You can also get an autographed CD and autographed double LP on vinyl at www.acefrehley.com

I've listened to it a couple of times now. My initial reactions are tracks 1-4 are awesome. Genghis Khan and Change The World I don't really like. A Little Below The Angels gets a big "WTF is that?". I like Too Many Faces and Sister. Kinda like It's A Great Life. Space Bear and Fractured Quantum are good but I'm usually not too big on instrumentals.

All in all it's great to hear new stuff from Ace.

Great album. Best thing he's done since his '77 solo album.

Those are similar to my reactions except I think the instrumentals are his best stuff. His voice just doesn't work a lot of times.

It's a hit and miss album for me, with a few more hits. If he could find a good vocalist, this stuff would be really good.

I love Ace's vocals. His singing voice is unique and doesn't get lost in the sea of sound-a-like hard rock artists.

got my shipping notice yesterday for the autographed vinyl & cd! woo-hoo!

Best Buy was sold out yesterday

Picked it up yesterday at Best Buy. Was nowhere to be found on the floor. Someone had to search for it in the back. This is becoming more and more common on Tuesday new releases I've found. They came back with just 1 copy. Another person working there at least mentioned he should go back and 'grab more' to be displayed.

I stopped at my local BB yesterday and there wasn't a single copy to be found. Then again, I doubt they ordered that many to begin with.

So I bought it off iTunes, so I can at least listen until I can grab a CD and rip some FLACs.

My initial thoughts are as follows: GOOD album. Often, in fact mostly REALLY GOOD. Some moments of GREATNESS. There's some serious ROCK here.

Unfortunately, two songs are AWFUL.

Ace's strengths are in his riffs that power his melodic hard rock baseline. He knows how to make a memorable song. He's a solid vocalist too; unique, really. Not much range, but it totally fits his particular style. He's got a great group of musicians surrounding him, too. But lyrics? Not always the most sophisticated of wordsmiths. He doesn't need to be Longfellow for his particular brand of rock, of course, but there's the occasional cringe moment in response to a singularly dopey line.

The album starts well with two really good tunes, "Foxy & Free" and "Outer Space". Both are prototypical Ace songs, hard/heavy rockers overlayed with thick 21st Century production values. "Pain in the Neck" continues this trend, a good song with sort of a silly sounding chorus. "Fox on the Run" is another great Ace cover; the original is one of my favorite songs, and Ace gives it a nice spin.

"Genghis Khan" is sort of silly. It's a decent tune, with what many have called a Zeppelin vibe, but I don't really hear it. Yeah, it's Eastern sounding at times, but Zep-Lite? Nope. I like the feel of it, the lyrics? Meh. When Ace screams "GENGHIS!!!" at one point, I had to stifle a giggle.

"Too Many Faces" is a cool rocker, it's got a definite 70s vibe to it. Unfortunately, that segues into one of THREE awful songs on the 2nd half of the album, "Change The World" -- his attempt at a sort of late 80s/early 90s "let's do our part to make the world a better place" slow rocker. The lyrics are just dopey: "making wishes on eagles wings", "looking into faces of children and seeing perfect love", etc. Nice sentiment, but maudlin delivery and bad execution.

"Space Bear" is the first of two instrumentals on the album. And it's a beaut! Killer grind, awesome riffing, just what we expect from Ace, really. It put a big smile on my face, which is kind of a shame because it leads into "A Little Below The Angels", which is Ace's big power ballad. OK, power ballad is maybe pushing it, but it's a slower, acoustic tune dealing with Ace's sobriety. I like the melody, the production, everything. When the song kicks in after the second verse, it's got a great feel. Nice musical nod back to "Fractured Mirror", too. UNFORTUNATELY, we got the same problem as we had with "Change the World": ridiculous lyrics. And to make matters worse, there's actually a spoken FATHER/DAUGHTER chat midway through the song. "Daddy... have you ever seen an angel?" "Sure baby." "Well, what was it like?" "The most beautiful thing I've ever seen..." which leads into a children's chorus. Take THAT for what it's worth. I threw up in my mouth a little.

