Ace Frehley New Album "Space Invader" - 6/24/14

You are correct, and that's why I caved and bought the CD at lunch LOL. To be honest, for the amount of times I'll listen to this, the CD is fine. There are many more LP's that I want to get so I'm going to save the money for those. Plus, there is no promise of how the vinyl will actually sound, or the pressing quality. I'm happy with the CD.

 

I'm not buying the CD. The vinyl will certainly sound better than the mp3 download and may trump the CD too. Is the CD brickwalled?

 

Lets go back in time for a moment...1978...and here KISS does something unprecedented; all the members put out solo albums on the same day. As a 10 year old KISS fan--who's fav member at the time was Ace--it was a magical time.
I still will maintain that not only is Ace's the best produced, it's one of the best sounding albums of the 70's.
So if we're comparing Ace to Ace certainly the 1978 album still has a magical glow...but at this point I'd say Paul's '78 solo album is better than Ace's in terms of songwriting.

All these years later Ace's first solo disc still sounds great...but some of the songs do not hold up. Ozone is a repetitive bore...NY Groove just isn't a great song, and Wiped Out is terrible. Still, Rip It Out stands the test of time and Fractured Mirror is phenomenal.

Now...if you want to throw KISS into the mix....And if you go with songs from Carnival of Souls...they decimate Ace's '78 effort (all IMO of course).

 

My first vinyl press of Anomaly is amazing. Flat, no marks at all and dead quiet. Hoping for more of the same.

 

As I just posted in another thread...There is a difference in my mind between brickwalled (hitting the limits to the point of distortion) and loud and clean...which is what Space Invader is.

 

I agree with most of what you say here, especially the specifics regarding production and Paul's solo album. I also think that COS is an incredible album, I just think the Gene songs are the weak link, but it's ok if we don't see eye to eye on that part. We agree on so much more.

 

Sounds totally brickwalled to me.

I'm not one to let a bad mastering job get in the way of enjoying the music, but if someone asks me, I'll be totally honest -- this CD is mastered far too LOUD.

 

That's interesting, I don't find it loud at all, actually I happen to like the job they did on this one.

 

I just have to say that for my money, Change is the standout song on this album. Well done Ace, it's nice to see him writing in this style. I'd like to hear more of this type of thing from him. This will take a few more listens to really sink in, but so far it's an enjoyable listen.

 

He toured down here a few years ago.

 

Interesting little blurb review on rollingstone.com about Space Invader check it out.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/ace-frehley-space-invader-20140819#ixzz3Ay6kALf0

 

Thanks for the link. The "blurb" was a lot more complimentary than the 2 1/2 star rating!

 

Still sitting with the album and it's going to take a few more listens, but at the moment the song that I "got" right away was Change. Fantastic song.

 

I was listening to the new album yesterday and it is what I expected from Ace. It's funny I was thinking about my other favorite band Deep Purple and the solo/post DP work that that band has produced. Rainbow and Whitesnake's worst albums are better than practically all of the albums Kiss members have produced (aside from the 1978 solo albums from Ace and Paul). Kiss is truly a sum of its parts.

 

Space Invader is a fun listen, not a major work. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

My only real beef is with The Joker; Ace either should not have changed the second and third "doing you wrong" repeat from the pre-chorus to "when I'm doing you right," or he should have changed the couplet also, to rhyme (ex: "right here at home" to "right here all night"). Really makes the song hard to listen to for me.

 

Thanks for sharing, but I wonder if this reviewer heard the same album as I did? For me it's the best KISS related album since Trouble Walkin'... Maybe even stronger than that! If it was up to me, I would have given it 4,5/5

So many great songs on this record. Like that it's so much straight rock n' roll on this album. Thank you Ace!

 

Well first that is a somewhat unfair comparison comparing complete band albums to solo albums but I would also have to say I like Whitesnake and Rainbow but the worst albums by them are not as good as some of Ace's solo albums and I might even go as far as saying that Paul's most recent solo album may even be on par with the worst of what those bands have put out. Gene (excluding 78) and Peter solo stuff, now there I would agree with you.

 

I like the album but not as much as you do. I would probably put it somewhere around 3 to 3.5 stars.

 

Well, considering Vinnie Vincent put out the greatest metal album of all time...

 

It's all good! I know I rate this one higher than most. It just speaks to me... Always disliked The Joker, but now I have a version to enjoy. What seals the deal for me with this album is that I have been playing it back to back for a week since I bought it. Can't remember when last I did that!

 

I get your point about the band part. I made the comparison because Rainbow and Whitesnake were really driven by Ritchie and David respectively. They were the only members that stayed consistent as well. They were pretty much solo acts aside from the names. I guess I should have said releases by members of DP compared to releases by Kiss members. I would say most of Gillan and Hughes' work is better than the Kiss members as well. Bolin too! Glover and Lord- not so much.

 

I have a Gillian DVD A that I think I listened to twice and I think only listened to it twice because it has surround on it and I paid so much for it. I guess we just will have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

Check this out:

 

Thanks for sharing that, I just got a chance to listen to it. Its good but it doesn't do much for me, if it was a little shorter maybe I don't know. That synth really dates it doesn't it?