Introduction
As we hit the release of Alice
Cooper’s 27th studio album, it is worth reflecting on his career to
date. For the past 48 years, Alice Cooper (both the band and the solo artist)
has had a roller coaster ride of a career, creating some of the best music
known to man (and admittedly, some of the worst by such a popular artist). Though
he is my favourite singer, the sheer diversity of Alice’s music and the peaks
and dips in quality make it easy to be more objective about each of his albums.
What follows is an analysis of every single album, with some references to the
state of Alice’s career where relevant. But before digging into Pretties For
You, it’s worth unleashing some general thoughts about Alice’s career.
Table of Contents
1. Alice Cooper the Trendhopper
2. A Master Lyricist
3. A Catalogue of Deep Cuts
4. Pretties For You (1969)
5. Easy Action (1970)
6. Love It To Death (1971)
7. Killer (1971)
8. School's Out (1972)
9. Billion Dollar Babies (1973)
10. Muscle of Love (1973)
11. Alice Cooper the Band Becomes Alice Cooper the Singer
12. Welcome To My Nightmare (1975)
13. Goes to Hell (1976)
14. Lace and Whiskey (1977)
15. From The Inside (1978)
16. Flush The Fashion (1980)
17. Special Forces (1981)
18. Zipper Catches Skin (1982)
19. DaDa (1983)
20. Out of the Dark… and Into the Light
21. Constrictor (1986)
22. Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987)
23. Trash (1989)
24. Hey Stoopid (1991)
25. The Last Temptation (1994)
26. Brutal Planet (2000)
27. Dragontown (2001)
28. The Eyes of Alice Cooper (2003)
29. Dirty Diamonds (2005)
30. Along Came A Spider (2008)
31. Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)
32. Final Album Ranking
33. Top 20 Most Underappreciated Alice Cooper Songs
Like it or not, Alice Cooper has spent much
of his career as a trendhopper. Within the confines of the band, Alice Cooper
was among the first to use makeup and extreme stage antics in such a compelling
way, but from a musical perspective, much of his career (particularly after the
70s) was spent following the trends. Even at the very beginning: both Pretties
For You and Easy Action are somewhat psychedelic journeys. The classic albums
represented the most original era of Alice’s career, but shortly after his solo
work started, Alice jumped from New Wave (early 1980s) to heavy metal (mid/late
1980s) to a glammier sound (Trash/Hey Stoopid), to a more stripped-down
grunge-inspired record (The Last Temptation), to industrial/nu-metal influenced
music (Brutal Planet/Dragontown), back to stripped-down rock and roll (mid 2000s),
before ultimately realizing his place as a shock rock icon and creating a
series of concept/nostalgia records (2008-present).
This isn’t necessarily a criticism of
Alice. As will be examined later, he did many of these sounds far better than
their originators. It is however, an interesting observation about his career.
While he’s certainly known most for his shock rock antics, he’s not as one
dimensional as other artists who have been around for decades. For this reason,
there is probably plenty of music within his discography that would appeal to
almost anyone.
A
Master Lyricist
Coming from a heavy metal background,
lyrics have always seemed unimportant. Sure, they should fit the music, but for
most bands, bad lyrics have little impact, while good lyrics only further serve
to improve the quality of the music. Fortunately, Alice Cooper has always been
a master lyricist. Having reviewed several hundred records, I don’t often spend
much time on lyrics, but this will be a recurring theme across this retrospective
because there are some truly inspired words on most Alice Cooper records. The
songwriting credits of Alice’s solo career haven’t always been clear to me; in
large part because he spends most albums working extremely closely with one or
two people (Dick Wagner/Bob Ezrin, Bernie Taupin, Bob Marlette, Kane Roberts,
and Desmond Child all come to mind as having significant impacts on individual
records), but the uniting theme across everything is Alice Cooper, and so it is
fair to assume that while some of the musical changes are likely inspired by
these collaborators, but the lyrics and melodies likely often start with Alice.
A
Catalogue of Deep Cuts
Alice Cooper is best known for a large
number of hit songs (so large in fact that his setlists often remain fairly
stale because there are just too many good songs). For casual fans, they might
be surprised to hear that some of Alice’s best songs ever received little
critical acclaim at the time of release, and are completely ignored today aside
from a small legion of devoted fans. If there’s one thing that would be great
to accomplish via this retrospective, it would be to ignite some interest in
these tunes. Make no mistake, Alice’s hits are jaw-droppingly good, but there
is plenty of hidden material that is worth exploring.
Pretties For You (1969)
Alice Cooper the band was a group of 5 mad
geniuses. But sometimes really smart people do really dumb things. They were an
accomplished group technically by 1969, but lacked direction and focus. The
resulting debut album, “Pretties For You”, is every bit as strange as the cover
art or the song titles suggest. The record gets off to a rocky start with “Titanic
Overture” and “10 Minutes Before The Worm”, which offer little musical
substance. Alice Cooper has always conjured atmosphere well, but these tracks
feel more like random noise than deliberate efforts at building any ambiance.
It is clear, however, that the potential
was there. When the band spends a few consecutive minutes writing a more
traditional tune, they come up with the occasional interesting moment. The
biggest highlight is “Reflected”, which the band later reworked into “Elected”,
but other tracks like “Swing Low Sweet Cheerio” and “Levity Ball” have their
moments as well. Despite a lack of decent distortion, these songs manage to
rock pretty hard because of their catchy hooks and surprisingly solid riffs.
The biggest problem with “Pretties For You”
is that it feels like the band just had no idea how to compose a song. It’s one
thing to be progressive if you can pull it off, but most of the songs on this
record are a strange amalgamation of moments that don’t flow together and feel
random for the sake of being random. There’s a reason that most rock and pop
songs follow the same song structure: it’s effective. Perhaps the biggest
offender of this nonsensical music is the closing tune “Changing Arranging”. It
both opens and closes by lacking any semblance of order, but hidden in the
middle, there’s actually a pretty competently written tune. Much like turning
“Reflected” into “Elected”, it’s easy to see how, with a little care, some of
these songs could have been much more. Nevertheless, as a first effort,
“Pretties For You” is quite possibly the worst Alice Cooper album laid to tape.
The talent was there, but the focus was not.
Highlights:
"Levity Ball"
"Reflected"
Final Rating: 50%
Easy Action (1970)
Before even hearing a note of 1970’s “Easy
Action”, it is immediately clear that this record will be a step up from its
predecessor. For one thing, the artwork, album title, and song titles are
starting to make a lot more sense. There’s still a slight sense of weirdness to
some of these ideas (“Refrigerator Heaven” was anything but a common phrase
before Alice Cooper came around), but that’s really the perfect way to sum up
“Easy Action”. The band was finally able to refine many of their ideas into a
more palatable sound that could be enjoyed by any fan of rock ‘n roll, but they
still kept the occasional stray melody.
Kicking things off is “Mr. And
Misdemeanor”, which has the fortunate distinction of being the best Alice
Cooper track of the band’s psychedelic era. This is because it is a hard
rocking effort (complimented by Alice’s gruffer voice) with a catchy vocal
pattern and a nice bounce to it. It also marks one of the earlier instances of
Alice’s incredible lyrical wit (though moreso in the title than the lyrics
themselves).
As the album strolls on, it becomes clear
that the band has placed an increased emphasis on writing more straightforward
tracks, particularly in terms of song structure. Vocal melodies tend to make a
lot more sense this time around, as there is a lot more consistency in the way
Alice delivers lines in each stanza. The guitars again lack heaviness, but it
is only due to tone this time, as there are some truly destructive riffs on
this record.
“Easy Action” feels most cohesive and
well-structure when listened immediately following “Pretties For You”. The
truth is, the band didn’t completely escape their penchant for randomness
(let’s not confuse this as any sort of brilliant genius songwriting; Alice
Cooper was weird for the sake of being weird at this point in their career).
Compared to the band’s later works, or even more mediocre records of the day,
“Easy Action” still feels like something is missing. The band’s potential was
becoming ever clearer, but they still struggled to harness it for the length of
one track (excepting the album’s stellar opener). And while Alice Cooper
themselves couldn’t necessarily see what was missing, there was one man who
could…
Highlights:
"Mr. and Misdemeanor"
"Shoe Salesman"
Final Rating: 60%
Love It To Death (1971)
After two middling efforts, Alice Cooper
enlisted producer Bob Ezrin to assist on their third record. For most casual
fans, “Love It To Death” is where Alice Cooper really began (I've even read articles claiming that this is their debut!), and from the
opening chords of “Caught In A Dream”, it is immediately clear why. The band
has removed nearly all of the strange experimentation of the first two records,
and instead focused their sound on writing great rock ‘n roll riffs with
coherent leads and solos. Alice’s vocal lines are likewise more palatable, as
there was finally some clear thought put into how to make the band’s songs
memorable. It’s almost like listening to a different band altogether from the
first two albums.
Highlights on this record are numerous. “I’m
Eighteen” is the obvious winner, as a teenage anthem that perhaps more
accurately describes how just about everyone feels in life. There’s even an
extended version of this floating around on YouTube that is well worth hearing,
but the version on “Love It To Death” is equally potent. The other most
memorable track from this record (at least in Alice’s mind) is “Ballad of
Dwight Fry”. This track is important for being the first great example of
Alice’s theatrical potential. He gives a vocal performance for the ages of a
truly insane man. Musically, this is among the most progressive tracks on the
disc, but don’t mistake that length and progression for the confused sound of
the early discs.
In fact, the only effort on this release
that brings back memories of the first two albums in the 9-minute “Black Juju”.
This song doesn’t really go anywhere, despite representing nearly a quarter of
the entire album. It isn’t as wild and jarring as some of the earlier material,
but it feels out of place on an otherwise stellar album. The only other black
mark on “Love It To Death” is the closing cover song “Sun Arise”, which feels
out of place after the terrifying “Ballad of Dwight Fry”.
What you’re left with (aside from “Second
Coming”, but more on that in a minute) is a collection of truly excellent rock
songs. All of “Caught In A Dream”, “Long Way To Go”, “Is It My Body”, and
“Hallowed Be My Name” are classic Alice Cooper songs that can go toe-to-toe
with any of his or the band’s material. These songs are more stripped down than
ever for the band, and allow their musical prowess to take over. It’s difficult
to imagine any of these tracks making the cut in their current form without Bob
Ezrin to keep the band on track.
The aforementioned “Second Coming” is
amongst the most underrated tracks in Alice Cooper’s discography. It is a truly
dark song, both lyrically and musically. The song was even covered by doom
metal group Castle, allowing the band to demonstrate just how ahead of its time
the track was. The song gives a feeling of impending doom, and it segues
perfectly into the equally deranged “Ballad of Dwight Fry”.
Though the band continued to improve their
skills musically, only Alice stands out as being head and shoulders better than
what he was doing on the previous records. The remainder of the band sounds
better simply because they’re playing coherent music now. Dennis Dunaway’s bass
in particular shines in more than a few places (a recurring theme across the
next several albums). Really though, all 5 members of Alice Cooper were always
immensely talented, they just lacked the focus to let others see this skill.
Thanks to the partnership with Bob Ezrin, “Love It to Death” marked the
beginning of Alice Cooper’s most successful era. As great as this record is, the
band very shortly went on to better things!
Highlights:
"Caught In A Dream"
"I’m Eighteen"
"Second Coming"
"Ballad of Dwight Fry"
Final Rating: 92%
Killer (1971)
With an effective formula in place, Alice
Cooper set out to write their first record where they truly knew what they were
doing. "Killer" is the ultimate Alice Cooper record from their years as a band,
and is the ultimate blend of killer
rock and roll riffs, and shock rock. There isn’t a single moment wasted on this
succinct, 8-song effort. This album has a bit of a theme to it in that it
switches back and forth between the two aforementioned sounds every couple of
tracks.
“Under My Wheels” starts the album off on a
frantic pace (for 1971, at least), as it is a high energy, sing-along anthem. At
less than 3 minutes, this song says everything it needs to and doesn’t overstay
its welcome. The song's consistent inclusion in Alice’s set 40+ years later is a
testament to the staying power of the track, and the fact that it competes with efforts like “Elected” and “School’s Out” as a closer is no mistake. Immediately
following this track, Alice Cooper once again has another hit song, but in a
much different form. “Be My Lover” is more of a downbeat classic rock song. It
is driven by a few alternating basic chords. Alice’s energetic vocal
performance keeps this song alive, and it is one of the band’s best examples of
humour (“she asked my the singer’s name was Alice / I said now listen baby, you
really wouldn’t understand”).
