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Ace Frehley in my mind was always exempt from this. By far, Ace was always my favourite member of KISS, his lead guitar playing is vastly underrated,(his leads had hooks, they were part of the song like the melody), and he didn't dive the depths of immature sexual innuendo as much as grown men such as Gene or Paul. Honestly, Gene and Paul wrote kiddie stuff, embarassing for a 35 year old to be writing honestly, and strictly derived to accomodate a certain market. Young, 16 year old boys who can't drink, smoke or get girls yet. Ace didn't write songs like that, apart from Cold Gin on the first KISS album.

This album stands well to time. The songs do not sound dated, the lyrics are not stupid or banal or anything indicating a 70's attitude, and it just rocks. All the way through. There is not a weak track on it, and even though criticism is there on Wiped Out from other fans, I love that song for its time changes (Anton Fig's drumming on this song is the album's standout) and it is just a great song period. Its always been one of my top 3 songs on the album. Ace just really showed how talented he was. I've never read Simmons autobiography, and I have no interest in it, but Ace always lived up to his potential even if he was chemically enhanced sometimes. Its why Ace's solo album was the best received by a wider fan base than the KISS Army, the critics and musicians alike, it was THAT good an album. It has an element of STREET about it, slightly punk in attitude. This album is actually full of attitude, and it just says New York all over it.

Ace had pop sensibilities as well. 'What's On Your Mind' borderlines between hard rock and pop. No, Ace is not the greatest singer, but he has that Jimi Hendrix approach where in the end you can't hear anyone else singing the songs as well but Ace Frehley.

It has become a cliche this album. I imagine people who don't even own it now say Frehley's album was the best when giving their mock history of KISS. The fact of the matter was, it is and still is. You can play the whole thing through and not smirk because the lyrics are hokey or childish, the guitar solos are polished and gutsy at the same time, the drummer was great, the songs and arrangements were class, the production was just near perfect but just enough punk to have credibility. If not for Frehley, the next KISS album (Dynasty) would have been horrible and so dated in sound and sentiment that they might not have survived to GET to the 80's. Some say Simmons and Stanley are KISS, including themselves, but what a shame. Ace Frehley consistently came up with songs that even KISS fans say are the best songs in the KISS repertoire, Cold Gin, Parasite, Shock Me, Rocket Ride, Hard Times. The guy just had tons of talent and should have gotten out of KISS as soon as he released this album.
THAT would have been a success story. Maybe Simmons is right and Frehley never lived up to his potential. Maybe its because he had Simmons telling him he never would, you just never know.

Do you mean to tell me that Ace Frehley all messed up on booze and drugs working at half the potential, STILL came up with a better KISS album than KISS ever achieved? Even with Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over, Hotter Than Hell, Ace Frehley's solo album was so together that no one could diss it. There's no Goin Blind's, no Great Expectations, no Love Theme From KISS, that just makes you say was this person serious when they wrote this? They are joking right??? Frehley's album you can listen to as a kid, and listen to as an adult and say, I knew I had good taste.


Best Rocking of the Ill-Conceived Kiss Solo Albums   July 15, 2001
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Ace Frehley was the inadvertent catalyst of that memorable misstep of all four members of Kiss cutting solo albums at the end of the 1970s. Co-manager Bill Aucoin and bandmate Paul Stanley, desperate to keep Frehley in the band, suggested he cut a solo album to recharge himself but stay in the band; this led to the idea for each member of the quartet to cut a solo disc and then release them together. And it did keep Frehley in the band, at least for a couple of more years, anyway.

As it turned out, Aucoin and Stanley's original suggestion might have been best left unaltered - certainly, Frehley's set rocks the best and the brightest and, in the bargain, has the best material. (The Kiss solo albums stand for the most part as little more than offering a taste of what each individual brought into the band for root sensibilities, though each had its occasional moments, particularly bassist Gene Simmons' half-kidding crooning of "When You Wish Upon A Star".) Frehley's playing is pretty crisp and doesn't date (he was always a better musician than the critics would allow him); unfortunately, he's weaving silk purses from sow's ears and the threading doesn't hold too strongly. Still, you've got to give him credit: he was the only member of Kiss to get anything smelling like a hit from his solo album: "New York Groove" became a minor AOR hit and a deserved one, Frehley's arch stomp-rocker a genial salute to the rock senses in the city where Kiss got together in the first place and, for better or worse, shaped the taste of a generation and rewrote the book on arena rock presentation.

