Category Archives: Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare [Classic Rock Fan Pack Exclusive Limited Edition] (2011, Universal Music Enterprises/Spinefarm Records UK/Nightmare Inc.)
1. “I Am Made Of You”
2. “Caffeine”
3. “The Nightmare Returns”
4. “A Runaway Train”
5. “Last Man On Earth”
6. “The Congregation”
7. “I’ll Bite Your Face Off”
8. “Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever”
9. “Ghouls Gone Wild”
10. “Something To Remember Me By”
11. “When Hell Comes Home”
12. “What Baby Wants”
13. “I Gotta Get Outta Here”
14. “The Underture”
Bonus Tracks:
15. “Under The Bed”
16. “Poison” (Live at Download Festival)
Band:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Steve Hunter – Guitar
Damon Johnson – Guitar
Tommy Henriksen – Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Chuck Garric – Bass
Glen Sobel – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Michael Bruce – Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Dennis Dunaway – Bass, Backing Vocals
Neal Smith – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Ke$ha – Vocals
Dick Wagner, John 5, Keith Nelson, Tommy Denander, Vince Gill, Keri Kelli, Patterson Hood, Pat Buchanan – Guitar
Piggy D, David Spreng, Jimmie Lee Sloas – Bass
Jimmy DeGrasso, Scott Williamson – Drums
Rob Zombie, Kip Winger – Backing Vocals
Welcome 2 My Nightmare is a reunion for all different eras of Alice Cooper. Take a look at the credits! The surviving members of the original group are here (Bruce, Dunaway & Smith) and they have some co-writing credits too, the original Nightmare era guitar duo of Steve Hunter (back in the band full-time) and Dick Wagner are present, more recent Alice gunslingers Kerri Kelli and Damon Johnson (who recently left and has been replaced by Orianthi of all people!), Jimmy DeGrasso, Piggy D (who worked with Alice on “Keepin’ Halloween Alive”), Kip Winger sings backing vocals, Desmond Child co-wrote “I Am Made of You” and Bob Ezrin is producing!
I think pretty much all eras of Alice are represented! I’m surprised Alice didn’t bring back Eric Singer, Derek Sherinian, Ryan Roxie, Eric Dover, Kane Roberts and Jason Hook! In addition to all of those people, Rob Zombie, Vince Gill, John 5 and Ke$ha also perform.
All of this star-power and buzz over doing a sequel to Welcome To My Nightmare has worked as the album sold roughly 21,ooo copies and debuted at #22 on the Billboard charts. This is Alice’s best chart debut since Trash.
Before I get into the music, I want to say that this Alice Cooper Fan Pack from Classic Rock magazine is just outstanding. I had ordered the Fan Pack for Whitesnake’s Forevermore and while that was a good package, this is even better. Not only do you get the album (in what I guess what is the standard hardcover booklet format for these Fan Packs) but there’s a School’s Out pin, Alice Cooper face paint, Alice cut-out face mask, 2 two-sided posters and finally the 132 page magazine called Classic Rock Presents Alice Cooper.
With that out of the way, I will agree that this album is a “return to form” in that it has returned Alice to his old school schizophrenic ways. After dabbling in industrial metal and garage rock for the last decade, Alice is back to genre-hopping. Auto-tune, Rolling Stones, disco, pop-rock, surfer music, symphonies, Tom Petty, rag-time… It all has a home on this album.
The good/bad thing about Alice is that he’s never been afraid to throw his blood-stained top hat in to practically any genre of music. Case in point, after starting off with the piano from “Steven”, “I Am Made of You” is a ballad complete with vocals done in auto-tune and some electronic beats in the background and a piano. I did not like it when I first heard it, but the song has grown on me and is now one of my favorite tracks here. Next, “Caffeine” kicks in with some rowdy rock ‘n’ roll. My first thought when hearing it was that it sounded like Velvet Revolver. Well, I wasn’t too far off because song was co-written by Buckcherry’s Keith Nelson. This and “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” (with its Stonesy vibe) are the most straight forward rockers of the bunch. “The Nightmare Returns” is a short instrumental still incorporating parts of “Steven”.