Before delving into the remaining tracks,
it is probably at this point in the record that you’ll once again notice
bassist Dennis Dunaway starting to dominate the mix. He had a few standout
efforts on “Love It To Death”, but on “Killer”, he puts forth one of the
ultimate rock and roll performances. His bass always seems to jump in at the
perfect time, and whether it is an exciting fill, or a thumping support line,
Dunaway has more to offer in one song than most bassists do in an entire
career. “Be My Lover” has a few of these great examples, but on the following
song, “Halo of Flies”, he truly dominates.
But Dunaway isn’t the only standout
musician on “Halo of Flies”. This is perhaps the best instance in the band’s
career of the entire band coming together to create something that is truly
musically gifted. Exceeding 8 minutes in runtime, this track takes a variety of
twists and turns, with not a single one of them falling off point. “Halo of
Flies” seems to be what the band was going for with the experimentation of
their first two records, or even “Black Juju”, but they weren’t quite able to
accomplish it until putting this song together. It seems every minute or so
there is a new riff or theme, each one being better than the last. For the
metal fans, this track (along with a couple others later in the album) is
almost a premonition for Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, as both of these groups
built careers off of the harmonized lead guitars that Alice Cooper helped to
pioneer on a track such as this one. The drum solo in this track is fantastic
too, and if you’ve ever seen any videos of Alice Cooper live in this era, it
supports the wild, crazy arms of Neal Smith that seemingly fly all over the
place. The song ends on a fantastic crescendo that sums up the 8 minutes that
preceded it.
“Halo of Flies” also stands out for being
one of the best instances of Alice Cooper combining their shock rock sound with
the more classic hard rock efforts. Many of Alice’s scarier tracks aren’t
necessarily as song-oriented or as heavy. Compared to later efforts like “Sick
Things” or “The Awakening”, “Halo of Flies” is a very different entity. One
other example of when Alice Cooper accomplishes a similar feat is on the
following song “Desperado”. In the verses, this track is a creepy, clean
guitar-driven effort, while the verses become substantially heavier. Once
again, the juxtaposition of theatrical music with more standard rock is done
perfectly, and has never quite been matched by any of Alice’s imitators.
Side 2 of this LP is a slightly different
story. It once again follows the pattern of having two pure rock songs followed
by two more animated efforts, but whereas “Under My Wheels” and “Be My Lover”
are obvious hit singles, “You Drive Me Nervous” and “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” aren’t
quite. This doesn’t mean they’re bad. In fact, “You Drive Me Nervous” is one of
the stronger efforts on the album. It’s got a speedy, almost proto-punk feel to
it. Alice rips out his vocal cords at the end of each chorus, and both Michael
Bruce and Glen Buxton unleash some psychedelic, tone-bending guitar work in
these sections as well.
If there is one weaker spot to this record,
it would be “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”. Similar to “Be My Lover”, this is the more
subdued effort following an extremely energetic track. For many other bands,
this could be a single on its own, but on an album with 7 masterpiece tracks,
it does have a tough time standing up against the rest of the album.
Nevertheless, the main melody in the song is catchy enough. Much like “Halo of
Flies”, the track appropriately builds to a nice crescendo, topped off by
Alice’s gruff singing.
At this point, the record moves to one of
the most notorious Alice Cooper songs ever written: “Dead Babies”. Musically,
the track absolutely lives up to its name. Once again, Dennis Dunaway shines,
with a fantastically creepy bass line. Though the guitars eventually come in to
match some of his sadistic low-end licks, Dunaway is the star of this track. The
breakdown riff after the second chorus can compete with anything done by a
metal band in the following couple of decades, and is truly one of the heaviest
riffs ever written. Neal Smith’s creative fills help this section build and
build to yet another climax. As noted earlier, there are some killer harmonized
leads near the end of the song, and are no doubt a major inspiration to
numerous metal bands.
After 7 brilliant songs in a row, it would
take something truly monolithic to end off “Killer”. “Halo of Flies” probably
could have ended things, but the title track ended up being even more
appropriate. This is yet another instance of perfect theatrics combined with
great riffs. Alice can even adapt it based on which stage prop he has (“someone
handed me this knife and I…” or “someone handed me this gun and I…”). After
unleashing a few minutes of wicked riffing, “Killer” takes a much darker turn.
Preceded by the disturbing sounds of an organ, there is a drum roll before
Alice’s ultimate execution. In a live setting, this means death by hanging or
by guillotine. It is the perfect way to conclude a perfect album.
It may be a bit predictable to have covered
this album in a track-by-track manner, but the simple fact is that with such
strong songwriting, there is really no other way to do it. Every single effort
is worthy of individual mention, and is perhaps the greatest performance of
every musician in Alice Cooper (except for the band’s namesake himself). “Love
It To Death” began to catapult the band towards stardom, but they were still
feeling the effects of their first couple of releases and early influences. As
will be discussed shortly, “School’s Out” and “Billion Dollar Babies” both show
the effects of a band coping with their fame. “Killer” is the perfect midpoint
in the band’s career, as it features their purest and most inspired songwriting
that is completely focused. “Killer” stands alone as the band’s best work, and
if there is one Alice Cooper record you must hear, this is it!
Highlights:
"Under My Wheels"
"Halo of Flies"
"Desperado"
"Dead Babies"
Final Rating: 100%
School’s Out (1972)
To the outsider, “School’s Out” seems like
the logical starting point for Alice Cooper’s music. It falls right in the
middle of the band’s classic era (1971-1973) and contains unquestionably their
biggest hit with the title track. It was my introduction to the band, as I
bought both this record and “Billion Dollar Babies” at the same time. If I
hadn’t also purchased the latter record, I’m not sure I’d be an Alice Cooper
fan today. “School’s Out” is not just an inaccessible and inconsistent record,
it’s also just not that good when compared to much of the band’s best material
and even Alice’s solo work.
That statement isn’t mean to dismiss the
strong material on this record. The title track feels like the anthem to my
life as someone who has spent years in school, and only just recently finished.
The use of kids’ singing is perhaps one of the only tasteful examples of
bringing in children’s voices into music, as they support Alice’s perfect
singing. As always, Alice has no shortage of brilliant lines (“Well we got no
class / And we got no principles / And we got no innocence / We can't even think
of a word that rhymes). Dennis Dunaway delivers yet another stellar performance
on this track (and really all throughout the record once again). While
“School’s Out” isn’t necessarily my favourite Alice Cooper song, it’s easy to
see why it is an eternal, relatable hit.
After this song, the album almost goes back
to the roots of Alice Cooper. That isn’t to say all of these tracks are
psychedelic and totally disjointed with no semblance of songwriting, but they
are certainly less rigid and straightforward than some of the efforts on the
previous two releases. The only truly simple rock song other than the title
track is “Public Animal #9”, which certainly can’t compete with the likes of
anything on “Killer” or “Love It To Death”. “Gutter Cats vs. The Jets” also
doesn’t veer too far off track, but its reliance on keyboards ruins the rocking
mood that the riffs are trying to create.
The theatrics are still in full form on
this record, primarily coming through in the skit track “Street Fight”, or the
strange ode to the band’s high school days, “Alma Matter”. The latter isn’t
quite theatrical in the same way that “Ballad of Dwight Fry” or “Killer” may
have been, but it’s clearly designed as a non-traditional song. The
aforementioned “Gutter Cats vs. The Jets” also has its moments where Alice
Cooper’s vision is best realized live, but ultimately just isn’t that potent.
Despite the criticisms above, “School’s
Out” really isn’t a terrible record at all. “Luney Tune” might be a little
off-kilter, but it is still painfully catchy. “My Stars” is similarly another
standout, even though it is far different from what made Alice Cooper great in
this era. None of the songs are truly bad, and there is clearly a distinct
difference between what the band did on this record, and what they were trying
to accomplish on “Pretties For You” and “Easy Action”, but one can’t help but
feel that they weren’t as focused on this release. “Blue Turk”, for example,
features a stellar chorus, but is riddled with a lengthy horn section in the
middle, and lacks distorted guitars. Neither of these things are inherently
bad, but they’re just so counterintuitive to what made early Alice Cooper
great. “Grand Finale” is similarly extremely horn-driven, and closes off a
mixed record with a whimper.
Though “School’s Out” has grown on me
considerably over the years, it does stick out like a sore thumb amidst 3
mind-blowing releases. The reality is that this album still exceeds much of
Cooper’s discography. It isn’t an ideal starting point for new fans, but it is nevertheless
worth owning, and most likely has at least a couple of deeper cuts that may
appeal to you. There are numerous fans who will loyally defend this album as
being just as good as the three that surround it, and while they’re certainly
entitled to that opinion, a quick study of Alice’s setlists over the years
provides more than enough evidence that this album doesn’t have much staying
power beyond its brilliant title track.
Highlights:
"School’s Out"
"Luney Tune"
"My Stars"
Final Rating: 75%
Billion Dollar Babies (1973)
By 1973, there was no avoiding Alice
Cooper. After the mega-hit “School’s Out”, expectations were astronomical for
the follow-up record. The band must have realized this because “Billion Dollar
Babies” opens with the absolutely triumphant “Hello Hooray”. As though to
welcome the listener to the brilliant 40-minute experience that would follow,
this track sets the tone with its opening lines of “Hello! Hooray! Let the show
begin”. Musically, the song isn’t exactly a hard rocker like those tracks found
on “Killer” or “Love It To Death”, but it is far catchier and more memorable
than the majority of “School’s Out”. It’s a bit of a bold choice to open the
record because it isn’t actually an original track, but there’s no doubt that
Alice Cooper quickly made it their own.
“Billion Dollar Babies” is a much deeper
album than just a hit cover song, however. After its release, the band reached
the height of their popularity, and that is due in no small part to the number
of hit singles on this record. “Elected” is a reworking of “Reflected” from
“Pretties For You”, and shows the band unleashing the potential the song always
had. Though it comes in and out of Alice’s live sets often (depending on how
close we are to a US presidential election), this is undeniably one of the most
brilliant Alice Cooper tracks. Alice’s charisma as a frontman and lead singer
really comes across with most of the lines he delivers in this song. If another
band were to perform this song, it might be sonically similar, but it would
lack the impact that Alice gives it.
The title track of the record is perhaps
best known for its iconic opening drumbeat, but it also marks another instance
where the show is stolen by bassist Dennis Dunaway. He injects some high-speed
fills that complement the transitions in the song perfectly. The song has
plenty of harmonized lead guitars, which are only another subtle link to
Alice’s connection with metal. It also is a duet with the singer Donovan, but
as a young, out-of-touch metalhead, I’ve got no clue who that actually is. In
all honesty, Alice could have performed this track off solo, but Donovan’s
appearance doesn’t really hurt or hinder the song. Regardless, “Billion Dollar
Babies” is yet another song that is worthy of its hit status and is constantly
in live sets.
And then there’s the biggest hit on the
record: “No More Mr. Nice Guy”. This one of the few Alice Cooper songs that
plenty of people probably know even if they have no idea who Alice Cooper is,
and it’s easy to see why. With a mind-numbingly brilliant chorus that rises to
a great crescendo, this is a perfect sing-along track.
Every classic record obviously has its
share of hits, but the real question is if “Billion Dollar Babies” has much
else to offer. Unlike “School’s Out”, the answer is a resounding yes. Both
“Unfinished Sweet” and “Generation Landslide” are two of Alice’s better rock
efforts on the record. They might be just a cut below some of the material on
“Killer” or “Love It To Death”, but both songs still get the job done.
The real highlight is the combo of “Mary
Ann” and “I Love The Dead”. The former is a short piano ballad, with only Alice
leading the charge. It’s not the kind of music that any rock and roll fan
should enjoy all that much, but it sets the tone for the disturbing, twisted “I
Love The Dead”. Besides having one of the heaviest riffs of all time (in the
breakdown just after this song’s intro), the track excels due to its sheer
catchiness. Often performed after Alice is executed via guillotine, this song
is usually sung in a modified form by long-time bassist Chuck Garric, showing
that even without Alice, it is a well-written effort. The extended (album)
version features perhaps Alice’s most depraved lyrics: “I love the dead before
they rise / No farewells, no goodbyes / I never even knew your now rotting face
/ While friends and lovers mourn your silly grave / I have other uses for you
Darling”. Once you start to enjoy this track, that’s when you know you’ve gone
off the deep end.
