Ace Frehley – ‘Now Playing’ (2025) – Album Review

Ace Frehley has a number of greatest hits album. Do we really need another one? The short answer is No! The long answer is we do need a solid greatest hits album that is a career retrospective of his entire catalog. I would like that very much. In 2025, we get new Ace Frehley comp from Rhino Records and Atlantic and I can tell you with 100% certainty…this is not a career retrospective and is total waste of time and money. “Now Playing” is a generic compilation that is a series and many artist have had one of these comps such as Ratt and Twisted Sister. It is a cheap, low budget comp and it only covers his first 3 solo albums outside of Kiss. Two with Frehley’s Comet and then his solo album ‘Trouble Walkin”. And that is it.

It is only a vinyl issue and was released on March 7, 2025. It is on a very pretty cobalt blue vinyl and that is the only thing it has going for it. Really, that is it. There are no special mixes, live mixes or unreleased tracks. It is simply 4 songs from “Frehley’s Comet”, 3 from “Second Sighting” and 3 from “Trouble Walkin'”. Woohoo…so exciting…NOT!!! The picture on the cover is one we’ve seen a million times, there is no insert, there is nothing special about it at ALL!! Thank goodness it only cost $19. So, why did I buy it? I have every Ace release available on vinyl so I need it to complete the collection ( I do not have every variant as my house isn’t big enough to hold all of them…I believe there were at least 30 from his last album alone). Enough negativity…let’s talk music. What is on it?

SIDE ONE:

Side One consists mostly of songs from the “Frehley’s Comet” album. The first track is all about Ace called “Rock Soldiers”. It is an autobiographical song inspired by a police chase had back in 1982 while he was driving his DeLorean. Now, I would say he was trying to get his flux capacitor up to 88 mph, but that movie didn’t come out until a few years later. Ace takes the vocals on this one and does some great guitar playing. It was a hard rocking track and yes, “Ace was back in control of his soul”. It was a great way to introduce the world to solo Ace and it was everything an Ace fan wanted to hear.

The next track up is “Breakout” with Tod Howarth on vocals. The song was written by Ace, Richie Scarlett and current Kiss drummer at the time, Eric Carr. The song was from the ‘Music from the Elder’ album that was not used and Kiss did release it years later on ‘Revenge’ but as an instrumental called ‘Carr Jam 1981’ as that was what was originally recorded. If you listen to the song, you can definitely hear Carr Jam. Anyway, the song opens with a crash and a cartoon scream and other effects before kicking in to the heavy drumming, handled here by Anton. Tod sounds really great on this song as his voice is a nice change from Ace’s as it is more smooth and can carry a tune better. The highlight is definitely the drumming and as usual, Ace’s playing. One of my favorite songs on the album and from this era of Ace.

The band’s only single on “Frehley’s Comet” album was the Russ Ballard penned “Into the Night”. Ace had a huge hit with Russ’ other song “New York Groove” so why not try and re-create that magic. The song was a minor hit reaching #27 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. This is the second Ace sung song on the album. This to me does have the same vine a “New York Groove” with more great riffs, but Ace really sounds great here. His lyric delivery is intense, serious and he sounds like he is giving it his all. So far, 3 for 3 on this album.

The final track from that first album is “Calling to You” and is a song Tod brought with him from his band 707. It is actually the song “Mega Force” which the band recorded in 1982. Ace re-wrote the lyrics and as a result, Jonathan Cain’s writing credit was removed because he apparently wrote the lyrics on the original. That is two Kiss reviews in a row with Jonathan Cain mentioned, interesting. This is the weakest of the 3 Howarth songs I think. It is too pop heavy and less hard rock. I don’t like Tod’s vocals and overall, the production seems lacking as the song isn’t as clean and polished as it should be. Poor choice my friends. “Something Moved” would’ve been a much better choice!

The first song we get from the second album is the opening track “Insane”. Written by Ace and Gene Moore has Ace on vocals. It was released as a single, but it did not chart. This album pretty much fizzled fast if I remember quickly. A heavy rocker and great song to kick off that album with as it as good as anything on the debut.

SIDE TWO:

Side two kicks off with two more tracks from ‘Second Sighting’. First is “Dancing With Danger” which is a cover of the song by Canadian band Streetheart. However, Ace and Slaughter’s Dana Strum have song writing credits on it too. They must’ve changed a little something to it, I don’t know what as it seems to stick to the original, maybe it is the solo as it is a little Ace nuts like. Ace does a decent job on vocals and the guitars are pretty cool so it isn’t a bad song at all. Quite enjoy this one.

Then we get another single from ‘Second Sighting’ and this time it is the Tod Howarth penned and sung song “It’s Over Now”. By the way, this single didn’t chart either. Like most of this album for me, this song was a little boring and didn’t resonate with me. Very generic and no real hook or good chorus so I’m out.

Now we get to Ace’s first REAL solo album ‘Trouble Walkin”. First up is “Shot Full of Rock” and it was the opening track of the album written by Ace and rhythm guitarist, Richie Scarlet. An explosive rock track and kicks off that album as an Ace album should. Ace doesn’t have the best voice, but I love it any way. It has grit, balls and feels lived in. That roughness is so rock & roll.

Then we get one of the worst songs EVER!! I hate this song. It is “Hide Your Heart” written by Paul Stanley of Kiss, Holly Knight and Desmond Child. Why do I hate it? Because it is a clone of Desmond’s work with Bon Jovi. They tried to repeat “Livin’ on a Prayer” to no success. The other thing I hate is it was covered by Bonnie Tyler, Kiss and Ace all around the exact same time. How can a song that sucks so bad, get covered three times? Baffles me. Ace’s version is the only one that is somewhat credible as he is more street then the other two singers that did this. Still sucks though!!

Lastly, we get the title track to his solo album, “Trouble Walkin'” which was written by Bill Wray and Phil Brown but I don’t think this is a cover. He just used outside writers. This is one of the best songs on that album and this album too. The guitar riff is totally killer, in your face and memorable. Ace’s vocals are on point as well…and wait…is that Peter Criss on backing vocals…why yes it is! This is classic Ace in my book and it simply kicks ass. I love how lyrics seem to be strutting and full of confidence. Great way to end this miserable comp!!

And that is it…thank the Good Lord. People…unless you are a collector, simply skip this abomination of a compilation. It is not worth it. Nothing new, nothing special and Ace has so many better comps out there with his early material…’12 Picks’ and ‘Loaded Deck’ come to mind. Get those instead. Hell, they didn’t even pick the best songs…”Something Moved”, “Do Ya”, “Five Card Stud” to name a few. My Overall Score is a 1.0 out of 5.0 Stars and that is only because it is a pretty Cobalt Blue vinyl.