1266. Ace Frehley / Trouble Walkin'. 1989. 3.5/5

Best known as the original lead guitarist of Kiss, Ace Frehley had struck out by himself after he had left the band in the early 1980’s, looking to burn a trail of his own. He had eventually formed the band called Frehley’s Comet, which released two albums, the self titled “Frehley’s Comet” in 1987 and “Second Sighting” in 1988, both of which were backed up by tours supporting bands such as Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden. Despite the initial excellent reaction to the band and first album, their fortunes declined quickly, to the point that Frehley decided on a reset to hopefully be able to stage a revival. He dropped the band name, and decided to go back to just playing under his own name. Also at this time, guitarist and vocalist Tod Howarth left the band and was replaced by Richie Scarlett who already had a history playing with Ace. John Regan remained on bass guitar and synths, while Anton Fig, who was a regular with Ace albums as well as contributing to Kiss albums, was again on drums. Eddie Kramer, who also had a history with both Ace and Kiss, was back as producer, with Ace and John leaning over his shoulder.
The album came at an interesting time, and featured some interesting guests as well as choices in songs. Former band mate Peter Criss came on board to lend supporting vocals to four songs on the album, and rekindled a friendship. It also has three members of the band Skid Row lending their vocal support, in Seb Bach, Dave Sabo and Rachel Bolan, all of whom were huge Kiss fans, and needed little convincing to come on board. And with Ace taking over as (almost) full time lead vocalist as well as guitar, the new album not only had the solid backbone of the band as a whole, but with Ace being more front and centre, it truly felt like it was HIS solo album, and the chance to truly show his best side on an album that he called “Trouble Walkin’”

The album has a lot of different writing combinations, which on occasion can make for an album that is fluid, that the style of songs written don’t seemto fit together to make a cohesive album. But here on “Trouble Walkin’” that doesn’t appear to be an issue. Each song concludes and the entry point to the next track is smooth as silk.
“Shot Full of Rock” comes out of the gates like a bull at a red rag, charging along with a... shot full of energy, and featuring a great guitar riff and then trading solo break from Ace and Richie Scarlett, who co-wrote the track. The full backing vocals through the chorus help to make an energised opening song that kicks off the album in style. This is followed by “Do Ya”, the Jeff Lynne composed song that was a hit for his bands The Move and then Electric Light Orchestra. It also became the only single released from this album, for me a really strange choice in that regard. Ace is not adverse to doing cover songs, and this is a reasonable rendition of the song, though the opportunity from Ace to make it his own with a stunning hard riffing solo was not taken. I think it would have made it better. “Five Card Stud” is the follow up, composed by Ace and Marc Ferrari, and this is again a harder rocking track immediately with the best attributes wired into the song. The drums and guitar riff really heavy this song up together, and Ace is absolutely crushing his vocals on this song. Just like the opening track, this is full of energy throughout and delivers exactly what the album opening has promised it would do. The opening stanza to the album does everything right in dragging you in and getting you entranced to this point in time.
“Hide Your Heart” is an interesting song choice, given its history. Originally written by Paul Stanley and Desmond Child along with Holly Knight, it was written during the sessions for the “Crazy Nights” album and was eventually passed over for inclusion. It was then offered around to other artists, of which there were many. Bonnie Tyler released her version in 1988, and from there it popped up on several other artists albums – including Ace’s version here, and amazingly enough Kiss’s own version on “Hot in the Shade”, released a few days after this. Did Ace and his cohorts decide to show up his former band, and do a version that put them in their place? I actually don’t know the story behind how it turned up here, but I can tell you that it is without doubt the best version of this song out there. They play the harder edge of the track, with gang vocals supporting Ace in all the right places of the song. I love the song and especially this version, which like “Do Ya” is only missing a real Ace burst on guitar to make it really special. It’s the only trick he missed on this version of the song. “Lost in Limbo” is the second Ace/Richie collaboration and closes out side one of the album in pleasing style.
The title track “Trouble Walkin’” opens side two of the album, written by outside writers, and it sounds like it, mainly because it is a different style of song than has come from the opening side of the album. It’s a more stylised rock song, again with a gang vocals chorus and while it has some great guitar riffing through the middle it feels like a more commercialised rock sound than what has come before it. This doesn’t detract from it being a very good song, it’s just a tad different. This is then followed by the third Ace/Richie composition “2 Young 2 Die”, which is the only track on the album not sung by Ace, instead it is Richie who takes on the lead vocals. And he does a great job too, injecting his own enthusiasm in his vocals, and the trade off guitars again in the middle of the track are worth the wait. Richie does a great job on lead vocals here, on a song where Ace may have not done as good a job. “Back to School” sees the return of Ace on vocals, a song that screams mid-80's hair metal, supported by the screams of Seb Bach in the background throughout. Like “Trouble Walkin’” but in a different way, this song doesn’t quite fit the profile of the first side of the album. It’s a different style of track that is fine as it is but feels as though it is outside of the puzzle. And in a way is what leads the end of this album in that different direction. Because the next track “Remember Me” follows its own path again, away from the set up that had been created at the front of the album. It’s a blues backed song that, given the heavier way the album started, seems like strange way for the album to divert to as we approach its conclusion. The musicianship is great, but the song itself for me was a choice that doesn’t meld with the album. Indeed, a word I could use at this point is fractured, and that is the title of the concluding track of the album, the instrumental “Fractured III”, which follows the original instrumental “Fractured Mirror” that closed out Ace’s 1978 solo album, and the closing instrumental “Fractured Too” from the Frehley’s Comet” album. At almost seven minutes it is the longest song of the album, but it is totally worth it. It’s an Ace masterpiece, a song that I never get tired of listening to. This redeems any slight misgivings that a couple of songs may have brought on, and draws the curtain over a terrific album.

