod Howarth really got to shine on this song and the guitar solo is fucking awesome. Works perfectly with the rest of the song. Give it a listen and curse my name when you get an earworm and can't get it out of your head. I warned ya. My favorite song though has gotta be Juvenile Delinquent. Great crowd sing-along-song.

The Acorn is Spinning definitely ranks up there for originality. How to describe this one? It's an instrumental, but it's not. What we get are 2 dudes in the background talking about a boxing match, making a bet, watching the fight, and what happens afterwards. I guess you can say its a soundtrack to what is happening with the 2 dudes telling the story about the match. No singing here. Oh forget it, you just have to hear for yourself to understand it. But it's definitely worth it. :)

Fave Songs: Insane, It's Over Now, Juvenile Delinquent, Fallen Angel, Separate and The Acorn is Spinning

Album cover = Pfftt!!! Boring.

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Second Sighting Music Videos

Ace Frehley - Insane

Ace Frehley - It's Over Now

Ace Frehley (Frehley's Comet - Live + 1) 1988

Ace Frehley (Frehley's Comet - Live + 1) 1988

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Live + 1 is exactly that. It's a 5 song EP with 4 being live versions of Rip It Out, Breakout, Something Moved and Rocket Ride. The last song is a working demo for Words Are Not Enough. The demo is ok. This release was a quick fix between his first album and the upcoming second full LP release.

Fave Songs: No real stand outs here with them being live and 1 demo.

Album cover is what it is to tell you it's a live album. No music videos were released for this album.

Rating: 4 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Ace Frehley (Frehley's Comet) 1987

Ace Frehley (Frehley's Comet) 1987

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When Ace left KISS, I had been anticipating the release of his solo venture, which seemed to take years for it to happen. And when it finally dropped, I wasn't disappointed at all. After hearing the first song, Rock Soldiers on the album, I knew I was in for a treat. It has one of the coolest drum intros ever. I was hooked. This was a completely different sounding Ace, guitar-wise that is. It was more current, and in line with the day's shredders of that year.

My only thing I had to get my head around was the inclusion of Tod Howarth. I couldn't understand why this dude was getting to sing on the record at the time. But Ace was intent of having a band and not to be viewed as a "solo" record. Overall it's just a kick ass record.

I have to point out that Frehley's Comet has one of the weirdest songs I've ever heard: Dolls. And I absolutely love it. Totally original and definitely a trip to listen to it.

As he did on his KISS Solo record, he continues with his all instrumental song Fractured Too, which is so far from either record sonically, and oh so cool.

Whenever I listen to this album, it instantly takes me back to 1987. So many great albums came out that year that it was overload to me. And Frehley's Comet was one of my favorites that year. Love this one a lot. As I mentioned before, Ace didn't disappoint here when it finally came out. He had left the band back in 1982 and he still kept his identity hidden from the rest of the world till release day.

So, I couldn't wait to see his first music video for Into The Night, where I would FINALLY get to see what he looked like. It was definitely a moment I had been waiting years for, more so than seeing the other guys because the wait was much longer. 

Fave Songs: Rock Soldiers, Into The Night, We Got Your Rock, Love Me Right, Dolls and Fractured Too

Album cover was and is meh. Nothing groundbreaking here.

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Frehley's Comet Music Videos

Ace Frehley - Rock Soldiers

Ace Frehley - Into The Night

KISS (Ace Frehley) 1978

KISS (Ace Frehley) 1978

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Ace Frehley Poster Insert

Of the 4 solos albums, I had absolutely no expectations for Ace Frehley's effort. Zero. Nada. Zilch. And that's only because up to this point he had only had lead vocals on 2, count 'em, 2 songs!!! Those songs of course being Shock Me and Rocket Ride.

Imagine my shock (pun intended) when I first played this. From day 1 and all the way up to today, it was/is heads and shoulders above the rest. I'll even go one step further and say that if the entire band of KISS had played on this one with the same results, THIS would get the honor for Best KISS Album Of All Time. They didn't, so it will have to settle for Best Solo Album honors instead.

Straight up this album fucking rocks! From the opening song of Rip It Out to the closing notes of Fractured Mirror it's a winner. The biggest hit of course was New York Groove which still kicks mucho ass to my ear, which was a cover version from the band Hello. Me love song long time. :)

It's just mind blowing that he had stage freight about singing for the longest time. This totally wiped it all away (pun intended). Even Gene Simmons (the one with the monumental ego and full of himself about any and all things related to his namesake, his words, not mine. Luv ya Gene) has gone on record saying "Ace Frehley's solo album is the best of the bunch". If Gene can admit to that, there's something to be said about the quality of Ace's songwriting here. This coming from Gene, who would be the first to tell you HE is the greatest songwriter of all time. So there is merit behind what he has said about Ace's album. 

Fave Songs: All of 'em. But like before, I gotta give them all a shout out here (pun intended) Rip It Out, Speedin' Back To My Baby, Snow Blind, Ozone, What's On Your Mind, New York Groove, I'm In Need Of Love, Wiped-Out and Fractured Mirror.

Fun fact: The reason for these solo albums was that during the filming of KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park, both Ace and Peter had made their intentions known they were qutting the band to pursue their own personal music career. They compromised and decided on these 4 solo disc. It didn't help as much as just prolong the inevitable. 

Freebie trend continues with a Poster insert that is 1/4th of a larger poster that connects with the other 3 solo album posters ala a jigsaw puzzle. This was by far the best looking poster of the 4. 

Album Cover kicks ass!! 

Rating: 10 Stars out of 10 (That's right! 10 Stars! This is a must have for your collection. If you don't own this album, you might as well turn in your Music-Credibility Card at the front desk)

Review by Chiprocks1