Now that Ace Frehley is reunited with the original line-up of
\nKiss, it’s easy to forget or discount his solo career of the late
\n’80s. Spanning four albums (including one EP), Frehley – first as
\n“Frehley’s Comet” and then under his own name – never quite reached
\nthe level of superstardom that he did as the lead guitarist for
\nKiss, but he did prove that he was by no means a washout.<\/p>\n
But to discount Frehley’s solo career is to do the man a great
\ninjustice, as the best-of disc
\n12 Picks<\/i> proves. Taking six tracks from his solo output and
\nadding six live tracks from a 1989 show in London, Frehley shows
\noften not only that he had the talent to succeed as a solo artist,
\nbut that his sound was as much Kiss as the other three members.<\/p>\n
Just the track “Hide Your Heart” – featuring members of Skid Row
\non background vocals and one Peter Criss on percussion – shows how
\nmuch Frehley brought to the table in Kiss; this track could easily
\nhave been on one of their albums. Frehley’s level of confidence
\nnever sounded higher than on this track, as if he was finally
\ncomfortable with what he was doing as a solo artist. (Too bad the
\nalbum it came off,
\nTrouble Walkin’<\/i>, was commercially ignored.)<\/p>\n
I’ll always have a fond spot in my heart for the tracks “Rock
\nSoldiers” and “Into The Night” from the
\nFrehley’s Comet<\/i> album, two tracks that are certain to lock
\nyou in with their addictive beats and guitar fretwork. “Rock
\nSoldiers”, a tale about Frehley’s confronting the demon of alcohol
\nabuse he fought (and almost lost his life to) is still a powerful
\ntrack, and has lost none of its edge even 12 years after the album
\ncame out.<\/p>\n
One sad note, though – I would have loved to have heard
\n“Fractured Too” on
\n12 Picks<\/i>. An instrumental that was both gentle and powerful,
\nit was an incredible display of Frehley’s power as a guitarist, and
\nshould have had its moment in the sun on this album.<\/p>\n
The live tracks give an idea to the listener of how powerful
\nFrehley’s Comet was on stage, though the tracks often don’t live up
\nto their studio counterparts. There are exeptions, of course; it’s
\ninteresting to hear Frehley take over the lead vocals on “Cold
\nGin,” a track that Gene Simmons leads with Kiss. I thought that the
\nversion of “Rip It Out” on
\nLive + 1<\/i> was cleaner, and I’ve never been able to get into
\nthe track “Rocket Ride,” but these are still fun to listen to
\noverall.<\/p>\n
\n12 Picks<\/i> is a collection that dares to highlight a point of
\nFrehley’s career that some people might not know a lot about, but
\nfor those of us who followed every note of that period, this will
\nbring back a lot of good memories. Even if all you know of Frehley
\nis his work with Kiss, this is one you’ll want to search out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7463],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39123","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ace-frehley","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39123"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}