Thankfully, gears shift immediately into my favorite song on the album "SISTER", which is not only the album's best song, but one of Ace's best songs PERIOD. LOVE this song. Great lyrics, great riffs, a great heavy rocker that eliminates any lingering barf residue in my mouth from the previous tune. Awesomeness.

"It's A Great Life"... the Bronx accent comes on a little thick in this midtempo tune.... wait, a LITTLE?? Hah. The song is mediocre, OK at best, forgettable at worst.

The album ends (sort of... see next paragraph) with "Fractured Quantum", the next chapter in the Fractured saga. And it's a worthwhile tune to not only continue the "series" with, but as an album closer (sort of). Great playing by Ace, killer melodies, a really sweet sounding number.

OK here's the thing: there's an iTunes exclusive track that ends the album if you purchase it on iTunes: "The Return of Space Bear", Ace's tribute to his infamously hilarious antics during a KISS interview on the Tom Snyder show in 1979. The song is totally silly, a mostly instrumental heavy rocker with Ace reciting some of his famous lines from the interview in a rather silly Space Bear voice. LOVE the song. But I *DONT* like the practice of making it only available on iTunes, and as an ALBUM-ONLY download to boot (meaning you can't download the song on it's own, you have to buy the whole album on iTunes to get it). Still, it's an awesome treat for Ace fans.

Overall, I really like the album, but those two bad songs are fucking awful. Thankfully they're drowned out by a host of good to great tunes as well. I'd break them down as follows:

GREAT
- Outer Space (took some time to grow on me, but man it did)
- Fox on the Run
- Space Bear
- Sister
- Fractured Quantum

GOOD
- Foxy & Free
- Too Many Faces
- The Return of Space Bear
- Pain in the Neck

OK
- Genghis Khan

MEDIOCRE
- It's A Great Life

FUCKING AWFUL
- Change The World
- A Little Below The Angels

Totally worth grabbing if you're a fan, no question. Ace is definitely back. I got no problem rating this a solid * * * 1/2 out of * * * * *. I just wish I could find the damn CD somewhere...

I agree with this for the most part. However, I'd bump up "Change The World" to "ok" and would put "A Little Below The Angels" up to "good" IF it wasn't for the gay "conversation" & singalong in the middle of the song between the girl & Ace. As it stands now, I'd put it in the "ok" section. Could've been recorded way better than it turned out.

Lyrically, the album is very weak, but I don't care about lyrics.

Overall, I think it deserves 4/5 stars. I'd maybe even give it 4.25/5 stars in time.

The more I listen to A Little Below The Angels the more I think it could have been a decent song if not for the talking and the childrens choir.

After listening to the album on Rhapsody a couple times through i've decided to stay away. However, i've already downloaded Sister and Outer Space. Killer tracks.

Hokeyboy, I fully agree with your assessment, nice write-up. "Change the World" is tolerable, somewhat, but I really loathe "A Little Below the Angels". Child choruses are a pet peeve of mine and this one ain't even passable. Thankfully they make a "skip" function on media devices. But the rest of the album is def killer, lots of great hooks and leads to be found. Goddamn iTunes for making that track album-only. Guess I'll have to read the Music Talk DOs & DONT's thread about discussing copyright infringing activities. [MOD EDIT]

Oh, and though it's a little head-scratching, the BB exclusive artwork and origami-esque pyramid are pretty rad.

I guess, but it makes the disc VERY scratched.

Maybe, but I rarely have that problem since I open it, rip it and then file it away.

Mine was scratched the very first time I took it out of the package!

Ace performed the national anthem at the Chiefs-Giants game yesterday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYBQS...eature=related

Gene Simmons was on Howard Stern this morning promoting "Sonic Boom"'s release. Gene was being usual Gene, but he did mention Ace's new album and commented that he felt it was really good. A nice shout-out from The Demon.l %kil