Since leaving Kiss for the first time more than 40 years ago, Ace Frehley‘s solo career has followed an idiosyncratic orbit but one with largely rewarding results.

All four members of Kiss famously released solo albums on the same day in 1978, as part of a plan to keep a frustrated Frehley from quitting the group. When the guitarist unexpectedly outclassed all of his bandmates both creatively and on the singles chart, he was rewarded with a spotlight and lead vocal time equal to Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons on the band’s next two albums.

But that concession only delayed his inevitable 1982 departure from the group, and after a five-year self-imposed exile in which he battled substance abuse issues, Frehley launched a solo career with 1987’s well-received Frehley’s Comet. The album title was also the name of his new group, although that moniker and the notion of him sharing lead vocal duties with another singer was quickly jettisoned in favor of Frehley releasing albums under his name.

The Frehley’s Comet name did prove to be a prophetic description of the sporadic nature of his solo career: After releasing two more albums in consecutive years, Frehley waited two full decades before returning to his solo career with 2009’s Anomaly – granted, he spent five of those years touring with the temporarily reunited original lineup of Kiss – and has since released a new album of original songs approximately every five years.

The good news is that whenever Frehley does decide to return to Earth orbit and deliver a new record it’s usually well worth his fans’ time. Unlike most of his peers, he’s also actually become much more active in the studio in recent years. When you include his 2016 and 2020 Origins Vol 1 and Vol 2 covers collections he’s released a total of five new albums in the past decade, matching his output from the previous 35 years.

You can read our ranking of Ace Frehley’s solo albums below.