This leaves just two songs to round out
“Billion Dollar Babies”. Despite being the weakest tracks, “Raped and Freezin’”
and “Sick Things” are ironically quite opposed. The former is a standard rock
track, but one that just doesn’t have anything interesting to offer. It’s far simpler than much of the material on “School’s Out”, yet somehow doesn’t
translate into a hit. “Sick Things”, on the other hand, is what would happen to
a track like “I Love The Dead” if it lacked musical credence. This isn’t to say
it is bad, but it almost feels more like a skit than a song at times, and when
compared to the musical terror of previous efforts like “Dead Babies” or
“Killer”, it falls short.
“Billion Dollar Babies” is one of the most
interesting Alice Cooper records to analyze simply because it isn’t very
one-dimensional. Unlike its predecessor, it has a handful of hits, but also the
occasional miss. It absolutely is deserving of its status as a classic record,
and yet, it wasn’t the band’s best work. Sometimes when bands blow up to the
popularity that Alice Cooper had with “School’s Out”, they totally fall apart,
but “Billion Dollar Babies” proves that wasn’t meant to happen for Alice
Cooper. At least, it wasn’t meant to happen yet…
Highlights:
"Elected"
"Billion Dollar Babies"
"No More Mr. Nice Guy"
"I Love The Dead"
Final Rating: 90%
Muscle of Love (1973)
Despite the band’s consistently increasing
popularity, 1973 marked the second time in just three years that Alice Cooper
was able to put out two albums in the same year. Unlike each of those previous
four releases, however, “Muscle of Love” is arguably the first time the band
didn’t progress forward with their new record. Citing a hope to return to
musical roots, rather than focusing on the ever-growing stage show, the band
dumped Bob Ezrin, and put forth an album that is exactly as they describe: a
rock and roll record.
It’s almost inarguable that Bob Ezrin was
the catalyst the band needed to really figure things out. Of course, they’d
been on such a roll by this point, that maybe they didn’t need Ezrin anymore.
Sadly, “Muscle of Love” proves that just isn’t the case. To be clear, this
isn’t a bad record, nor even a mediocre one. But compared to the brilliance of
the previous two years, “Muscle of Love” is certainly a head scratcher.
Alice Cooper was no stranger to writing
hard rocking efforts at this point in their career, but most of these tracks
lack the edge or bite that previous songs had. The hooks, while admirable, are
not always all that catchy or memorable. The album has a handful of enjoyable
songs, but ultimately struggles to compete against a very strong discography
for Alice. The sole exception being the title track, which is instantly
memorable due to its fantastic opening riff.
The album as a whole feels a lot like an
Aerosmith record (particularly on a song like “Never Been Sold Before” or even
some of the riffs in “Man With The Golden Gun”). There are definitely some
bluesy riffs, and the album has a bit of a loose feel to it. All of the band
members give a serviceable performance, but nothing quite as potent as in the
past. Even Dennis Dunaway fails to impress as he did on the last few outings.
“Muscle of Love” isn’t bad; it’s just
unremarkable. Despite having owned the record for numerous years, it is one I
rarely come back to. At least future Alice records would always have an interesting
twist or theme to them, even if the songwriting didn’t fire on all cylinders.
By contrast, “Muscle of Love” feels like a band trying to recapture an identity
they never had. The band was always theatrical, and though it may have gone a
bit too far at times, abandoning it was ultimately their undoing. Alice Cooper
has done far worse in his/their career, but after a string of hits (with more
to come), “Muscle of Love” is tough to appreciate.
Highlights:
"Big Apple Dreamin’ (Hippo)"
"Hard Hearted Alice"
"Muscle of Love"
Final Rating: 70%
Alice Cooper the Band Becomes Alice Cooper the Singer
After “Muscle of Love”, the band took a
break to record solo albums. It didn’t take much foresight to determine this
would work out much better for the singer (who was seen as the band’s namesake)
than for everyone else. Before delving into Alice’s solo catalogue, it’s worth
reiterating the three points made above apply much moreso to Alice’s solo
career.
To be blunt, Alice hopped around a lot
stylistically for the next 30+ years. Without the same band members to ground
him, Alice ultimately explored a more diverse musical territory. This probably
worked out best; as noted above, “Muscle of Love” is what happens when Alice
Cooper makes a rock record that is just ok. Trying out different genres allowed
him to find occasional bursts of creativity, and at least put together
interesting albums when the songwriting wasn’t the best.
And because Alice Cooper no longer had the
brilliant songwriting of Michael Bruce, or the creative bass lines of Dennis
Dunaway, Alice’s lyrics took center stage more often. The old albums had plenty
of good lyrics, but Alice would take things to another level over the following
years. All of these factors would combine to result in some truly brilliant
deep cuts that can stand against any of the Alice Cooper Group’s best work.
Personally, I am not as faithful to the
Alice Cooper Group as most hardcore fans. Undoubtedly, most of the hits were
written during that period, and as described above in excessive detail, several
of those albums rank among my favourites ever. Solo Alice, however, not only
has much more to offer (19 albums solo albums against 7 from the band), but it
also explores heavy metal in two separate stints, and does so convincingly both
times.
Finally, the last few years in particular
have made it quite evidence that nostalgia has ended Alice’s creative peak. By
no means do I think that “Dirty Diamonds” or even “Along Came A Spider” were
some of the better Alice Cooper records, but a simple assessment of the last 10
years of Alice’s career shows a disturbing fact pattern. Up until about 2008 or
so, Alice was constantly pumping out new records, occasionally changing his
sound. Around the time “Along Came A Spider” was released, Alice pretty much
stopped touring around his new albums. Sure, he threw a couple of tracks from
the new record into the set (almost out of obligation), but there was no tour
for “Along Came A Spider”. With few new songs, Alice primarily resorted to
playing the same songs he has always played for the last 40 years.
And then there was “Welcome 2 My Nightmare”.
Though the album will be discussed at length later on, the reunion with Bob
Ezrin and the release of a sequel 36 years after the original just screams of
an artist seeking attention. Once again, there was no tour to support “Welcome
2 My Nightmare”, as Alice opted to spend years opening for Iron Maiden and
Motley Crue. Let’s be realistic here: Alice has been around long enough that
grabbing a few extra Maiden or Crue fans will not do much for his bottom-line.
It will, however, give him shorter sets (once again preventing new or rare
songs from entering the set).
One would then wonder why it took 6 years
for another studio album, particularly given that he only had one other break
exceeding 3 years in his entire 48-year career. The answer (other than the
excessively long Motley Crue tour) is because of Hollywood Vampires. This is a
cover band formed by Alice, Johnny Depp, Joe Perry, and others to recapture the
glory of the 1970s. Releasing a very mediocre cover album and doing even more
touring, it serve as yet another distraction for Alice, preventing him from
putting out another great record.
And then there are the reunions with the
original band. On “Welcome 2 My Nightmare”, the original band played on / wrote
3 songs. There have been several informal reunions since, and the band will
also be reappearing on two tracks on “Paranormal”. In fact, most of the
discussion surrounding the new record from hardcore Alice fans has been about
whether we’re getting two or three songs from the new band (eventually
confirmed to be two). Like I said, I love those old records, but I don’t think
an extra song from the old band 40+ years removed from their prime will be life
changing. In fact, it is arguable that Alice made much of his best and most
inspired music working with other artists.
Finally, it was recently announced that the
original band is going to be playing a mini-set with Alice on one of his
upcoming tours. This is yet another instance where it will be clear that Alice
will ignore his vast catalogue (including his first new album in 6 years) in
favour of nostalgia. It wasn’t so long ago that Alice was still a major
creative force, and while I’m optimistic about the new album, there’s not a
single doubt in my mind that the entity of Alice Cooper has become increasingly
regressive over the last decade. There’s no shortage of groups that quickly
become nostalgia bands (often by their 40s or 50s), but Alice held on longer
than most, and it’s unfortunate that his creative efforts are continuing to
dwindle. Of course, we still have another 40 years to cover first!
Welcome To My Nightmare (1975)
After reteaming with producer Bob Ezrin,
Alice kicked off his solo career by releasing quite possibly his most original
and innovative album in his 26-record discography. This album takes all the
absurdity and theatricality of previous tracks like “Halo of Flies”, “I Love
The Dead” and others, and turns it up to 11. It combines a variety of
styles and sounds to create a truly haunting, nightmarish experience. Perhaps
one of its best qualities is to take seemingly innocent songs like “Welcome To
My Nightmare”, “Cold Ethyl”, and “Escape”, and make them feel just a little bit
sadistic. Everything on this record that isn’t inherently scary almost feels
like it has an ulterior motive, as even the truly rocking songs fit the theme
of this album perfectly.
“Welcome To My Nightmare” has a few
different tones to it. Of course, Alice is well-known for hard rock efforts,
and there is no shortage of them on this album. While “Department of Youth” and
“Cold Ethyl” might appeal most to 1970s rock fans, it is “Devil’s Food” and
“The Black Widow” that are heaviest. These songs could compete with anything
metal bands were doing 5 years later, and are far ahead of their time. The
riffs are truly monolithic, and while some of Alice’s earlier efforts lacked
gritty distortion, these two tracks remain heavy even 40+ years later. Both of
them once again display the brilliance of harmonized lead guitars (though this
time around it would be Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner dueling). “Devil’s Food”
also features an extensive spoken-word section from Vincent Price, reminding
the listener that you can never truly be removed from the nightmare.
One of the great things about “Welcome To
My Nightmare”, and really Alice Cooper as a whole, is its propensity to do
things that make absolutely no sense, yet still work perfectly. The best
example of this is “Some Folks”. Much of the song features some strange finger
snapping as its rhythmic backdrop, amidst Alice adopting yet another of his
unique character voices. The contrast to the heavy metal sounds of the prior
two tracks is evident, but “Some Folks” manages to be just as potent. This is
in large part due to the stellar lead playing throughout the track, which
climaxes in two separate instances where the feel of the song speeds up.
This album marks the beginning of Alice’s
“ballad” era. For each of his first four solo records, Alice spawned a hit
single via a ballad. And while hardcore fans seem lukewarm at best on some of
the later ones, few people can deny the brilliance of “Only Women Bleed”.
Lyrically, it is a terrifying yet all too true tale, but even musically, it
hits the spot. It is one of two instances on the record where horns and
symphonies are executed to perfection (the other being the title track). It
also proves that despite some of Alice’s more unique and crazier voices, he
really is a great singer in a more traditional sense.
As great as all of the aforementioned songs
are, the centerpiece of the album is the trilogy of “Years Ago”, “Steven”, and
“The Awakening”. If you’re looking for a real nightmare, this is it. “Years
Ago” is perhaps the most terrifying song ever written. With its deserted
carnival feel, one can only wonder firstly how someone would create something
this twisted, but also how anyone could have thought it would be a good idea to
include on the album. But this is supposed to be a nightmare, and no track
captures that feeling better than “Years Ago”. Alice adopts yet another strange
character voice, perhaps his creepiest ever. Word of advice: don’t listen to
this song if you’re home alone at night.
“Steven” is what happens if you take the
dark, disturbing atmosphere of “Years Ago” and add some musical credence to it.
Driven by the best piano line of Alice’s career, this song quickly shows Alice
imitating a child’s voice (once again displaying the diversity of his sound)
before exploding in the choruses. This song is one of many examples of the
stellar guitar playing on this record, as the outro features intricate,
memorable lead work. It is the pinnacle of drama interwoven with music, and
though not the end of the record, it feels like an appropriate climax to the
album.
“The Awakening” is definitely one of the
stranger tracks on the album. After a short intro featuring primarily only
Alice, an eerie piano comes to life to support Alice singing a tale of how he
killed his wife. The song builds and builds as the rest of the band joins the
fray. In many ways, this track feels a bit more like an interlude the first few
times you hear it, but upon repeated listens, it’s actually a pretty brilliant
little tale. It feels more like an epilogue to “Steven” (not necessarily
lyrically, but instead musically).
