Style: hard rock, glam metal
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1987
Home: n/a
Members: Ace Frehley ~ guitars/lead vocals
Tod Howarth ~ guitars/keyboards/vocals
John Regan ~ bass/b. vocals
Anton Fig ~ drums
Additional: Robert Sabino ~ keyboards
Gordon G.G. Gebert ~ synthesizer/samples
Chay Lentin, David Spinner, Frank Simms, Lara Kramer, Monique Frehley, Tom Ayers ~ b. vocals
The opening chords of "Rock Soldiers" opens the album really well with its talky singing, soaring lead guitar lines, self-referential lyrics. This song says that what is about to follow from Ace's first album post-Kiss is going to rock. What follows is a series of fails & near misses in a slow drizzle of a lackluster bad album of every cliche in the book. The second song, "Breakout", really is what the album is about. Its bland & imitative of everything on the charts, which sounds nothing like Ace nor even Kiss. "Breakout" can't be meant for the same album as "Rock Soldiers", as its lacking in everything that makes "Rock Soldiers" so cool. Even the trademarkable frantic solo can't save "Breakout" from its blandness. If anything, the solo just accentuates how the rest of the song fails to rise beyond its derivative feeling. "Breakout" was written by Eric Carr during Kiss's Music From "The Elder" sessions, later issued as the instrumental drum solo "Carr Jam 1981" on Kiss' Revenge. Let's just leave it there. There's nothing here that sounds like it needed reviving. Okay, let me clarify. "Car Jam 1981" isn't bad as an unnecessary drum solo, but Ace has so many other great riffs in his arsenal that this weak riff didn't need new life without the drum solo & instead boring lyrics fusing prison metaphors & love. Its an uninspired inclusion that sets the stage for an uninspired album & "Rock Soldiers" becomes thus a sad tease of what is not going to come next. This girl isn't naked underneath the fans, but wearing clothes, or in this case a spacesuit. Though, to give Frehley's Comet, which would become the name of Ace's band, some credit, this is more musically cohesive than a few 1980's Kiss albums. Ironically, those albums also suffer from uninspired derivative songs trying to do the same as this: sound like every other band of the '80's, but not sound like the reason people love Kiss or Ace. Lifeless, forgettable, bland is how I describe this album. Not worth hearing, though, "We Got Your Rock" has a great Ace in the hole wild guitar solo that comes out of nowhere, vanishes, & comes back to end what is otherwise a plodding mess. There is another track that needs mentioning. "Dolls" is all about toy dolls. It sits strangely on the album. It sounds so much like Alice Cooper that I thought suddenly my computer had started playing a new Cooper album I hadn't heard yet. It even has a children's chorus like Alice uses & is absolutely creepy. It is worth hearing for its very strange lyrics. I recommend Alice borrow this one for his next album. As for a great Ace tune ... I'm not sure. Closing this review I need to mention I love Kiss. I love them so much I've outlined a novel focused on them as the heroes. Yet, there's some Kiss albums I don't particularly like ... except for Ace's contributions, who corny music saves the day. His songwriting is unpredictable, out of super left field & as zany as he is. He churns out grooves that must come from another planet, with a singing voice that is equally odd & equally wonderful. I've called him in another review straddling the line between madman & genius. Yet, after suffering through Frehley's Comet multiple times I can only come to the conclusion that this can't be Ace. This can't be the mad genius who creates melodies most of us don't even hear in our dreams. This must be an imposter. The album closes with the instrumental "Fractured Too". I think Joe Satriani came in to record it. Maybe this is actually a Satriani album? Even with an instrumental Ace is missing! Ace's name should be wiped from this play-by-the-numbers drag. Ace is sloppy, crazy, in your face, a beast who can't be held back, over the top, & this is very safe, rhythmically plodding, creatively bland, very imitative, emotionally listless. Imagine having one of rock's guitar gods in the studio under your thumb & you waste all his talent as you mold him into something he's not. The producer here should never work again. Stick to Ace's earlier self-titled album for great songs. Someone call 911 or the Space Force. Ace must be lost in space, as he's not on his own solo album.
No comments:
Post a Comment