“The Congregation” is a pretty good Beatles-inspired number that sounds like a track from The Last Temptation but it took me a few listens to get in to. And hey, what album would be complete without that classic Alice ballad? Here that song is “Something To Remember Me By”, a great companion to those late ’70s ballads of his. The next highlight on this album for me is “What Baby Wants”. A true guilty pleasure for sure, it’s a pop/rock song featuring Ke$ha. The final two standouts is the Tom Petty-ish “I Gotta Get Outta Here” and the Fan Pack exclusive “Under The Bed”, a mid-tempo ballad that could’ve come from the Hey Stoopid era.
So, like I said, there is good and bad when Alice attempt to cover so many genres. When he succeeds, he really succeeds. When he fails… yuck. With Vince Gill on guitar, the country-rocker “A Runaway Train” can’t go away fast enough but I can kinda here old school Alice in it. Immediately following is the vaudevillian rag-time of “Last Man on Earth”. Just awful but I can’t decide if it’s worse than “When Hell Comes Home” (which is garnering rave reviews for featuring all the surviving members of the original group).
As for “Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever”, that’s just goofy fun. Something you might hear from Alice in the early ’80s. Basically filler as is the surf rock of “Ghouls Gone Wild”. “The Underture” closes out the standard edition of the album and it’s an instrumental bring in pieces of songs from both Welcome To My Nightmare and this album.
Overall, the songs are just so varied I think you have to really be patient and let it all soak in. After the first listen, my head was spinning was variety of music. With each listen, I’m picking up on songs more than I had before and while there are some really bad songs on this disc, they are few and far between and the songs I like I like A LOT. Having said that, Welcome 2 My Nightmare is easily Alice’s best since The Eyes of Alice Cooper if not The Last Temptation.
Highlights: “I Am Made Of You”, “Caffeine”, “The Congregation”, “I”ll Bite Your Face Off”, “Something To Remember Me By”, “What Baby Wants”, “I Gotta Get Outta Here”, “Under The Bed”
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Buy ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ at Amazon.com
Bonus Words:
Welcome 2 My Nightmare continues a rather disturbing trend of offering different bonus tracks depending on which edition you buy: the regular edition of this album has no bonus tracks, the Classic Rock Fan Pack has “Under the Bed” and a live version of “Poison”, the deluxe edition features a cover of The Animals’ “We Gotta Get out of This Place” and live versions of “No More Mr. Nice Guy” & “The Black Widow”, the vinyl album has “Flatline” and finally iTunes gets the exclusive “A Bad Situation” (which you can’t even purchase as a single, you HAVE to buy the whole album to get it).
I really couldn’t care less about the live tracks but there are four brand new tracks scattered about that I would have loved to have been included on at least ONE edition of the album so I could just buy that one! It’s a cash grab and I don’t think this practice is very fair to the fans. I can’t imagine a significant number of fans are going to buy all of these albums to get those handful of bonus tracks because you’re looking at someone having to spend $80-100 total to snatch up all of these editions. I really don’t understand the thought process here and Alice isn’t the only artist guilty of it. If anything, this only seems to increase the likelihood of illegal downloading.
After that little rant, I have to be honest: I have two copies. The CR Fan Pack and then a standard edition (no bonus tracks) that came with Alice’s autograph when you pre-ordered… Hey, at least I didn’t buy an extra copy for bonus tracks!
ALICE COOPER – Alice Cooper Goes to Hell
Alice Cooper – Alice Cooper Goes to Hell (2008, Warner Bros. Records)
Original Release: 1976, Warner Bros. Records
1. “Go to Hell” … 5:15
2. “You Gotta Dance” … 2:45
3. “I’m the Coolest” … 3:57
4. “Didn’t We Meet” … 4:16
5. “I Never Cry” … 3:44
6. “Give the Kid a Break” … 4:14
7. “Guilty” … 3:22
8. “Wake Me Gently” … 5:03
9. “Wish You Were Here” … 4:36
10. “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” … 2:08
11. “Going Home” … 3:47
Musicians:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Dick Wagner – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Steve Hunter – Guitar
John Tropea – Guitar
Tony Levin – Bass
Babbitt – Bass
Allan Schwartzberg – Drums
Jim Gordon – Drums
Jim Maelen – Percussion
Bob Ezrin – Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Producer: Bob Ezrin
…Goes to Hell is a weird album. Then again, you can say that about every Alice release up until the albums became more streamlined beginning in the mid-’80s. First off, the album cover is terrible (but still better than Pretties For You!). When I first saw this album years ago at the old Camelot Music store and was just starting to get into Alice, I actually thought it was a low budget compilation disc judging by the pitiful artwork. It certainly had the retail price to go with it. For as long as I can remember this album could and still can be found for $6-8 bucks. I got this particular version (a part of Warner’s “Flashback” series) for $5.99 from Barnes & Noble.