Finally, “Welcome To My Nightmare” closes
with “Escape”; a song that is a 180-degree turn from the previous tracks. This
is an upbeat rocker that has a much more positive outlook. If Alice didn’t want
to end things on the nightmare trilogy, then this would be the only other
appropriate track to close the album, simply because it feels like one waking
up from the nightmare. It’s not necessarily one of the strongest tracks on the
record, but that’s because this album is overflowing with brilliant music.
“Welcome To My Nightmare” was the defining
release for Alice’s solo career, and it’s easy to see why. The stage show continued
to grow as the music became more absurd, and 1975 marked the highlight of this
point. Over the next couple of records, Alice’s descent into alcoholism would
take an increasing toll on his career, and the music suffered. While it appears
he was an incredibly heavy drinker in these days too, it clearly wasn’t
impacting the man too much yet. Substance abuse aside, 1975 was perhaps the
best year to be an Alice Cooper fan!
Highlights:
"Welcome To My Nightmare"
"The Black Widow"
"Cold Ethyl"
"Steven"
Final Rating: 100%
Goes to Hell (1976)
After a record as earth-shattering as
“Welcome To My Nightmare”, it would be impossible to release something equally
potent, but the question remains as to if Alice could keep up putting out
strong releases. Unfortunately, “Goes To Hell” answers that with a resounding
“no”. It’s unclear exactly what went wrong on this record; it’s still got the
Cooper/Ezrin combination, and both of Alice’s great guitarists stayed on board.
But this album just completely missed the mark, with a few exceptions. Likely
the best answer is that Alice’s alcoholism was really beginning to effect his
career; after all, the tour for “Goes To Hell” was cancelled due to Alice
getting extremely sick.
To the record’s credit, there are a few
decent tracks. “Go To Hell” is the obvious standout, with Alice penning some
great lines about all the reasons one could end up down below (“you’d even
force feed a diabetic a candy cane”). Most importantly however, it’s a rocking
track with solid riffs, and some actual volume behind it. It isn’t afraid to be
loud and boisterous, which is the real problem that “Goes To Hell” suffers from as a
whole. So many of these tracks are quiet, boring, and unimaginative. This isn’t
simply a matter of turning the amps to 11; instead, it’s just that there isn’t
much to enjoy for a rock fan. One clear example is “I’m The Coolest”, where
absolutely nothing happens for the entire song. It’s one thing to criticize a
record as a new listener for being unmemorable and uninteresting, but having
owned this album for nearly a decade, very few of the tracks even have a riff
or vocal line that comes to mind until relistening to it. It doesn’t even seem
like Alice is singing on this track; Alice is a master of different voices, but
this is far outside anything else he’s ever done.
Ironically, one of the standout tracks is a
ballad. “I Never Cry” seems to be Alice’s scream for help about his alcohol
problems. Though less dramatic than “Only Women Bleed” (there are relatively
minimal orchestrations to support this track), Alice once again delivers a
charismatic vocal performance that rivals anything he’s ever done in his career
(at least, up to this point). Fortunately, there is a third worthwhile track on
this album and that is “Guilty”. Much like “Public Animal #9” on “School’s
Out”, however, this track is effective because it is a rock and roll song on an
album otherwise devoid of that sound. It can’t stand up against Alice Cooper’s
best work, and so although it is enjoyable and has some decent riffs, it can’t
salvage the record.
Some of the remaining songs on “Goes To
Hell” aren’t completely offensive. The disco-esque “You Gotta Dance” is
hilarious for what it is. “Didn’t We Meet” builds to a decent climax in the
middle. But when these are some of the songs kicking off the record, concern
should set in. Some of the true misses are near the end, coming in the form of
“I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” and “Going Home”. The former track features
plenty of quiet time before a frustrating chorus, while the latter song just
features an incessantly annoying repeating of its title.
“Goes To Hell” had too much to live up to
given its predecessor, but even across a lengthy and divisive catalogue, it
stands out as one of Alice’s weakest efforts. And unlike some of the other
disappointing albums he has done, this isn’t due to stylistic choices (the
first two albums, the early 1980s era (but even most of those are better), and
“The Eyes of Alice Cooper” / “Dirty Diamonds” (more on those later)). It isn’t
even a performance issue either. This is simply just weak songwriting, and can
only be recommended to the most hardcore Alice fans. The good songs all show up
in various live releases, so “Goes To Hell” is only for the collectors.
Highlights:
"Go To Hell"
"I Never Cry"
"Guilty"
Final Rating: 64%
Lace And Whiskey (1977)
Coming off one of the weakest records of
his career, and given the fact that Alice Cooper was continuing his dark
descent as an alcoholic, it wasn’t really clear if solo Alice Cooper was
anything more than a one-hit wonder. Though Alice was actually able to play
live supporting this album, the performances could be pretty dreadful (check
out Alice singing the title track to “Lace and Whiskey” on The Tonight Show for
all the evidence you need). The befuddled concept behind this record only
seemed to raise the level of concern further.
Despite that, “Lace and Whiskey” shows
Alice trending in the right direction once again. For one thing, this album
brings the riffs. The opening riff to the album comes from “It’s Hot Tonight”,
and it stands against absolutely anything in his entire catalogue. This riff
provides the backbone for the track, but the middle solo/lead harmony section
is adventurous, and helps the song sustain its length. Even the chorus has a
nice melodic sensibility to it. The title track is up next and brings back the
bouncy feel that “Go To Hell” had. This is yet another absurdly catchy track,
with a killer chorus. The vocals feel a bit buried, particularly coming off
“It’s Hot Tonight”, but Alice’s singing is still on point.
As with the past two records, “Lace and
Whiskey” features another hit ballad (each successive one seemingly being less
popular than the last amongst fans though). This album’s effort is “You and
Me”, often mistaken as “What We Are Is What We Are” based on the lyrics of the
chorus. Relative to the previous two ballads, this one truly does feel like
business as usual, and while it doesn’t have much new to offer, it is a nice,
heartfelt tune.
At this point, one might think “Lace and
Whiskey” isn’t all that different from “Goes To Hell”. After all, there have
been two rockers and a good ballad, but the primary difference is that the
remaining songs, while not necessarily hits, don’t drop the ball. These songs
aren’t afraid to use distorted guitars, or even crank up the speed. This
album’s disco-inspired effort (“(No More) Love At Your Convenience”) tends to
receive a lot more flak from hardcore Alice fans than its predecessor, but to
Alice’s credit, it’s a surprisingly memorable little number. It might be a
little heavy on the backing vocals, but for a man who has made a career out of
doing different sounds, this successful experimentation is appreciated.
Some other deep cut highlights include
“King of the Silver Screen” and “My God”. The former is one of the more
authentic sounding Alice Cooper Group tracks; in other words, this would have
fit in well with some of the 1971-1973 work without hesitation. It’s got that
slight cleverness and silliness to the lyrics, and classic rocking feel. Alice
sometimes had a tendency to go overboard with his theatricality in his solo
career, but this song retains the nice balance found in the band’s peak. “My
God” is a highlight simply for the mesmerizing guitar solo. One shouldn’t
forget that the duo of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner is still in tact on this
record, and while it had some mediocre results on the prior record, the group
gets their swagger back here, both with heavy riffs, and impressive fretwork.
Overall, there are any number of reasons
why “Lace and Whiskey” could be considered a superior record to “Goes To Hell”.
Ultimately, however, it is more focused, and so despite Alice’s dangerous
levels of drinking, there wasn’t much of a negative musical impact. Certainly,
this is nowhere near his best work, but it is a nice rebound after the previous
album. Much of this album might be ignored by Alice in a live setting these
days, but it is well worth owning for a few top-tier Alice tracks, and a
handful of other solid efforts.
Highlights:
"It’s Hot Tonight"
"Lace and Whiskey"
"You and Me"
Final Rating: 76%
From The Inside (1978)
After “Lace and Whiskey”, Alice’s alcohol
problems worsened once again, resulting in him needing to get treatment. For
some reason, he was sent to a mental health facility, where most of the other
patients weren’t dealing with alcohol-related issues. The characters he met
there inspired his 11th album: “From The Inside”. This is one of the
few Alice Cooper solo records (along with “The Last Temptation”, and arguably
“DaDa” or “Along Came A Spider”) that doesn’t really have a place in his
discography. Most of Alice’s solo career was focused on certain genres or
themes, but “From The Inside” is a strange one-off record that doesn’t really
represent his previous or later work. As a result, it’s a bit more difficult to
evaluate against the rest of his discography.
The album also marks a significant change
in personnel. Bob Ezrin is out as producer, and David Foster takes over.
Equally important, however, is the addition of Bernie Taupin to assist in
songwriting. Taupin would be very influential outside the musical realm (more
on that in the next review), but obviously also changed the direction of the
songwriting. The result is that “From The Inside” is a much more piano driven
record. Sometimes it feels like the guitars take a backseat, even though Dick
Wagner still co-wrote and played on this album.
Unsurprisingly, this makes “From The
Inside” a strange record because it isn’t a traditional hard rock record. There
are a lot of decent riffs, but this can be a very inaccessible album the first
few times around. The title track is practically a disco song (nothing new to
Alice on the last couple albums, but certainly as a lead off track, it is
daring). Even if you don’t like disco, it’s got some nice bass pops and a
convincing, storytelling performance from Alice that is worth hearing.
The rest of the album is a bit of a
mishmash of styles based on the character that Alice is singing about. The
strange duet of “Millie and Billie” is among the least characteristic tracks in
Alice’s discography, yet somehow works well. Then there are the more classic
sounding efforts like “Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills”, “Serious”, and “For
Veronica’s Sake”. Though the album as a whole could be described as theatrical,
the two tracks that best represent Alice’s level of absurdity are “Nurse
Rozetta” and “Inmates (We’re All Crazy)”. The latter track provides a haunting
close to the record, as both Alice and a chorus of vocalists constantly sings
out “We’re All Crazy”. Once again, there is another ballad that would be the
hit from the album (“How You Gonna See Me Now”). It is definitely the weakest of
the four hit ballads Alice had done since 1975, but isn’t all that bad compared
to some of the weaker material of this era.
Buying “From The Inside” as your first
Alice record would be a major mistake. But the story of Alice Cooper can’t be
told without this album. Quality-wise, it’s up there with any of his more
average records, even if it is sonically different. It’s great that even in a
time where Alice has been less adventurous with his setlists, tracks from this
album are still regularly featured (“From The Inside”, “Wish I Were Born In
Beverly Hills”, and “Nurse Rozetta” have all been played in the last 12 or so
years; “Serious” was also brought out briefly in 2003). Overall, for an
experimental record, “From The Inside” definitely shatters expectations!
Highlights:
"From The Inside"
"Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills"
"Serious"
Final Rating: 74%
Flush The Fashion (1980)
The collaboration with Bernie Taupin
wouldn’t last beyond “From The Inside”, but Taupin was responsible for the
direction of the next few albums thanks to introducing Alice to cocaine.
Alcohol no longer proved to be Alice’s vice, and each of the next three albums
took a very different turn as a result. Though Alice denied this for decades,
everything finally came to light in “Super Duper Alice Cooper”, a documentary
that was released just recently.
Substance abuse or not, “Flush The Fashion”
marked a serious change in Alice’s musical direction. Updating to a more
modern, new wave sound (and not the good new wave either [NWOBHM]), each of the
next three albums is a strange time in Alice’s discography. “Flush The Fashion”
is arguably the most coherent of these records, and probably the only one Alice
actually remembers.
This album has two big hits: “Clones (We’re
All)” and “Pain”. Unlike the past few records, neither of these songs is a
ballad. “Clones (We’re All)” is an upbeat tune driven by a catchy synthesizer.
Interestingly, the song isn’t actually written by Alice, so it’s a bit
unfortunate that the best track on the record isn’t even an original.
At 4 minutes, “Pain” is the longest song on
the record (and that should tell you something about how hyped up the drugs
were making Alice). It is the closest to any of his classic efforts, even
though it is very piano-focused. Perhaps it is because Alice uses his more
normal voice on this song (which is a bit of a departure from the rest of the
album), or because the song isn’t quite as fast as the surrounding tracks, but
this song would have fit on anything released from 1975-1978.
