5 keepers
keeper avg .555
"Rip It Out"**** kicks off the best-selling of the Kiss 1978 solo albums, and if it was a band song it would have been among the best songs the full band ever did; "Speedin' Back to My Baby"**** (co-credited to his wife Jeanette), a cheeky cross between Sweet and Bad Company / Free, is almost as good. "Snow Blind"**** and head-banging "Ozone"**** are riff-rockers more in the vein of "Strutter." Ending with "What's On Your Mind," which is almost Big Star power-pop, the first side is pretty solid. The disco-Bo Diddley "New York Groove," written for Ace by 70's hit-writer Russ Ballard, is so lyrically simple I thought it was Frehley's and "I'm In Need of Love," well, is a little memorable only because Frehley got himself a delay. "Wiped Out"**** is split between slightly funky verses and hard-rock choruses. The album is closed out by the instrumental "Fractured Mirror," an outlier for Kiss, though Black Sabbath and other heavy metal bands had recorded mellow, melodic instrumental pieces like "Laguna Sunrise." Now Frehley is no lyricist - "Wiped Out" actually includes the line "knew I could make knew I could shake loose and fancy free" (is he Bugs Bunny?), and "Ozone" is the most "moon June spoon" song ever (all the lines end as follows: guy, high, dry, fly, shy, try, mine, time, fine, crime). Also, for a legendary lead guitarist, some of his leads are predictable and sound like finger exercises, especially "Snow Blind", "Ozone," and "I'm In Need Of Love." But the album's consistency suggests that Frehley might be Kiss's George Harrison, their secret weapon.
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