SONIC WAVES…..Ace Frehley/Ace Frehley

2014 holy heck! Who woulda thunk  it that Space Ace still has a solid album of rock n roll left in his tank with his current release (Space Invaders). If you’re chuckling and don’t believe me check out LeBrains and Ulitmate Festival Guide for there reviews, I kid you not! Now since currently a lot of folks out there have a musical boner for Ace again let’s go back in time shall we and take a little look see at that solo  release of his from 1978 that a lot of fans from the Army consider his (and perhaps) Kiss’ greatest work.

For me personally, I say since this falls under the Kiss empire of 1978, this is one record I can listen front to back still in the year of 2014. What I mean is I loved Kiss and still follow em( There latest Monster was a strong record) years ago for every Love Gun there was a Than She Kissed Me,For every Detroit Rock City there was Beth, For every Save Your Love there was I Was Made For Loving You.For every Uh All Night well there was a bit of filler on that album(Asylum). See my pattern on each of those albums I mentioned (Love Gun,Destroyer,Asylum and Dynasty) was for me( personally my opinion only folks) always a track i wasn’t into . Some albums of there’s were very solid(Creatures Of The Night,Revenge,Rock N Roll Over) I guess as Kiss was sometimes cranking out 2-3 albums a year they should be forgiven right?! Like I could do better!

Ok everybody climb aboard and let’s go for a Rocket Ride……

RIP IT OUT-Ace comes out of the gates firing on all cylinders with a stormer of a track! When I was 11 I heard this song and it blew my little grade school mind. The spaceman sings,plays guitar,writes the songs, produces,does everything but the drums(Anton Fig) holy crap my little 11 yr old mind is gonna blow!!! Anton rips on this track along with Aces solo!

SPEEDING BACK TO MY BABY- hahaha what do fast cars,illicit  drugs washed done with alcohol produce? A dude racing back to his baby at the speed of sound. By track two Ace is flying the songs are cranking and he pulls off of one my favourite solos of his ever..a Sonic Boom is overheard!

SNOWBLIND- Weather forecast update…..cloudy with a ton of snow on tap! This is the Space Man singing about something he knows about and it ain’t the weather kids! Cool song, Aces vocals are sounding well spaced out and also the song kicks Into overdrive during the solo I guess Ace was trying to get around that weather watch! Hail the Space Man!

OZONE-after Ace cleans off the dashboard of his car from all that snow(shoulda kept the windows up)  he trips Into another dimension and basically it’s a song about Gettin high and it’s ok to feel high n dry cause well the Ace man likes to fly. Super cool verse and than the song shifts into a Sabbathy Ooooooozoooooone…that’s the thing about this record Ace says it’s ok to get high and why would we stop him!

WHATS ON YOUR MIND- holy crap Ace chugs this song along with Antons drums and Ace is concerned about his woman! In other words Ace says “hey baby,I have no mind! So what’s on your mind?”. Ace mixes a cool blend of acoustic and electric on this track.

NEW YORK GROOVE- the single…cool song and a cover version as well but if I never looked at the credits I woulda never known. Ace makes this his own tune and one song that a lot of folk associate with him. Ace is back ….back in the New York Groove! Plus when I seen Kiss live back in 79 Ace played his cool light bulby guitar during this tune. Ace was just downright cool.

I’M IN NEED OF LOVE-Ace steps it up on this tune. It’s a total cool groover of a track that chugs down  the Anton Fig line and him and Ace collide at the solo and it goes from cool to ultra cool! Aces vocal are wickedly good for this selection of material.

WIPED OUT- Anton blazes the path at the beginning of song and Ace throws out a Wiped Out vocally and were off back into party mode after a three  track hiatus! Pass the party treats Ace it’s 3 am and it’s time to wake up the stiffs that are lazing around on the couch eating there Doritos ! Cool use of rhythm guitar in this track sounds 70s ish but hey this is from the 70s!

FRACTURED MIRROR- Ace says it’s 7:30 am everyone pick up your crap,collect those empties and go home.The party is officially over. Nice Little quiet musical with the use of acoustic featured. Ace my friend you done well.

IN CONCLUSION- Folks…Ace stepped up and nailed it out of the park! I mean the guy back in 78 was a caged animal creatively speaking and than he unleashed this awesome album that for me was far superior than the three other guys that he was employed with. Ace made a classic rock album that appealed to everyone and still does. I mean Ace cooks up a real cool batch of tunes and look at the next Kiss album that followed the solo albums ( Dynasty) Ace thru down a cool cover of the Stones 2000 Man along with his two originals Hard Times and  Save Your Love which could have been on this solo release . Dude may have been Wiped Out but he was in control(somewhat)….