It is appropriate
that less than a month before KISS releases its new album, Sonic Boom—with guitarist Tommy Thayer pictured
on the cover in the familiar “Spaceman” makeup—that
Ace Frehley releases his first solo studio effort in 20 years.
Comparing the two is unavoidable, and Ace has set the bar
high for his former bandmates. Anomaly easily surpasses
his ‘80s output (which includes albums released under
the name Frehley’s Comet and Ace Frehley) to become
his best solo work since his 1978 album.
I became a KISS fan after seeing the “Hide
Your Heart” video on MTV when I was about 10 years old.
As I got older and more into the band, Ace emerged as my favorite
member and I always wished he had contributed more during
their ‘70s heyday. In the early years, he wrote some
of KISS’ darkest, heaviest songs—“Cold Gin,”
“Parasite,” “Strange Ways.” It wasn’t
until “Shock Me” in 1977 that he contributed a
lead vocal; it’s always bothered me that Gene Simmons,
who insists he has never been drunk in his life, sang “Cold
Gin.” “New York Groove,” the hit single
from his first solo album, showed he was versatile enough
to pull off a pop song, as well. His solo career after leaving
KISS had its moments, but a lot of it screams 1980s and he
never seemed comfortable taking center stage, sometimes employing
another lead singer.
Anomaly is the album that should
have followed that first solo effort. Frehley will never be
a virtuoso guitarist or a great songwriter, but he has such
a feel for both, especially the former, that he doesn’t
need to be. The album is packed with riffs and great rock
‘n’ roll guitar solos. It’s a versatile
disc, too, with hard rockers like “Outer Space,”
“Pain in the Neck” and “Sister”; a
poppy cover of Sweet’s “Fox on the Run”;
the socially-conscious “Change the World”; the
autobiographical “A Little Below the Angels”;
the instrumental “Space Bear” (my personal favorite)
and “Fractured Quantum”; and another near-instrumental,
“Genghis Khan.”
My only real complaint is the annoying digipak
packaging that you can use to make a pyramid. You have to
unfold four panels to get to the disc, which has nothing holding
it in place inside. It seems like someone had an idea and
no one checked to see how practical it would be. But that’s
a minor gripe when you consider that Anomaly is the
best KISS-related release since Revenge (1992) or
maybe even Creatures of the Night (1982). |
