Ace Frehley, Originals, Vol. 1 (2016)

Ace Frehley, Originals, Vol. 1 (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

Originals Volume 1, legendary former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley's new record is a bit confusing record to me, at first glance it looks like Ace's powerful coming on age, in the record's first tune, the soaring White Room, Frehley sounds like a new born man with a bright future ahead, he sounds like a the seasoned vet he is, but also in complete creative control over his skills as musician, yes, White Room is a cover version of the Cream classic song, Frehley's has made covering others people's songs an art form, including one or two covers in a regular way in his past records, bu here, Ace sounds like taking the concept a bit too far making Originals a full cover versions record.

You can hear finally Ace becoming a competent singer ad at the same time delivering powerful riffs and his trademark legendary solos, White Room as you might expect is epic and full of power with its omnipresent guitar leads, Frehley curiously using in an smart way other people's music to keep severing the ties to his ultra-popular former band, following the song with another powerful one, by an even more famous band, Street Fighting Man is not as successful as the first song, but the highly inspired riffing, and Frehley's vocal delivery manages to save the day, not as Earth shattering as the original but pretty amusing.

Speaking of severing ties with Kiss, Fire and Water might result a little bit awkward considering that the lead singing here lands on Kiss mighty singer Paul Stanley, but the effect achieved here by Frehley and Stanley is interesting enough, as both musicians are able to keep distance from the immensely popular Kiss, and unexpectedly creating something quite original despite the song being not an "original", Stanley showing his talent to work out outside the comfortable zone of Kiss and his eternal partner the eccentric Gene Simmons.

There's something definitely special in listening to Thin Lizzy's Emerald being played by Frehley and Guns n Roses guitarist Slash, as both musicians were highly visual performers who managed to transcend on their own terms the popular front men in their respective bands, consider also here the highly melodic twin guitar attacks both musicians are able to deliver, with Frehley emotional delivery ad Slash's truly daring guitar soloing.

Although Frehley is a product of the magic 70s, for some reason, sometimes it looks like Frehley is keeping with him certain attributes of the 80s in his productions, the massive drum sound used all along the record heavily recalls that decade (with its awful snare drum sound), and the fact that for Wild Thing he recruits Lita Ford is more than evident, Ford, another guitarist that started just like Ace in the 70s, and just like Ace and Slash managed to get a solo career of her own despite not been a front woman before (in the Runaways it was Cherrie Currie ad Joan Jett), Ford became famous in the late 80s in the middle of the glam metal movement in L. A.

Frehley stops the intensity of the record with two familiar versions, Parasite and Cold Gin, both songs previously performed in his legendary run with Kiss, is quite familiar territory for Frehley, and a daring move considering that in the first part he sounded eager to distance himself from Kiss, despite the Stanley performance, managing to get better results with the audience pleasing of Magic Carpet Ride, a very solid rock song performed in an exciting way by Frehley.

It's a quite bizarre move for Frehley to dive head first into a covers records, perhaps exhausting a bit the successful formula, but despite some low points, he is able to present a quite amusing record that displays a new level of if maturity to his legacy, he is also able to reclaim some of his former legendary songs with Kiss and also lends a friendly hand to Stanley in order to re-create some musical magic, Originals Volume 1, is definitely first class musical amusement.