Ace Frehley! This ratty kid walks into the audition with a mismatched pair of shoes and Gene and Paul are not sure what to think of this mess. He plugs in and plays and the rest is Kisstory as they say. Ace is the one of the main reasons I love rock & roll. His playing was amazing and he played with such feel that you wanted to be Ace. When you and your friends wanted to pretend to be Kiss, I always wanted Ace and if I couldn’t get Ace, I was Paul (no one wanted to be Peter, not even Peter…old joke).
His time with Kiss was tumultuous at best. But when the band did their solo albums back in 1978, Ace showed he had the goods to do this on his own and eventually that is what he did. Eventually due to his drinking and other issues, Ace was let go and his solo career began. And that solo career is the focus. We will include the Kiss solo album because it is an Ace Frehley album, but only Ace’s stuff, no other Kiss. And only studio albums will be counted, no live or compilations.
Sit back and enjoy the ranking of the Ace Frehley albums from Worst to First…
THE WORST – FREHLEY’S COMET – SECOND SIGHTING (1988)
Now when it comes to Ace, I am a little biased. I do enjoy all his albums so for me “worst” is a little harsh. I would just say it is the least favorite and not really the “worst”. I have heard some pretty awful albums and this isn’t one of them. But, it isn’t that great either in my humble opinion. I know some would disagree (right LeBrain!!).
The songs are decent enough, but not that memorable. It came out pretty quick after the debut and I feel it felt rushed. It only had a few songs worth anything for me including “Insane”, “Dancing With Danger” and “The Acorn is Spinning” which are all Ace songs. I couldn’t get in to Tod Howarth’s songs when he sang for some reason. I also felt the production was lacking a little as well. I was just never able to fully get in to this release.
#7 – ORIGINS VOL. 1 (2016)
Now, I know I have this almost at the bottom, but it is a decent release for a covers album. I am usually not a big fan of cover albums. I don’t mind that he does a cover song on almost every album, but a whole album…ugh. And really the only reason it is this low is because when a song misses, it really and truly sucks so bad my cheeks hurt…“Wild Thing” with Lita Ford and I didn’t care for “Magic Carpet Ride”.
But, there are some good songs. “Fire and Water” with Paul Stanley on vocals was a real treat and one of my favorites off the release. I also dug “Parasite” with John 5 and the Led Zeppelin cover of “Bring It On Home”. The rest were decent enough to make it an album worth getting for any Ace fan, but might not be one of you top Ace releases.
#6 – SPACE INVADER (2014)
After Anomaly, Ace took a few years before another release and I have to say I was a little disappointed as I didn’t think it was as strong as Anomaly or a lot of his other releases. You also didn’t get another instrumental chapter in the Fractured Series which was a downer as well. I just felt the songs weren’t as strong and not sure the focus was there either.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t some songs worth adding to the Ace collection. You get a couple really strong songs with “Gimme a Feelin”, “Space Invader” and “Toys”. I also liked “Inside the Vortex”, but this time his cover wasn’t one I enjoyed as he covered Steve Miller’s “The Joker”. It was missing something for me. Anyway, overall still worth having just not up to par as the rest of this list will show.
#5 – FREHLEY’S COMET (1987)
The first somewhat solo release since leaving Kiss is Ace Frehley’s Frehley Comet release. It featured Ace and Tod Howarth on vocals as well as John Regan on bass and Anton Fig on drums. It was a great debut and would have been a lot higher if Ace hadn’t gotten so good these last few years.
The opening track is fantastic. The song “Rock Soldiers” is a little autobiographical for Ace about his accident back in 1983. It was a wake-up call for him (although he didn’t listen for very long). We also were given such great songs as “Breakout” (co-written by fellow Kiss member Eric Carr), “Into the Night”, “Something Moved” and the weird ass song “Dolls”. We also get our second of the continuing instrumental saga of the Fractured series with “Fractured Too”. For me, I loved this album and it helped revive my love for Ace.
#4 – TROUBLE WALKIN’ (1989)
For the longest time, I thought this would be the final Ace Solo album, but we would finally get one 20 years later. I thought this was a great way to go out (at the time). I was so excited we got our first true solo album after the Frehley’s Comet albums. It was everything I had been waiting for since the 1978 release.
This album gave us the great ELO cover of “Do Ya” and the great title song “Trouble Walkin” which I thought Ace sounded sensational both vocally (which is hard to Ace at times) and musically. And I can’t forget one of my favorites “Five Card Stud”, “Shot Full of Rock” and “Lost in Limbo” and let’s not forget “Fractured III”. He had to have an instrumental. I actually go back to this release a lot and I hope to find it on vinyl one day.
#3 – ANOMALY (2009)
When I thought of doing this release, my #3 would have been “Trouble Walkin'” until I dive deep into Anomaly again. Wow, I forgot how good this one really is. This was the first solo album since he left Kiss for a second time and 20 years since his last true solo album back in 1989. We get a sober Ace for the first time I believe and what we get is a more focused Ace and one ready to play.
The album gave us 3 great mostly instrumentals including “Genghis Kahn”, “Space Bear” and the fourth Fractured song “Fractured Quantum”. All worth the price alone. Ace was really trying to prove something with this release. As far as songs, you get “Foxy and Free”, “Outer Space” (personal favorite), ‘Too Many Faces” and a great cover with “Fox on the Run”. This was just a solid release for me. I have really enjoyed digging through this one again.
#2 – SPACEMAN (2018)
Who would have that that 40 years after the first Solo album, that Ace would deliver something as good as this? I didn’t. Another great album from beginning to end. With a little help from Gene on two songs, Ace brought to us his most reflective album and another inspiring release. His playing was some of his best and production was top notch.