The rest of the album is a fairly
high-speed, coked-up affair that doesn’t really have anything in common with
Alice Cooper (one listen to “Leather Boots” or “Aspirin Damage” makes that
clear). Sure, it’s his voice, but it really sounds nothing like what you’d
expect from him. One look at any of the pictures from this era would show you
how messed up he was (and it would only get worse on the next record).
Ironically, however, “Flush The Fashion” is
still a decent album. Neither of the following two albums have anything as
enjoyable as either “Clones (We’re All)” or “Pain”, and the remaining tracks
are all serviceable. Because there are three albums of new wave, it’s pretty
easy to hear what this sounds like when it goes off the rails (“Special
Forces”), and that most definitely does not happen on “Flush The Fashion”. It
also helps that the songs are all so short, and almost bleed into one another.
Many of the tracks on this record are between 2-3 minutes, which is the perfect
length for this bizarre set of songs. By contrast, the slightly longer “Special
Forces” really struggled to maintain its length. “Zipper Catches Skin” is a bit
of a different story altogether, as discussed below. Regardless, “Flush The
Fashion” was a bold new direction for Alice that wasn’t necessarily a failure
in terms of quality, but also wasn’t a bright spot either. All things
considered, it’s not as bad as it should have been.
Highlights:
"Clones (We’re All)"
"Pain"
"Aspirin Damage"
Final Rating: 68%
Special Forces (1981)
“Flush The Fashion” was a big change for
Alice, but the execution was fairly strong, so even for a rock or metal fan, it
could be enjoyable. Sadly, the same can’t be said of “Special Forces”. Alice’s
continued drug use had pretty much destroyed him, and unfortunately he didn’t
really have anyone in his band that could salvage the record. There are three
decent songs on the album and one of them is a cover. “Who Do You Think We Are”
is certainly the best track, and is closest to old-school Alice, as it’s a
straight-up rock song. It obviously doesn’t stand against his best work, but
considering the time period, this is one of the better songs from the 1980-1983
era.
One of the other decent efforts is “Seven
and Seven Is”, which is a cover of the band Love. This is a high energy song
that actually fits the coked-up nature of Alice Cooper at this time. It’s easy
to see why it was covered, as it’s primarily driven by 16th notes
for the entirety of the song. The vocal patterns feel a bit sporadic at times,
but Alice delivers them surprisingly well considering his state. Finally, there
is “You Look Good In Rags”, which has a fairly memorable guitar lick driving
the chorus. Unfortunately there’s a weird backing vocal section about
two-thirds of the way into the track that takes over until the end. It’s easy
to see how, with better execution and a larger spotlight on Alice, this could
have been a huge hit for him. The guitar lick is too catchy to ignore.
The remaining songs on this record are
similar in sound to “Flush The Fashion”, but there honestly isn’t anything
memorable here. Moreso than any other Alice Cooper album after “Pretties For
You”, this album just totally misses the mark. It’s coherent, so it certainly
can’t be considered the worst Alice Cooper record, but there aren’t really many
hooks, and the ones that do exist aren’t good.
“Special Forces” would be the last album
Alice toured for prior to getting clean, and it’s easy to see why. For some
reason, there’s a lot more footage of this tour out there than for “Flush The
Fashion”, but it’s clear Alice is in a bad state. There is a full show from
late 1981 floating around on YouTube that’s actually terrifying to watch. Alice
at this point was scary because the danger was real. One watch of Alice
Cooper’s interview with Tom Snyder will make that clear. Be forewarned if
you’re squeamish, because Alice is legitimately difficult to look at in this
interview.
Surprisingly, “Special Forces” would be the
low point of Alice’s career. He still had drug problems on the follow-up,
“Zipper Catches Skin”, but that album was far more creative. Dropping the
cocaine for alcohol again, 1983’s “DaDa” was a creative high point. It’s not
quite clear what went wrong on this record considering the other albums of this
era were far superior, but “Special Forces” is only for the most diehard Alice
fans. Listen to “Who Do You Think We Are” and "You Look Good In Rags", and then you’ll have heard
everything you really need to.
Highlights:
"Who Do You Think We Are"
"Seven And Seven Is"
"You Look Good In Rags"
Final Rating: 55%
Zipper Catches Skin (1982)
1982’s “Zipper Catches Skin” sees former
guitarist Dick Wagner returning to help Alice. From the onset, however, that’s
the only positive looking element to this record. From the unfortunate album
title, to its confusing cover art, and atrocious song titles, there isn’t much
reason for optimism given Alice’s personal and career descent. Ironically,
“Zipper Catches Skin” is actually a step forward after “Special Forces”. The
songwriting is much, much catchier, and the songs are more coherent. There’s no
doubt that the biggest musical influence on this record is still cocaine, but
at least Wagner’s was helping this time around.
The result is that “Zipper Catches Skin”
has more than a few decent guitar parts, which can’t be said about the past
couple of records. Of equal importance is the fact that the bass playing on
this album is on point. It almost feels like Dennis Dunaway came back to record
this album because the bass is loud, and unleashing plenty of cool lines
throughout. It’s easy to see how, in the right contexts, many of these tracks
could have fit in with some of Cooper’s mid-70s work. The galloping opener
“Zorro’s Ascent” would have fit on any number of Alice Cooper albums with a
different production and Alice’s more classic voice. Nonetheless, it is a solid
effort here, and a good fit for the album.
Most of “Zipper Catches Skin” is fairly
similar musically, but the one track that does stand out as being different is
“I Am The Future”. This is a much slower, spacier track that almost gives the
record a distant, atmospheric feel. Unsurprisingly, it’s the only song not
written by Alice, but it suits him nonetheless. The remainder of the album is
filled with potential hits. There’s no reason that “Make That Money (Scrooge’s
Song)”, “No Baloney Homosapiens”, or “Adaptable (Anything For You)” couldn’t
have been successful for Alice. In 1982, however, he had absolutely no label
support from Warner Bros. and also didn’t tour behind this release, resulting
in nearly every single one of these tracks being ‘obscure’.
As great of a lyricist as Alice is,
sometimes he got a little too carried away on this record. To be fair, some of
the songs have some outstanding lines, but tracks like “Tag, You’re It” and
“I’m Alive (That Was The Day My Dead Pet Return To Save My Life)” feel just a
little bit over the top. In general, however, the songs on this album are all
so short that they’re over before they can really get frustrating if they are a
bit weaker. Overall, it makes “Zipper Catches Skin” an easy listen because it’s
perhaps the most focused of the three drug-riddled albums, and also has lots of
enjoyable guitar work.
Highlights:
"Zorro’s Ascent"
"I Am The Future"
"Adaptable (Anything For You)"
Final Rating: 70%
DaDa (1983)
“DaDa” is often considered along with the
three records that preceded it to all except hardcore fans, but the truth is
that this record is another like “From The Inside” that can’t be likened to any
of its predecessors or successors. Alice traded in drugs for drinking again,
and teaming with only Dick Wagner and Bob Ezrin, created one of the most
terrifying unique records ever. As noted in the last review, label support was
virtually non-existent, so “DaDa” only existed to fulfill contractual
obligations. This album was primarily written by Cooper and Wagner in a hotel
in Toronto, and represents one of the purest artistic visions ever.
When I said “Years Ago” was the creepiest
song ever written, it came with a caveat: “DaDa”. The title track to this album
is absolutely the most frightening thing ever made, and you should never listen
to it alone, at night, or if you’re in any sort of state of paranoia. It’s a
4-minute intro featuring a terrifying melody that culminates in Alice talking
to Ezrin (the therapist). You don’t even need to fully hear the words (which
are purposefully quiet) to get the sense that this Alice is a killer.
Once this track ends, the haunting atmosphere
mostly comes out of the fact that this album is a total juxtaposition of
sounds. The lyrics are often sadistic (“Enough’s Enough, “Former Lee Warmer”, "Fresh Blood", “Pass The Gun Around”), and songs range from happy and upbeat (“I Love
America”) to intensely emotional (“Pass The Gun Around”), to pure dark music
(“Former Lee Warmer”). Somehow, “Scarlet and Sheba” manages to be both
optimistic and sadistic in the chorus alone.
Most of this album actually hits the mark
pretty well. Other than “I Love America”, none of the songs are truly bad. This
track just has far too many lyrics, and the common melody throughout the song
isn’t that captivating. Aside from this, however, there are a lot of highlights
on this album. One of my favourites is "Fresh Blood", simply because of the sheer hilarity of the tune. It's got a funky rhythm that suits Alice's voice perfectly. However, the best song is undoubtedly “Pass The Gun Around”. Naturally,
the entire song is a euphemism for Alice’s drinking problem, but the brilliance
is how the lines work on two levels (“Pass the gun around / give everyone a shot). Dick Wagner gives quite possibly
the best guitar solo of his career on this track.
On the note of Dick Wagner, if you are a
serious “DaDa” fan, there is an unbelievable hour-long podcast with Dick Wagner
and two guys from the Decibel Podcast. They cover every single track in depth,
with tons of obscure info that comes straight from the source himself (and
since Alice can’t remember anything from this period, Wagner would be the only
other person along with Ezrin who could add any insight).
Truthfully, “DaDa” is not a favourite of
mine. It is a seriously unique entry in Alice’s career, and the fact that it
came when he was at his sickest is unbelievable. But it’s very strange
musically (I don’t know of anyone who could categorize it into a genre of
music), and essential to hear. The only track I pull out often is “Pass The Gun
Around”, but it is fun to revisit once in a while for something very different.
Highlights:
"Enough’s Enough"
"Fresh Blood"
"Pass The Gun Around"
Final Rating: 75%
Out of the Dark… and Into the Light
The past decade’s worth of reviews have all
mentioned Alice’s various substance abuse problems. It’s unfortunate to focus
so much on it, but clearly, it impacted his career considerably after 1975. In
1983, Alice reached a breaking point and almost died. Shortly after this, he
finally got sober, and would remain drug and drink-free for the next 30+ years!
Fortunately, you won’t have to read about it anymore!
Musically, the post-1983 period marks a
significant increase in quality for me. While two separate stints in metal
help, even the non-metal stuff is more memorable than much of Alice’s non-hit
records. Alice always found a way to make his music relevant and interesting,
working with a variety of different musicians who are essential to telling the
Alice Cooper story, and that begins in 1986 with Kane Roberts and “Constrictor”.
Constrictor (1986)
Alice’s comeback record wasn’t exactly a
return to form musically. With the help of Kane Roberts (i.e. Rambo) on guitar,
Alice tried his best to get with the times and play heavy metal. For a first
try, “Constrictor” is a respectable effort. For the average Alice Cooper fan,
it might be a nice dip into the subgenre, but for any metal enthusiast, it’s
likely to be too shallow to enjoy. It’s not particularly heavy, and by 1986,
people were making much more advanced and complex metal. Truthfully, this album
would have been great in that 1980-1982 period before thrash erupted, but
nonetheless, it was slightly behind the times. To be fair to Alice, this album
was more about re-establishing his presence, and the tour that accompanied it
did that as well.
Of course, we aren’t in 1986 anymore, so
it’s worth evaluating “Constrictor” for the music it presents. While not the
best Alice album of the era, it has more than a few great tracks. “Teenage
Frankenstein” kicks things off with a memorable, albeit very
predictable-sounding chorus. The real highlights, however, are deeper into the
record. “Life and Death of the Party” is a major winner for its intense chorus,
which is one of the only successful attempts at creating atmosphere on the
record.
The recently unearthed “The World Needs
Guts” is another highlight. For anyone who regularly indulges in heavier music,
this track gets the job done, opening with some killer tapping leads, and an
energetic, driving pace. It is undoubtedly the most powerful song on the
record, and Alice’s harshest vocal performance as well.
Finally, there is “He’s Back (The Man
Behind The Mask)”. This song sticks out like a sore thumb on the record, with
its synth-laden intro, yet somehow fits the cheesy feel that the record has. It
was written for Friday the 13th, but caps off the record nicely. Ultimately,
it is another song that is successful due to strong, memorable songwriting with
good hooks.
The remainder of the record is not as bad
as many Alice fans paint it to be. “Thrill My Gorilla”, despite the awful
title, is another easy sing-along track. “Simple Disobedience” has a pounding,
heavy rhythm that makes it very unique in Alice’s catalogue. Some tracks are a
bit too light at times (“The Great American Success Story”), but nothing is
downright awful. The slight variety in the record makes it much more enjoyable.