To save you a trip elsewhere, here's the skinny on the other Kiss solo sets: Paul Stanley is playing Mr. Big Rock Sex Star to the max; he's too self-conscious to bring it off without the loosey-goose bull kick of his Kiss mates, and he sure as hell needs their knowingness off which to bounce for his better song material. Peter Criss's loving croon of "Beth" was no fluke, but the Kiss trapsmasher should have picked some more truly soulful material to present himself as the Frank Sinatra of hard rock. Gene Simmons's cartoonish stage persona belied a kid who really did buy a lot of the familial cliche of his childhood (the only shock is that he didn't try a vocal version of "March of the Toys"), and it explains an awful lot about both his Kiss role and that he could cut such an endearingly sappy set that was nevertheless as disposable as one of the ketchup packets he'd chew up to spit stage blood.


Best of the four? Abso--lutely!   October 29, 2003
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I recall the days back in '78 when I turned 9 years old and I got all four of the Kiss solo albums for my birthday ... lucky me eh?, looking back now I couldve saved the family the $$$ of the purchase of the other 3 albums if I had only known then what I found out soon after.

Anyhow back to the story/review .... back in those days I didn't have any particular liking or bias towards one Kiss "character" over another, I just loved their songs (okay I admit I always thought Ace's costumes were the coolest ... but thats besides the point) ... but after listening to all 4 solo efforts I found myself in an unusual position that I never had been in before ... I actually got that sick/embarrassed feeling when listening to Gene Simmons and Peter Criss' solo albums ... in particularly Genes rendition of "When You Wish Upon A Star".

Well, when I finally put on Ace's album (2nd to last ... Paul Stanleys I listened to last) I found myself playing it over and over and OVER AND OVER AND ... well, you get the idea! :) Especially the opening song "Rip It Out" ... which is by far my favorite! By the time I went to play Paul's album I just couldnt help but figit and basically say f&*k it and put Ace's album back on.

I have fond memories of air guitaring in front of my family's huge living room mirror to the likes of Rip It Out, Snow Blind, Ozone, I'm In Need Of Love, and Fractured Mirror. Funny that I no longer need to air guitar them but can actually play them :) But I digress.

Anyhow, there was no prejudice going into these solo albums ... its just that I happened to fall in love with Ace's solo album, which I CANNOT even come close to saying that about the others. In true metal-head mentality I can honestly say the other 3 "suck ass ... he he huh huh .. Beavis" .... okay, Paul's wasn't THAT bad ... but its was ruined after hearing Ace's.

Getting all that out of the way I have one thing to say ... and most of you wont like it ... BUT ... I always have and always will absolutely HATE the single "New York Groove" ... I'm sorry but its total cheese ... yes, I did get that embarrassed wrench in the gut feeling after hearing that song .... I dunno why ... but thats just the way it is. It has something to do with how the word "Groove" is sung in the chorus ... just bugs the hell outta me.

All in all though ... the BEST of the four ... by FAR!


The Best of the Solo Albums Right Here   February 9, 2002
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Ace languished in the shadows for far too long, until this album that is. Ace shocked fans, critics and his bandmates by becoming the top selling member on their solo album projects. He also had the only hit in the great "New York Groove". While Peter put out an average R&B album, Paul released a mediocre KISS album, and Gene released a strange "All Star" album, Ace released a hard rock album that showed that while he didn't have the voice of Gene or Paul, he had the songwriting talent. Anybody reading Gene's biography should give this disc and Ace's true solo stuff a listen before deciding Ace was a guy that never reached his potential. BTW, Ace's bass lines on this are stronger than a certain long tongued player.