I remember my love of Kiss had grown to ample proportions by 1989, mainly on the back of the “Crazy Nights” album, because I remember vividly when this album came out, and the new Kiss album “Hot in the Shade” a few days later. In those days however, there was no way I could consider affording to buy multiple albums at the same time, and so it became a decision as to which album I was going to get. It ended up being the Kiss album, and instead I would look longingly at this album in the racks whenever I was able to check out my local record stores. In the end, it would be almost two years before I got a copy of this album, on my first trip to Bali, where I purchased this (and about fifty other albums) on cassette. The fact that I bought so many other cassettes on that trip made it difficult for them all to get a fair listen, but this album was one of them. For me at that time, it hit the sweet spot. It balanced out the thrash metal I was still very much into with the more commercial bent of the hair and glam metal I was also interested in, along with the growing influence of grunge. And for me that is the real brilliance of this album. It’s a hard rock album that utilises the best aspects of everything Ace emphasised in his previous band and sifted out the chaff to keep what worked for him at this stage of his career. It was released at a really good time for that, and even though I didn’t really discover it until two years later, it mattered not one iota in translation.
I have had this on my playlist for nearly a month now, and as the other albums get whittled away as I complete the episode reviews on them for this podcast, this became a go-to. It has been years since I listened to this album, but over the last little period of time, when I’m deciding what album to put on in the car, or at home in the Metal cavern, this album has been the one that has invariably gotten another listen. I would say over this period I have listened to “Trouble Walkin’” about 30 times, and I’m not tired of it yet. In fact, I keep getting more enthused about listening to it again. Why should this be the case? Is it nostalgia? Is it making me feel 19/21 again? Maybe a little. Ace released an album this year, “10,000 Volts”, which was okay, but it pales into almost insignificance compared to this album. These are fun songs, with lyrics that are fun to sing along to while the album plays. I think it is still a great album, easy to listen to. For me, this is a better album than the Kiss release of the same week, even though it significantly outsold and outperformed this album on the charts.
For me, this is Ace’s best album away from Kiss. His band is great, his guitaring is great, and his vocals are at their peak on this release. And surely the fans reaction to this song in particular would have warmed his heart.