Alice picked some incredible musicians to
join him in his comeback. The aforementioned Kane Roberts can shred with the
best of them, and though he definitely restrains himself at times on
“Constrictor”, a track like “The World Needs Guts” shows his immense potential.
On “Life and Death of the Party”, he unleashes some fantastic leads to kick
things off, and it makes for an instantly memorable song. He has no shortage of
riffs on this record. Providing the thumping bass is Kip Winger. I’ve always
found Winger’s (the band) reputation to be a bit of a joke, but the man is a
great bass player. “Constrictor” doesn’t offer him too much room to show off
his skills, but it doesn’t surprise me that such a talented musician would end
up with Alice.
“Constrictor” is an interesting point in
Alice’s career. Most fans would agree that it was an essential album and helped
to spark a comeback, but few enjoy it or readily defend it. It’s easy to see
why given that the three following albums would all exceed it, but that doesn’t
mean it is worthless. In fact, this is an excellent record that has a number of
great songs, and is still essential Alice Cooper!
Highlights:
"Life and Death of the Party"
"The World Needs Guts"
"He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)"
Final Rating: 84%
Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987)
“Constrictor” was a nice comeback record
for Alice, but really, it was just a warmup for “Raise Your Fist and Yell”.
This is Alice starting to catch up with the heavier more metal bands of the
day. Sure, he’s not hitting Slayer levels, but this does not feel tame or
watered-down like “Constrictor” did (to some extent). This is no more evident
than with the exploding opening anthem “Freedom”. Much like “Elected”, this is
an easy winner for Alice that everyone can get behind, but musically, it’s a
different beast altogether. Kane Roberts came prepared with some fierce riffs
all throughout this song and the record. His lead work is faster and more
blazing than ever, and probably the pinnacle of what Alice would see in his
career. This song even has double bass on it!
Though nothing quite as fiery and anthemic
as “Freedom” exists on the rest of the record, there is no shortage of hits on
“Raise Your Fist and Yell”. “Lock Me Up” is another sing-along track, complete
with a whoa-oh section in the chorus. “Prince of Darkness” lives up to its
name, showing that Alice, and not Ozzy, is the true prince of darkness. The
song has some softer acoustic moments sprinkled in amongst some of the most
potent riffs on any Alice track. The album closes with a 3-song concept effort,
highlighted by “Roses On White Lace”, a high-speed affair that takes no
prisoners. This song could compete with just about anything going on in the
metal scene in 1987.
“Raise Your Fist and Yell” has only limited
flaws. There are a couple of weaker tracks (“Step On You” and “Not That Kind of
Love”), but they do little to slow down this high-energy record. Certainly for
the average fan, the album might feel a little one dimensional, but there is a
good variety of speeds and sounds. Even one of the aforementioned lowlights,
“Step On You”, has a great stomping rhythm that is not found elsewhere on the
album. In many ways, this album feels very similar to something Ozzy would put
out, but it does feel a tad heavier at times. Despite my prolific record of
reviewing metal albums, it’s easy to keep this one short because all you really
need to know is that it’s the point in Alice’s career when he was at his most
metal. The only reason it doesn’t score quite as highly as “Killer” or “Welcome
To My Nightmare” is that the stronger tracks, while great, simply aren’t as
great as his best work. Nevertheless, this is one of many essential Alice
Cooper albums.
Highlights:
"Freedom"
"Prince of Darkness"
"Time To Kill"
"Roses On White Lace"
Final Rating: 88%
Trash (1989)
After an absurdly heavy album, Alice took a
step towards the lighter side of metal with his next release: “Trash”. Ditching
Kane Roberts, Alice brought in Desmond Child as his main co-songwriter and set
out to create an album that could compete with the hair bands of the day. Not
only did “Trash” do that, but it absolutely annihilated most of those groups.
As great as that scene was, it spawned a lot of one-hit wonders, and few bands
could write an entire great album. “Trash” is definitely a major exception, as
front to back, this is one of Alice’s strongest records, with only a little bit
of filler. Not only that, but its commercial success brought Alice back to the
spotlight, and is arguably the reason he’s still going today. This is probably
the most important record of his career released after 1975.
“Trash” begins with the lead single
“Poison”, which is both the best song and the most commercially successful.
Alice left heavy riffs behind in favour of catchy hooks, complete with plenty
of backing vocals and huge choruses. The lyrics moved away from violence,
horror, and other things in favour of more romantic escapades. Sometimes Alice
took these too far (“Bed of Nails”, “Trash”, “I’m Your Gun”), which is arguably
the reason why many of these songs don’t get played live anymore (due to
finding religion a few years after this record’s release). The funniest part is
that Alice was 41 years old and married with children when this album came out,
and he was annihilating kids half his age in terms of how extreme the lyrics
are, and at other times, how good they are. Fortunately, “Poison” is probably
one of the tamer instances on the record, and so its success is no surprise.
These lyrics are often the reason why
people berate the album, but taking a step back, it’s actually an impressively
written release. Firstly, there are serious riffs all over this album. “Spark
In The Dark” is driven by an incredibly basic set of notes that is ever so
catchy. “Why Trust You” is a non-stop power chord fest of riffs. “Bed of Nails”
brings the speed, and is probably the heaviest track on the record. “Trash” has
more of an old-school feel, and is comparable to a band like Aerosmith. This is
probably the single most underrated part of the record because many are quick
to dismiss it as a vapid, commercial release, but look beyond the choruses and
you’ll find real riffs.
Of course, those choruses are also part of
what makes the album succeed. Every song successfully builds and builds until
it hits an irresistible chorus that will be burned into your brain for days. A
track like “Bed of Nails”, for example, has cleverly written vocal patterns
that follow the main riff of the song. This song has a guest appearance from
former Alice shredder Kane Roberts, and he puts his spotlight to good use!
Another highlight is one of the two ballads on this album, “Hell Is Living
Without You”, which has a brilliant chorus that moves through several sections where
the last word of the first line would be the opening word of the next line. It
is something that you don’t hear too often, but is executed to perfection.
“Why
Trust You” is another effort where the vocals excel because the riffs slowly
get more potent through the verse, pre-chorus, and finally chorus and the
vocals follow suit. Even the second verse flows perfectly from the first
chorus, and so it feels like one consistent sing along. If one were to rank the
most underrated Alice Cooper songs (something I will do at the end of this
writeup), “Why Trust You” would be an instant contender for the top spot!
Though I do love “Trash”, there are a
couple of weaker songs. The first ballad, “Only My Heart Talkin’”, doesn’t have
anything particularly exciting to offer. Unsurprisingly, it is the only song
that Desmond Child doesn’t have a songwriting credit on, so it’s clear that he
had an unquestionably positive influence on this record. The other weak point
is “This Maniac’s In Love With You”, which is a little too strong on the
keyboards and lacking in riffs to excel as the other songs do. Regardless, these tracks are decent enough,
and it’s such a short album that they don’t do too much harm.
“Trash” is the most maligned Alice Cooper
record from hardcore fans, but it really shouldn’t be. It is definitely slicker
and more professional sounding than much of his discography, but the awesome
riffs and vocal lines are still there. The lyrics, while a different direction
from the old stuff, are still fairly potent, especially when compared to
Alice’s peers at the time. “Trash” is yet another highlight in an already
awesome catalogue, even if it is one-dimensional.
Highlights:
"Poison"
"Spark in the Dark"
"Why Trust You"
"Bed of Nails"
"Hell Is Living Without You"
Final Rating: 95%
Hey Stoopid (1991)
With “Trash” being such a hit, one would
think that the logical direction for Alice to take would be to make “Trash Pt.
2”. While “Hey Stoopid” certainly has some similarities, it would be fairer to
say that this album is a step towards more traditional hard rock or heavy
metal. In some ways, it is a combination of the two albums that preceded it,
rather than being a direct continuation of either. Due to the success of
“Trash”, however, Alice was now a much more high profile artist again. “Hey
Stoopid” features guest appearances and collaborations with Slash, Joe
Satriani, Ozzy Osbourne, and Steve Vai, to name a few. And while none of these
artists necessarily make the album great, their presences are definitely known.
Interestingly, Desmond Child did not work on this album at all, aside from
co-writing two tracks.
“Hey Stoopid” is a fairly diverse record.
With 12 tracks, Alice had plenty of room to try out different sounds, and he
does all of them fairly successfully. Tracks like “Dangerous Tonight” and “Feed
My Frankenstein” are heavy songs that would likely appeal to fans of “Raise
Your Fist and Yell”, while there are also more traditional rockers like “Hey
Stoopid”, “Snakebite”, “Hurricane Years”, and “Die For You”. One of the
singles, “Love’s A Loaded Gun”, is a bit of a tamer rock track that almost has
a ballad-esque feel to it.
Any disillusioned long-time fans were
likely very happy to hear “Wind-Up Toy”, which remains one of the most
mind-blowing songs Alice has ever done. This is one of the few instances where
he perfectly melds hard rock with creepy atmospheres. It features the return of
Steven, and succeeds by having slow, haunting verses with a more upbeat and
catchy chorus. Though not my favourite track, this is definitely amongst the
most unique and interesting songs Alice has ever done.
As noted above, Desmond Child co-wrote two
tracks here, and they are probably the two strongest cuts on the album
(interestingly, they seemed loved by most Alice fans despite the general
disdain most have for “Trash”). “Dangerous Tonight” is the first of these songs
and is a brooding effort that features some truly sadistic lyrics. Much of the
song is built around a slow rhythmic chug with a quick pause between each set
of notes, but it ultimately explodes into a huge chorus (as one might have
predicted with Child’s name on it). This entire track is easily one of the best
vocal performances in Alice’s career.
The next song he helped with is the ballad
“Might As Well Be On Mars”. At over 7 minutes, this is one of the longer Alice
Cooper tracks, but it is well worth the runtime. The verses of the song feature
a clean guitar, repeating a simplistic pattern that perfectly captures the
atmosphere of the lyrics (“The city streets are wet with rain tonight / The
taxi drivers swerve from lane to lane / A lonely guitar man playin' down the
hall / Midnight blues comin' through the walls”). Again, this song features a
stupendously huge chorus, as well as some of Alice’s best lyrics. Much like
“Dangerous Tonight”, it marks another high point for Alice vocally, though it
is much more demanding than the former song.
Weak points are few and far between on “Hey
Stoopid”. The lyrics of “Dirty Dreams” are perhaps more absurd than anything on
“Trash” (ironically no worse than what he’s done before on “Nurse Rozetta”),
but don’t ruin the song. “Burning Our Bed” is never bad when playing, but fails
to make a lasting impact otherwise. On the flip side, this is one of those
albums that is so strong from start to finish that it’s easy for a few tracks
to get lost in the shuffle (particularly when there are 12; 13 if you include
the smokin’ Japanese bonus track “It Rained All Night”). “Hey Stoopid” was
pretty much the perfect follow-up to “Trash” because it managed to be
different, while still retaining both the quality, and the heavy metal feel of
the last few years.
Highlights:
"Hey Stoopid"
"Love’s A Loaded Gun"
"Dangerous Tonight"
"Might As Well Be On Mars"
"Hurricane Years"
Final Rating: 95%
The Last Temptation (1994)
Much like “From The Inside” and “DaDa”
before it, “The Last Temptation” is something of an oddity in Alice’s
catalogue. After 4 albums of various metal sounds, Alice once again rolled with
the times (somewhat), and opted for a more stripped down rock album, with
elements of grunge. This is most evident because of the contributions of Chris
Cornell (Soundgarden), who wrote one song and co-wrote another. Outside of
these two tracks, the album largely leans towards hard rock, with varying
levels of success. One notable reason for the inconsistency of the record is
that there were 4 different producers on this record. Alice tends to co-write
with just one or two people on each record, and while none of the producers
have any songwriting credits, they undoubtedly had a hand in the album’s sound.