I can’t lie, the song “Go To Hell” is classic Alice. Years before ever listening to this album I was familiar with it because it appeared on The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper box set, which I also own. I absolutely love it. It shows Alice in fine lyrical form talking about force feeding diabetics candy canes and poisoning a blind man’s dog (and even stealing his cane) After that rip-roaring opening classic we get disco Alice in the form of “You Gotta Dance”. It’s so bad it’s good but I can’t call it an album highlight.
The whole album basically sounds like the soundtrack to a musical. It features tons of different styles: disco rock, sappy pop ballads, ’50s doo-wop, rock ‘n’ roll, and weird laid back numbers like “I’m The Coolest”. When I hear that song, I can’t help but think of it as a song that you might hear on a Charlie Brown or early Garfield cartoon special. If you’ve ever see’em, you know what I’m talking about, those specials always had weird trippy songs.
Though there are a handful of songs that I found myself enjoying but there are only two classics, IMO. Alongside “Go To Hell”, there’s “I Never Cry” which is one of my favorite ballads from Alice but it was another song I was already familiar with thanks to the box set. I can’t help but try to sing along to it whenever I hear it.
This was the second of four albums (the others being Welcome to My Nightmare, Lace & Whiskey and DaDa) where basically Alice Cooper was more of a conceptual effort with Alice, Dick Wagner and Bob Ezrin guiding the ship. Ezrin already had a long history with the original Alice Cooper band and Wagner had played on some of their albums as well.was technically a solo act by this point but Ezrin and Wagner participated so heavily on these albums you could almost say that they were new Alice Cooper band.
Overall, this is an okay release but certainly not a classic and a pretty disappointing follow-up to Welcome to My Nightmare. Alice didn’t even tour for this album due to alcohol problems, which may help explain why this album isn’t up to snuff!
Highlights: “Go To Hell”, “I Never Cry”, “Didn’t We Meet”, “Wake Me Gently”, “Wish You Were Here”
ALICE COOPER – DaDa
Alice Cooper – DaDa [Remastered] (2009, Rhino Entertainment/Collectors’ Choice Music)
Original Release: 1983, Warner Bros. Records
1. “DaDa” … 4:45
2. “Enough’s Enough” … 4:19
3. “Former Lee Warmer” … 4:07
4. “No Man’s Land” … 3:51
5. “Dyslexia” … 4:25
6. “Scarlet and Sheba” … 5:18
7. “I Love America” … 3:50
8. “Fresh Blood” … 5:54
9. “Pass the Gun Around” … 5:46
Musicians:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Dick Wagner – Guitar, Bass, Backing Vocals
Prakash John – Bass
Richard Kolinka – Drums
John Anderson – Drums
Bob Ezrin – Percussion, Drums, Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Graham Shaw – Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Producer: Bob Ezrin
Is is “DaDa”, “Dada” or “Da Da”? I’ve seen it all three ways but prefer “DaDa”, which is the how the album cover seems to present it.
This is an album I’ve wanted for a long time. I believe it has been out of print for a numbers of years but it was re-released under Rhino’s Collectors’ Choice Music imprint in 2009. It’s a bare bones reissue that doesn’t even credit who did what on the album. Granted, this wasn’t exactly a best-selling album because no one was paying attention to Alice in 1983 anyway (the album didn’t chart) and those that were paying attention didn’t review the album too kindly. There are some liner notes giving a description of what was going on at the time of the making of this album. Other than that, the lyrics to the entire album are printed on ONE PAGE. You’d have to have a magnifying glass to read it!
