Ace Frehley, ‘10,000 Volts’: Album Assessment

Credit score the place it is due: Ace Frehley is aware of how you can make headlines. The Spaceman hasn’t been in a position to make a peep about his newest album 10,000 Volts with out additionally taking a swipe at his former Kiss bandmates. He is mocked their plans for a digital afterlife, boasted that he can sing higher than Paul Stanley and claimed that his new album will make his ex-cohorts “appear to be imbeciles.”

The unhealthy information for Frehley is that 10,000 Volts is not going to make Kiss appear to be imbeciles. The excellent news is it does not make him appear to be one both.

The album finds Frehley largely sticking to what he is aware of greatest: catchy, three-chord arduous rock with a chewy pop middle. The album-opening title monitor nails the method with successfully easy riffs, supersized choruses and a tasty, economical guitar solo. Standout monitor “Walkin’ on the Moon” continues the momentum with its swaggering, cowbell-assisted groove, gigantic energy chords and a assured vocal efficiency from Frehley.

These crunchy riff-rockers account for many of 10,000 Volts‘ excessive factors, however the album additionally makes profitable detours into sunny power-pop on “Cherry Pink” and “Again Into My Arms.” The album’s two outright duds, sadly, land back-to-back: “Blinded” is an overwrought rocker concerning the perils of synthetic intelligence, which is the very last thing you wish to hear from a man who parroted satanic conspiracy theories concerning the Astroworld crowd crush a couple of years in the past. And as candy as it’s that Frehley’s fiancee Lara Cove provided the title for “Always Cute,” Frehley ought to’ve let the lyrics prepare dinner somewhat longer earlier than recording such a tacky drivel.

READ MORE: High 10 Ace Frehley Kiss Songs

Regardless of its missteps, 10,000 Volts is a victory for Frehley, if not an absolute knockout. It is an album greatest cranked at full blast because of Frehley’s co-producer and Trixter guitarist Steve Brown, who additionally co-wrote practically each track right here. The drums may register on the Richter scale, and the guitars sound greater than the sum of Kiss’ egos. Frehley’s restricted vocals are additionally entrance and middle, which may show troublesome when he helps the album on the highway if recent performances are any indication. The Spaceman’s performed a superb factor right here — now hopefully he can pull it off onstage each night time, lest he appear to be an imbecile.