REVIEW: Ace Frehley – ‘10,000 Volts’

By Greg Maki

It seems like every time Ace Frehley releases new music, we’re bombarded with talk about how it’s his best since his 1978 solo album. As “10,000 Volts” is his sixth new record—the fourth of original material—since 2009, old Space Ace has been blabbing on about that quite a bit in recent years. Credit where it’s due, the ‘78 album easily is the best of the quartet of KISS solo records released on the same day over 45 years ago. But here’s the thing: That’s an awfully low hurdle to clear. So while yes, it’s a solid hard rock album, it shouldn’t be viewed as the holy grail of music that Frehley seems to have spent the rest of his career chasing.

“10,000 Volts” feels even more indebted to the ‘78 record than Ace’s other recent output. Perhaps that’s the influence of Frehley’s new musical partner, Steve Brown (Trixter), a lifelong KISS fan seeking to recapture the spirit of the music that was so important to his own formative years. While the album’s 11 tracks are filled with a plethora of very Ace-like riffs and solos—gaining much of their power from their simplicity and rough-around-the-edges feel—Brown as primary songwriter brings a decidedly poppy flavor to much of the material that does no favors to Frehley at this stage of his career, especially as a singer (“Cherry Medicine” and “Constantly Cute,” most noticeably). Ace never has been a particularly versatile vocalist, but his smoother tone contrasted nicely with Paul Stanley’s increasingly operatic wail, Gene Simmons’s evil growl and Peter Criss’s raspy singing. Age catches up to everyone eventually, though, and at 72, Frehley’s voice has deepened and his cadence has slowed, sapping some of the energy from a mostly upbeat collection of tunes. It’s not a coincidence that my favorite song here is the obligatory instrumental, “Stratosphere.”

I became a KISS fan in the late ‘80s, and as soon as I delved into the band’s history, Ace became my favorite member. The KISS songs with him taking the lead vocal are some of the real gems in the band’s catalog, and he has put together a more than respectable career as a solo artist. I was downright giddy when I got to interview him about 15 years ago. But as much as I want to like it, something about “10,000 Volts” just feels off, as if it were crafted by AI that had been fed the entirety of Frehley’s discography and told to come up with some new songs. Obviously, I’m not saying that’s what happened here, but the record feels more like someone else’s idea of what Frehley should sound like than it does Frehley himself.

Rating: 6/10

MNRK Heavy – February 23, 2024

LINKS
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