It may have been five years since former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley released his last album Anomaly, but he’s definitely been in the spotlight a lot over the last eight months. For those who have been living underneath a rock, KISS was announced as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2014 and the mudslinging has been in mass supply. It’s been a bit overkill for me and many other fans of the band and I would rather them all just shut up and play. The man who influenced several generations of musicians is seven years clean and sober and if he has decided to let his new album Space Invader do the talking; his new album proves he has a lot to say. The album kicks off with the title track and it definitely sets the tone for what’s in store. The guitars sound amazing, the drums are big and the whole song is just right there in your face and demands your attention from the start. “Gimme a Feelin” is next and it keeps that pace going up until the odd fade out at the very end. “I Wanna Hold You” is one of the strongest songs on the album. It doesn’t stray far from that formula of big drums and killer guitar licks from Ace, but this one has a great hook and it’s pretty damn catchy too.
The next three songs, “Change” (about his past substance abuse), “Toys” (about some of Ace’s favorite activities) and the slower paced “Immortal Pleasures”, are all good songs but they seem to be a step back from the first three. Don’t get me wrong, they’re good songs, but just not as strong. “Inside the Vortex” picks the pace back up and gets back on track with the groove established early on. “What Every Girl Wants” is my other choice for one of the strongest songs on the album. Again, there are some amazing licks being laid down by Ace and a reminder why he’s been so influential.
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Ace slows the pace down just a little bit with “Past the Milky Way”, which he dedicates to his fiancée Rachel Gordon. He picks the pace up again with “Reckless”, although the guitars don’t seem to be as big in this song, excluding the solo that that Ace lays down. If you know anything about Ace and his solo work, then you know that he is no stranger to doing covers. His 1978 solo album included “New York Groove” and his later work covered Sweet, ELO and even a Paul Stanley tune that later showed up on a KISS album. This album features a stellar cover of the Steve Miller Band classic “The Joker”. The album closes out with an instrumental, another staple in Ace’s arsenal, entitled “Starship”. Overall, I think this isn’t a great album, but it’s a really good album and definitely more solid than Anomaly. Early on, Ace began 
comparing this album to his 1978 solo album and I really hate when a band does that. Well, he learned from some of the best hype-men because Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS always seem to compare their latest album to Destroyer. You’re planting a seed in some people’s heads as to what the album is going to sound like. Does this sound like Ace’s 1978 solo album? Not really, although there are a few elements there. Does it sound like his stuff with Frehley’s Comet? Not exactly, but there are elements of it here as well. The album isn’t perfect and there are a couple of songs that aren’t quite so memorable, but it is a really good album. Ace has created a musical Frankenstein comprised of elements from his entire career as well as bringing a fresh new element that has his focused and, in a way, hungry again. Does he have something to prove? Well, that may depend on who you ask. One thing is for certain, he has delivered an album that I think many people will honestly like more than KISS’ last album Monster and maybe even their previous album Sonic Boom. I’m not looking at it from a Team Ace or a Team KISS point of view, but with just an honest approach to the music. We all knew Ace still had it in him; hell I think even Gene and Paul knew it as well.