“The Last Temptation” as a whole seems to
have been shuffled to the side, other than Alice occasionally bringing out
“Lost In America”. Whether because of the multiple producers, lack of a hit
single, or the fact that it was a considerable period of inactivity for Alice
(he put out only 2 albums in the 1990s compared with 7 in the 1980s, and barely
toured to support “The Last Temptation”), this album doesn’t get its due from
anyone other than fans. It does, however, have some of his best songs. The
opening trio of “Sideshow”, “Nothing’s Free”, and “Lost In America”, are the
most potent tracks. The last of these three has some of the most humorous
lyrics of Alice’s career. All three songs, however, succeed because of irresistibly
catchy vocal lines from Alice. “Nothing’s Free” is a bit of a twisted, slow
burner that feels like classic Alice despite being quite different from
anything else he’s ever done.
The remaining songs tend to be hit or miss.
None are as strong as the first three, but tracks like “Bad Place Alone”,
“You’re My Temptation”, and even the ballad, “It’s Me”, have their moments. “Bad
Place Alone” in particular has a bouncy chorus, but the main riff that drives
the verse doesn’t hold up as well. The two Cornell-penned tracks are by far my
least favourite, and not just because his vocals show up. They lack interesting
hooks, which shouldn’t be a surprise given Cornell’s grunge background (yes, I
have a huge grudge against that style of music for killing metal’s mainstream
popularity!).
And so much like “From The Inside” and
“DaDa”, “The Last Temptation” is also a record that has some of the best
material Alice has ever cut, and some of the more questionable material.
Essential? Yes. But you shouldn’t expect a groundbreaking release, nor one that
can compete with the classics. It is likely a welcome break from the metal that
would come before and after if you don’t like the heavier stuff, but the
songwriting just wasn’t up to par with either era.
Highlights:
"Sideshow"
"Nothing’s Free"
"Lost In America"
Final Rating: 78%
Brutal Planet (2000)
Another album, and another change in style
for Alice! In the late 1990s, nu-metal and industrial were both heavily in
style, and while those styles are absolutely awful, Alice took significant
influence from them on “Brutal Planet” with outstanding results. Put simply,
“Brutal Planet” is the shining gem of Alice’s career post-1975. This is not
only the heaviest album Alice has ever done, but one of the best. The
songwriting is unparalleled, both from a musical and lyrical standpoint. Even
the tour was spectacularly sinister (check out “Brutally Live” for a sample).
Mentioning individual highlights is almost
pointless since practically every song is a winner, but the strangest part about
“Brutal Planet” is that Alice and co. didn’t even promote the best songs on it.
Naturally, the title track was heavily advertised, and “Gimme” was also
released as a single. Both tracks have a constant chugging feel, allowing
Alice’s hypnotic vocals to lead the way (the former song also featuring some
female lines). Infectious? For sure, but nowhere near the best the album has to
offer.
“Wicked Young Man” remains a staple in
Alice’s set even up until recent tours, and is a disturbing tale of a school
shooting. It is a high-energy affair that has a marching rhythm in the verses,
and a bouncier one in the chorus. Not to be outdone in the speed department,
“Sanctuary” is even more potent. This is one song that doesn’t seem
particularly cherished by anyone in the Alice camp, but is a definite
highlight. This is another instance of Alice’s unique brand of comedy, and is
probably amongst the funniest (and unfortunately most accurate) songs he has
ever done.
The real meat of the album comes with “Eat
Some More” and “Pick Up The Bones”. The former is essentially Alice going doom
metal. The song revolves around a slow, oozing riff that redefines the word
“heavy”. The lyrics are great too, and incredibly truthful about the amount of
food wasted by the Western world, while others are starving. “Pick Up The Bones” is a semi-ballad with
monstrous chorus, and a face-melting guitar solo.
The remainder of the album is on par with
the first half. If any song could be considered a misstep, it would be
“Pessi-Mystic”, but even that is a grower and gets better every single time
around. One real gem of the record is “Cold Machines”. The song actually
borrows a Marilyn Manson riff as the centerpiece of the song, but it can’t slow
down the track, which is catchier than anything Manson has ever done. One of
the reasons it stands out is for its exceptional lyrics, which likens the
office environment to cold machines: “You don't know my name / You don't know
my number / You don't know my face at all / We walk right past each other,
every single day / Like cold machines, we're marching on and on…” It’s a bit
exaggerated, but definitely hits home quite strongly.
“Brutal Planet” truly is an enigma. It’s
not clear why Alice reverted to metal (and in a different form), and why it
managed to be better than almost everything else he’s done in his career. Even
a lot of his non-metal fans seem to enjoy this record. Perhaps it was the
return of Bob Ezrin, who was executive producer (though the sole track he has
songwriting credits on, “Blow Me A Kiss”, is not among the best work). Or
perhaps it was teaming up with Bob Marlette, who produced the record and
co-wrote every single track. Regardless, Alice did something very right here,
and the end result is an album that will go down forever as one of Alice’s
best!
Highlights:
"Wicked Young Man"
"Sanctuary"
"Eat Some More"
"Pick Up The Bones"
"Cold Machines"
Final Rating: 98%
Dragontown (2001)
The only logical way to follow-up a
career-defining album late in your career is to make a follow-up that sounds
identical. At least, that was the idea behind 2001’s “Dragontown”. The album
was heavily connected to “Brutal Planet” in terms of lyrics, theme, and to a
lesser extent, sound. The team of Cooper/Marlette was still in tact, and the
album was similar in length. Yet, for various reasons, “Dragontown” just didn’t
turn out as well as “Brutal Planet”. This is a common sentiment amongst most
Alice fans, and the reasons are fairly easy to understand.
Firstly, despite being a heavier Alice
album, “Dragontown” lost the sadistic, twisted vocals that Alice was employing
previously. Often times, his approach to getting heavier on this album was to
do things that were slower, but that wasn’t always more effective. Compared to
the constant screaming of “shut up” on a track like “Pessi-Mystic” from “Brutal
Planet”, “Dragontown” ultimately feels rather tame. Alongside the weaker vocals
are less impressive lyrics. There really isn’t a track here that comes to mind
as a standout lyrically, despite the occasional good line.
But the biggest failing of “Dragontown” is
its lack of consistency. To be fair to the album, it is very strong, and even in the top half of Alice’s discography, but coming after “Brutal Planet”,
it noticeably lacks direction. The first four songs get things off to a similar
eerie start (even if “Triggerman” is slightly more upbeat, it fits in fairly
well). “Deeper” and “Dragontown” are just otherworldly and take you to a truly
darker place (reference intended). The title track in particular has several
references to the previous record and captures the mystical feeling of a track
like “Pick Up The Bones”.
But shortly after this, the album becomes
directionless. “DisGraceland” is an out of place tribute to Elvis that honestly
is not all that good. “Every Woman Has A Name” is a weak sequel to the ballad
from the previous record “Take It Like A Woman”. As the album rolls on, it
becomes clear that even when Alice was successful as replicating the sound of
“Brutal Planet”, he struggled to represent the sheer authenticity and anger of
the record. “Fantasy Man” is a great example of this, as it retains the
crushing guitar tone and is mostly a chugging affair, but lacks killer hooks to
bring everything together.
In many ways, “Dragontown” is to “Brutal
Planet” what “Goes To Hell” was to “Welcome To My Nightmare”: a sequel that
nearly completely missed what made the original great. One saving grace is the
bonus track on this record “Clowns Will Eat Me” (which was actually recorded
during the “Brutal Planet” sessions), which is a poppy Kinks-esque tune. In
fact, the song is practically a rip-off of “You Really Got Me” (with
Simpsons-inspired lyrics?). Nevertheless, it is a positive way to cap off a
somewhat disappointing record. Unfortunately, “Dragontown” marked the start of
a downward trend for Alice, but there is still worthwhile material to come.
Highlights:
"Triggerman"
"Deeper"
"Dragontown"
Final Rating: 80%
The Eyes of Alice Cooper (2003)
“The Eyes of Alice Cooper” marks a new era
for the 50+ (at the time) singer. He traded in heavy, downtuned guitars for a
more laid-back production and 1970s garage rock feel. This album also set the
groundwork for the follow-up record, “Dirty Diamonds”, which was incredibly
similar. My introduction to this era came via the 2006 live CD/DVD “Live At
Montreaux”. Sadly, that performance led to unrealistic expectations for the
album. Alice played the opening two cuts from “The Eyes of Alice Cooper” on
that release, and they were both high energy, rocking songs, complemented by
Alice’s deep gravelly vocals. The version on the actual album? Not so much.
Both tracks were slowed down significantly, and felt lethargic by comparison.
Worst of all, Alice’s vocals sound processed and almost like a pop punk singer
all throughout the record. Ironically, one of these tracks, “What Do You Want
From Me” suffers the least from these blights out of any song on the album, but
compared to its live counterpart, it falls flat.
This unfortunately is the story of both
“The Eyes of Alice Cooper” and “Dirty Diamonds”. There are a slew of fantastic,
well-written tunes with some of the strongest hooks in Alice’s career.
Unfortunately, the vocals sound awful, and I would take it a step further and
say it doesn’t reflect Alice’s real voice very much. The verses of “Man of the
Year” are absolutely brutal in this regard, which is unfortunate because it’s a
succinct little number that would be in constant rotation if not for the
vocals. “Novocaine” is another winner in terms of catchiness, and the vocal
effects are a bit more restrained.
There is a little experimentation on this
record, coming in the form of “The Song That Didn’t Rhyme”. It’s a slower effort
that holds back on musical content so you can focus your attention on the
lyrics, and like many of Alice’s songs, the lyrics are exceptional. “This House
Is Haunted” is another song that doesn’t quite have the garage rock feel at all
times, if only to be another nightmarish tune. Unsurprisingly, the ballad, “Be
With You Awhile” also lacks this attitude.
With that said, “The Eyes of Alice Cooper”
shines when it’s at its most rock and roll. Tracks like “Bye, Bye Baby”,
“Detroit City”, and especially “What Do You Want From Me” are very solid Alice
Cooper songs. If anything, the failings of this record are not due to
songwriting; it’s due to execution. Any of these tracks played in a live
setting would be absolutely fantastic.
Highlights:
"What Do You Want From Me"
"Between High School and Old School"
"Bye Bye Baby"
Final Rating: 70%
Dirty Diamonds (2005)
As mentioned earlier, the story of “Dirty
Diamonds” is really the same as that of “The Eyes of Alice Cooper”. Both albums
have largely the same successes and failings. Sure, the songs might be
different, but that’s pretty much it. And much like with the previous album, my
introduction to this record came from “Woman of Mass Distraction” and “Dirty
Diamonds” being played on the “Live at Montreaux” album. Once again, one of
these tracks (the title song) was definitely lacking in energy compared to its
live counterpart. The song itself is still killer, but one can once again see
these garage rock tunes excelling in a live environment.
To “Dirty Diamonds’” credit, the one area
of improvement over the record is the lack of forced pop-punk sounding vocals.
For the most part, the voice on this album is Alice’s, and that makes it much
easier to stomach. One of the lone exceptions to this is “Perfect”, which is a
downbeat classic rock tune with some weak vocals that barely resemble Alice
Cooper. Once you get past this track, however, it’s one winner after another
(at least, on the first half of the record). “You Make Me Wanna” is a no-frills
old-school Alice Cooper song with a bit of a strange chorus, but it gets the
job done. “The Saga of Jesse Jane” is a “Desperado”-styled track that would not
be the first, nor the last of Alice’s songs about cross-dressing. This is a
very eerie tune with some goofy lyrics that could only be pulled off by Alice. This
is followed up with “Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)”, which returns the album
to more of a rock song. It’s strange that this one never became a huge hit for
Alice because it could have easily fit in on “Billion Dollar Babies”.
Subsequent to this, however, there isn’t
anything truly inspired on the record. None of the remaining songs are bad
(aside from the rap bonus track/collaboration “Stand”). Tracks like “Run Down
The Devil” and “Steal That Car” feel simplistic, almost as if the magic ran out
after the first 6 songs. Compared to records like “Goes To Hell” or “Special
Forces”, the material here easily trumps some of Alice’s past work, but unlike
more recent hits such as “Brutal Planet”, the album isn’t consistently
mindblowing. Nevertheless, on the whole, “Dirty Diamonds” is better than “The
Eyes of Alice Cooper”, even if it is similar in style and sound. The band
tightened things up a bit, and mostly dropped the out of character vocals, and
the result is an enjoyable, modern Alice Cooper record. For a guy in his
mid-50s at this point, Alice was doing quite well. Even more amazingly, he
wasn’t slowing down at all!