The songs “Rockin’ With the Boys”, “Bronx Boys”, “Pursuit of Rock And Roll” and “Mission to Mars” are now some of my favorite Ace songs. Not since the debut have I been drawn in to his music so quickly. The songs felt fresh while reminding us of the good ol’ days with the sound and the lyrics. It is just a classic Ace release. And what was also cool about this one is there are so many cover variations and colored vinyl that any collector will go broke trying to get all of them. It is awesome!!
#1 – KISS ACE FREHLEY SOLO ALBUM (1978)
The 1978 Solo album was mind blowing. It was the most rocking of the four and between Paul’s and Ace’s you could argue on any given day that these two were the best. There is not a bad song on the album, nothing you would skip. You would only crank them up louder and louder.
From the big hit “New York Groove” to “Snowblind” to “Rip It Out” to “Speedin’ Back to My Baby” it was one awesome guitar solo after another. The guitar work was inspiring, the songs were catchy and the overall sonics and production were some of the best. And the tops was that intricate instrumental “Fractured Mirror” to end the album. After this release, we knew Ace could be on his own and could be out front and the spotlight. Too bad the drinking got in the way so much.
And there you have it, the Ace Frehley studio albums in order of how I rank them from the worst to the best. Let me know what you think. Where did we differ and where did we agree. What is fun about these list is how differently each album impacts people. What I like, you might not, but we like the same band and that is all that matters really.
Cool List John…
Totally agree with your #1 and #2 Picks!
I never really gave Trouble Walkin a chance so if I ever come across it cheap I may pick It up..
For funny reasons Second Sighting was a hoot esp Mikey’s reviews and as we all know the comments that came with it..
I still have that one on CD actually….
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Thanks Deke!
I saw Mike’s review on Second Sighting and I knew he would totally disagree with me on where I placed it (which he did). I really dug Trouble Walkin’ at the time it came out and it still holds up for me. Now, if I can just find it on vinyl I would be happy.
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RIGHT!! I don’t actually get what people don’t like about Second Sighting. Mitch said recently Ace barely had anything to do with it — it is a John & Tod album. I don’t care though, I love it!
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For me, it was the songs. They weren’t memorable to me. I still can’t remember, but only a couple after listening to it again just a couple weeks ago. I never connected to it for some reason.
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It took me a few weeks during the summer of 88 to fully get into it. But when I did I named my computer game boxer “Acorn”!
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Don’t have many Ace solo records. Need to get the new one and Anomaly after reading this though.
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Spaceman is calling you MR HMO!
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Yes, you do need the new one!! And Anomaly if you want.
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Wrong! #1 Ace is The Ace of Spades! #Lemmy4Evar
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Hard to argue with that!
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There’s a weezer song, In the garage, with the lyric “I got posters on the wall, my favourite rock group Kiss, I got Ace Frehley, I got Peter Criss, waiting there for me”
So like Rivers Cuomo, I’m pleased Ace was your first choice of Kiss member to be!
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Everyone wanted to be Ace, no one wanted to be Peter…even Peter didn’t want to be Peter (goes the joke).
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I don’t know any of these, but I might just go check out your top 3.
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His 78 solo album is the one you have to have. Hands down.
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Well done, I’m always impressed when you’re knowledgeable enough in this way to rank albums by an artist I know of and have heard a bit but not enough to make a go of something like this. It makes my future listening so much easier as I bookmark this post for future reference…
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Thanks. I think I know enough to be dangerous. I just finished another one yesterday that will post in February. Not sure you will know anything about this band…not many people will.
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Awesome! Bring on new-to-us stuff!
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My order of KISS members was (and still is):
1. Ace
2. Peter
3. Paul
4. Gene
Even as a young kid, I just knew that Ace and Peter were the fun guys, and the other two were insufferable. I always disliked Gene. If you read the books: Peter’s is BY FAR the most fun; Ace’s is the most endearing; Paul’s is the most reflective, and Gene is of course… a disaster.
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I have only read Paul’s and Gene’s and Paul’s was the best out of those two. I am waiting to get a copy of the others when they are on sale (I am cheap that way) or find them in a used book store (like I did Gene – $5). I never dug Peter much, but Ace was the it man for me! I always wanted to dress up like Ace!
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This one is out on vinyl today for RSD
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^Trouble Walkin
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Yep. Just bought it. Plus a few other things.
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I got it too. Plus Spoon and The Trews.
Many of the ones I wanted were gone by the time I got there.
I really wanted that John Prine boxset but was told it never made it to Canada.
Would you be able to find out if it was sent to the USA stores for me? Maybe your local store knows.
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The Prine box set shipped but the big shop is sold out. I will check the other shop we have.
I picked up the Def Lep EP and Collective Soul one and that was it for me.
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I just found a store with a John Prine. On my way to pick it up. 🙂
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Awesome. I am glad you did.
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The first 2 Collective Soul repressed albums just arrived at my house from Amazon as well.
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Nice. The first one showed up last week, the self-titled one will be here Mon. or Tues. and has shipped
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Nice.
The other record store had a few more I just had to grab. So I got the John Prine boxset, Goblin, and the 2 David Bowie. All RSD titles.
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I didn’t notice the Goblin and I debated on the Bowie. Good haul and glad you got that Prine set
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Neither store had the Def Lep or Collective Soul.
Probably good thing though. I want a new TV and my wallet was feeling pretty light on the way home.
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“Graduation is what you deserve”
“You’ll have no problems cause i grade on a curve”
“Back, Back to School…..”
Back to School is the one that hooked me for “Trouble Walking Album
It’s classic “Talk to me” Ace.
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