New release roundup (Ace Frehley, Muse, and more…)
Man, I take a short break from updating the site and, just like that, I’m buried under a pile of new music releases. Not to mention, of course, the Beatles remasters. So with no big preamble, let’s get right into it…

Ace Frehley – Anomaly (Brooklyn Born Records)
Peter Criss couldn’t do it, Paul Stanley almost did it, and who the hell knows what Gene Simmons was trying to do. I’m speaking, of course, about original Kiss members putting out a solo album this decade that even approached their best work from previous decades. So how does the Spaceman fare on his first release since George Bush Sr. was president? Pretty decently, by and large. Sure the album art is…well, it sucks. It’s just bad. But who even notices such things anymore?
The music’s the thing, and Ace acquits himself rather nicely over the course of a dozen tracks. “Foxy & Free” kicks things off, and it’s as intense a slab of hard rock as you’re likely to hear this year. Frehley intimated in interviews promoting Anomaly that he purposely was trying for the vibe of his outstanding 1978 solo record. I can hear that in places, but mostly this album is another serving of the tuneful, meat and potatoes hard rock Frehley churned out in the ’80s with Frehley’s Comet. That’s not a bad thing, mind you, but what surprised me was how Ace managed to stretch his formula out a bit – witness the Middle Eastern (OK, Led Zep Middle Eastern) flavor of “Genghis Khan”, the starkly confessional and heartfelt lyrics on “A Little Below the Angels”, and the laid back philosophizing and relaxed arrangement of “It’s a Great Life.”
Ace is indeed back, and I told you so.

Muse – The Resistance (Warner Bros.)
Depeche Muse anyone? Now look, I’m all about bands trying out new sounds and taking their music in new directions. The problem with this album is that for the most part Matthew Bellamy and friends don’t sound like they’re sure what direction they want to go, and as a result it has twice the indulgence of Black Holes and Revelations with half the impact. Kicking the album off with “Uprising”, an electronica Gary Glitter anthem for the 21st century, was a bold move and I can dig it even with Bellamy’s cockamamie populist conspiracy lyrics weighing it down.
No matter what objectionable things I think he did, no matter what objectionable things I know he did, at this moment I can only look back on Michael Jackson’s half century on this planet and think of the great things he did. I’ve gone through various stages of love and hate regarding Michael over the years. But one thing I didn’t consider until today was that I’ve never really known of a musical universe without Michael in it in some fashion.
Listening to most of Los Angeles-based pop chanteuse Eleni Mandell’s recorded output brings to mind a smoke-filled club full of broken-hearted hipsters on a lonely Wednesday night (for those clubs where you can still smoke anyway). But after spending years perfecting the role of lovelorn torch singer, Mandell released Miracle of Five in 2007. Its comparatively spartan, acoustic guitar-driven sound was a departure for the singer, and the album finally brought her some much-deserved critical attention.