Highlights:
"Woman of Mass Distraction"
"You Make Me Wanna"
"Dirty Diamonds"
"Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)"
Final Rating: 76%
1. Dangerous Tonight
2. Why Trust You
3. Cold Machines
4. Pick Up The Bones
5. Pass The Gun Around
6. Hurricane Years
7. Might As Well Be On Mars
8. Prince of Darkness
9. Eat Some More
10. Hell Is Living Without You
11. Fresh Blood
12. Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever
13. Life And Death Of The Party
14. Nothing's Free
15. You Make Me Wanna
16. What Baby Wants
17. You Look Good In Rags
18. Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)
19. Lace And Whiskey
20. Bye Bye Baby
Conclusion
This sums up my thoughts on the career of my all-time favourite singer! No one else has had a career quite like Alice, and it's exciting to see what the future brings, both with "Paranormal" and any other future activity!
Along Came A Spider (2008)
While we live in an age of excessive hype
and excited, “Along Came A Spider” had to be one of the most anticipated Alice
Cooper records in decades. For his 25th album, Alice decided to
create a concept album where each song featured someone being killed by an
insane person who is re-creating a spider (or something along those lines).
There was a huge promotional campaign, including featuring Slash on the first
single, “Vengeance Is Mine”, which sounded like a return to the heavy metal Alice
from just a few years prior.
I should also add that this is where I
become an Alice Cooper fan. I discovered him via Guitar Hero in 2007, and had
almost every single album by the time “Along Came A Spider” dropped in July
2008. Needless to say, I joined the hype train, and just like everyone else who
heard this record when it came out, I was incredibly underwhelmed. In the
subsequent years, my stance on the album has changed considerably, but the
prevailing opinion in the Alice community is that the record was a failure.
The biggest problem is that the songs lack
consistency. The opening song, for example, has several incessantly catchy
melodies, but is dragged down by weird songwriting choices. The opening verse
features Alice’s voice overtop an awkward repeating snare drum. It’s difficult
to fathom who heard this and thought it would be a good idea musically, let
alone for the lead track. Yet once the full band comes in, the song immediately
redeems itself. Fortunately, “Vengeance Is Mine” immediately ups the game. This
is a slow brooding heavy metal anthem. The riffing is a bit simplistic but
leaves huge wholes for Slash to go absolutely wild with shredding (and he does
for most of the track, even during the verses).
The following four tracks are generally
more similar to the opener, “I Know Where You Live”. In fact, nowhere else on
the album would Alice retread the heaviness of “Vengeance Is Mine”, but that
isn’t a problem at all. All of “Wake The Dead”, “Catch Me If You Can”, “(In
Touch With) Your Feminine Side”, and “Wrapped In Silk” are all solid rock songs
with varying degrees of success. Relative to “Dirty Diamonds”, there isn’t
quite the same garage rock feel to these songs, as they feel a bit more
calculated. This songwriting approach doesn’t necessarily benefit nor hinder
Alice; it’s just different from what came before. The better tracks generally
have stronger riffs (“Wrapped In Silk” being a great AC/DC worship tune), but
all of these four tunes have solid choruses.
After this, the album is more miss than
hit. The ballad, “Killed By Love” is actually not too bad, but Alice ballads
haven’t been great since “Brutal Planet”. “Salvation” is far too poppy and
upbeat with its chorus, and just doesn’t suit Alice. The only small highlights
in the second half of the album are the painfully catchy “The One That Got
Away”, and the chorus of “I Am The Spider”. The remainder of the latter song
isn’t overly thrilling. And while many bands are just about the chorus, Alice
has had some unbelievably potent verses in his time, both musically and
lyrically, so this song doesn’t quite get the job done. On the topic of lyrics,
Alice almost feels restrained by the concept. There isn’t anything too clever
this time around, though the lyrics do fit him thematically.
This review has been a little too harsh on
“Along Came A Spider”. The truth is that this album never had a shot.
Expectations were too high, and the co-writing team of Danny Saber and Greg
Hampton just couldn’t pull it together the way some of Alice’s other co-writers
have in the past. Nevertheless, Alice’s voice is still on point, and this is
still a rock and roll album. There is more than enough great material here to
enjoy, and it is certainly on par with “Dirty Diamonds” (maybe even better). If
Alice had made another garage rock record, it likely would have sounded stale.
Unfortunately, this is one of those albums where the concept was cooler than
the music, and ultimately ended up engulfing the musical creativity.
Highlights:
“Vengeance Is Mine”
“(In Touch With) Your Feminine Side)”
“Wrapped In Silk”
Final Rating: 76%
Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)
On paper, there is no worse Alice Cooper
album than “Welcome 2 My Nightmare”. Does any part of a 36-year sequel to a
fan favourite album, featuring original band members that weren’t on the album,
Ke$ha, autotune, a disco song, a surf rock song, and a Rob Zombie appearance
sound appealing to anyone? After being let down three years prior to this,
Alice fans had every right to be skeptical. But the scariest part of it all is
that Alice pulled it off. “Welcome 2 My Nightmare” is an astounding release
that marks easily his best work since “Brutal Planet”. He was never going to
hit on everything he attempted here, but this is unquestionably one of his most
ambitious works that rarely misses the mark. Bob Ezrin is along for the ride
once again, and his brilliance definitely helps this record move forward.
“I Am Made of You” is a ballad that kicks
off the album (another red flag?), and as terrible as autotune often is, it is
used fairly tastefully. The song gradually bleeds out the autotune in favour of
Alice’s more natural voice. As with many of his best songs, the track keeps
building and building until it erupts with one of the greatest guitar solos in
rock history from Steve Hunter (remember him?). And yes, another familiar name
pops up on this song: Desmond Child co-wrote this track. This song really is
the perfect storm for Alice, and the result is incredible. Despite being the
opener, “I Am Made of You” feels like the centerpiece of the record.
What follows is a mishmash of various
genres and sounds, nearly all of which Alice’s pulls off well. Tracks like
“Caffeine”, “The Congregation”, “I’ll Bite Your Face Off”, and “I Gotta Get
Outta Here” are old-school rock tracks hearkening back to the early 1970s.
Appropriately, “Caffeine” is the most upbeat and possibly the best of these 4
songs, but they’re all pretty brilliant in their own ways. “The Congregation”
features Rob Zombie doing his best Vincent Price impression (ala “Devil’s Food”
from the original album). “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” was the single, and Alice
often describes it as being similar to something The Rolling Stones would do.
It’s simply just a good rock song. “I Gotta Get Outta Here” has the hilarious
reveal of the album towards the end of the song, explaining how the nightmare
ends (I won’t spoil it, but it was funny the first time around and still is at
least 50 times later).
In line with the original album, “Welcome 2
My Nightmare” has a couple more atmospheric, nightmarish tracks in the form of
“The Nightmare Returns” and “The Underture”. The former is mostly a play on
“Steven” and “The Awakening”, while the latter runs through a number of
melodies from both records in a fairly cohesive manner. In true Alice Cooper
fashion, he mixes things up by putting it at the end of the record and calling
it an underture, rather than an overture at the start of the album.
That’s about as normal as this record gets,
because most of the other tracks push the boundaries of Alice’s already broad
sound. “A Runaway Train” sounds exactly as the title describes, and is more of
an acoustic rocker, featuring a stellar solo from Vince Gill. “Last Man on
Earth” is Alice’s attempt at “Some Folks Pt. II”, as it has a very different
tone and feel to it. The song relies on a thumping tuba beat, and is much
happier than the rest of the record. Of course, Alice really wasn’t the last
man on earth here, as there is some clapping at the end of the song that leads
directly into “The Congregation”.
Things really get weird starting with
“Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever”. Alice is no stranger to disco songs, nor is he
against doing them ironically. Admittedly however, this is somewhat of an
updated version of disco. The song almost has a rap feel to it in the verses
(though is nowhere near as objectionable as that genre). Alice always described
this song as rock winning in the end, which is exactly what happens when the
song speeds up and John 5 lays down a vicious solo. This is one experimentation
that works well, but the following track, “Ghouls Gone Wild”, shows how this
experimentation can go awry. This is a surf rock song that is far more annoying
than catchy. Not much can be said about it because it honestly offers nothing
interesting, and would best be cut from the album.
A surprising highlight on the record is
“What Baby Wants”. Ke$ha may be a major pop star, but she can write some
sadistic lyrics (“I’m gonna drain your veins, and bathe in your blood”), and
supposedly, what she had previously written was too graphic for the album. Some
may be turned off by her appearance, but looking past the name, this is
actually a really catchy tune, with Alice and Ke$ha trading verses. The chorus
similarly has effective interplay between the two voices, and simulates the
story well.
There are a number of versions of “Welcome
2 My Nightmare” out there, each with different bonus tracks. If you were a
keener and picked up the Classic Rock Magazine edition of the album, you
received “Under The Bed”, which is somewhat reminiscent of “Wind-Up Toy” for being
a rocking, yet scary song. This effort definitely deserved a spot on the main
record, especially over “Ghouls Gone Wild”. “Flatline” is the vinyl bonus
track, but really isn’t all that musical. This leaves only “A Bad Situation” as
the last original bonus track, which was on the iTunes version of the album. It’s
a little happier and more upbeat than much of the album, but it would have fit
in as another classic rock and roll track. It also has some major “The Last
Temptation” vibes at times.
No matter how you slice it, “Welcome 2 My
Nightmare” was a major risk that shouldn’t have worked. The sheer number of
guest stars couldn’t outshine Alice and producer/co-writer Bob Ezrin, as this
should be remembered as one of his stronger solo efforts, especially for a man
in his 60s at this point. If this had been the last album of his career, Alice
likely would have gone out on top, but the man is completely restless. On top
of constant touring for the last 6 years, he put together a new band (Hollywood
Vampires) that recorded a covers album and also toured. The less said about
that band, the better, but it is a testament to his work ethic. Hopefully “Paranormal”
proves that album 27 is every bit as good as album 26!
Highlights:
“I Am Made Of You”
“Caffeine”
“Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever”
“What Baby Wants”
Final Rating: 90%
Final Album Ranking
1. Killer
2. Welcome To My Nightmare
3. Brutal Planet
4. Trash
5. Hey Stoopid
6. Love It To Death
7. Welcome 2 My Nightmare
8. Billion Dollar Babies
9. Raise Your Fist and Yell
10. Constrictor
11. Dragontown
12. The Last Temptation
13. Dirty Diamonds
14. Along Came A Spider
15. Lace and Whiskey
16. DaDa
17. School's Out
18. From The Inside
19. The Eyes of Alice Cooper
20. Zipper Catches Skin
21. Muscle of Love
22. Flush The Fashion
23. Goes To Hell
24. Easy Action
25. Special Forces
26. Pretties For You
1. Killer
2. Welcome To My Nightmare
3. Brutal Planet
4. Trash
5. Hey Stoopid
6. Love It To Death
7. Welcome 2 My Nightmare
8. Billion Dollar Babies
9. Raise Your Fist and Yell
10. Constrictor
11. Dragontown
12. The Last Temptation
13. Dirty Diamonds
14. Along Came A Spider
15. Lace and Whiskey
16. DaDa
17. School's Out
18. From The Inside
19. The Eyes of Alice Cooper
20. Zipper Catches Skin
21. Muscle of Love
22. Flush The Fashion
23. Goes To Hell
24. Easy Action
25. Special Forces
26. Pretties For You
Top 20 Most Underappreciated Alice Cooper
Songs
20 might seem like a lot, but the man has almost
300 original songs! Here are my favourite 20 that don’t receive enough love
(whether from Alice or other fans):
1. Dangerous Tonight
2. Why Trust You
3. Cold Machines
4. Pick Up The Bones
5. Pass The Gun Around
6. Hurricane Years
7. Might As Well Be On Mars
8. Prince of Darkness
9. Eat Some More
10. Hell Is Living Without You
11. Fresh Blood
12. Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever
13. Life And Death Of The Party
14. Nothing's Free
15. You Make Me Wanna
16. What Baby Wants
17. You Look Good In Rags
18. Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)
19. Lace And Whiskey
20. Bye Bye Baby
Conclusion
This sums up my thoughts on the career of my all-time favourite singer! No one else has had a career quite like Alice, and it's exciting to see what the future brings, both with "Paranormal" and any other future activity!
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