The album is fantastic as far as I’m concerned and one of Alice’s best. It’s classic Alice to me and is full of the weird, creepy and humorous lyrics that Alice’s career was built upon.
Longtime Alice producer Bob Ezrin returned for what was Alice’s last hurrah on the Warner label, having not produced a studio album with Alice since 1977′s poorly received Lace and Whiskey and it pays off big. The few albums previous to this saw Alice getting too soft & sentimental and/or experimenting way too much with new wave sounds. Alice, Ezrin and guitarist Dick Wagner sat down and wrote the whole album together.
There’s a lot of variety on this release, as is the case with many of Alice’s albums. The most interesting is the extremely creepy “Da” which was written entirely by Ezrin. It sounds like the theme music to an early ’80s slasher movie. Then there’s the Middle Eastern influence of “Scarlet and Sheba”, the redneck anthem “I Love America”, the funky “Fresh Blood” and in the classic mold of unusual Alice Cooper ballads there’s “Former Lee Warmer”. Alice could shake new wave off entirely it seems though because “Dyslexia” fills the void. Overall, I really don’t see how anyone could not like this album. It has all the trademarks of a great Alice record: odd, campy, creepy and funny and features some of his best lyrics.
Not only was this album the end of Cooper’s deal with Warner Bros. but he also “retired” from the industry having gone back to the booze and checking himself into rehab again. He had just come out of rehab around the time work on this album was getting started and if I remember correctly, he one said he remembers nothing about the writing and recording of this album. Luckily for us, he resurfaced in 1986 with Constrictor.
According to the liner notes, the original album’s liner notes stated that “for the most part” a drum machine was used and live drums were only used for embellishment.
Picked it up at a used record store across the street from Michigan State University for only $5.
ALICE COOPER – Keepin’ Halloween Alive [iTunes single]
Alice Cooper – Keepin’ Halloween Alive [iTunes single] (2009, Shout! Factory/Nightmare Records)
1. “Keepin’ Halloween Alive” … 2:17
2. “Keepin’ Halloween Alive” (Cooperoke Mix) … 2:15
Musicians:
Alice Cooper – Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals
Dave Pino – Lead Guitar, Bass, Rhodes Piano, Theramin
Matt “Piggy D.” Montgomery – Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
David Spreng – Drums, Percussion, Harpsichord
Producer: Alice Cooper & Matt “Piggy D.” Montgomery
Why did it take so long for Alice to give us a Halloween anthem? Sure, Alice Cooper has always gone hand in hand with Halloween like Jason Voorhees and a couple of camp counselors, but I don’t believe there’s ever been a direct ode to the October holiday by “the king of all things Halloween” (as the digital booklet credits him).
Alice is still up to his old/new garage rock antics with this one. The song is fun, punchy, yet criminally short. Even with the garage rock sound, I got a Rob Zombie vibe from it (DON’T WORRY, there’s no attempt at Brutal Planet here), which makes sense after finding out that Matt “Piggy D.” Montgomery (who co-wrote, co-produced and played on this track) is a member of Rob Zombie’s band. Also of note is Dave Pino plays in Powerman 5000 and David Spreng plays in The Bravery.
The “Cooperoke Mix” is a karaoke version with the vocals low in the mix. Scream your heart out!
I wonder if this is a sign of things for come with the next Cooper album (penciled in for a 2010 release). The song seems more like what you might hear on The Eyes of Alice Cooper or Dirty Diamonds than what was on Along Came A Spider (which I thought was slightly disappointing).
The artwork is really cool too. Yes, I said artwork. I didn’t realize iTunes did this, but included is a 4-page digital booklet featuring the cover, disc art, lyrics and credits. I hope Alice retains whoever designed this for the artwork for the next album because it’s exactly the kind of look Alice should be going for.
www.alicecooper.com
www.myspace.com/officialalicecooper
www.shoutfactory.com
ALICE COOPER – The Last Temptation
Alice Cooper – The Last Temptation (1994, Epic Records)
1. “Sideshow” … 6:40
2. “Nothing’s Free” … 5:01
3. “Lost in America” … 3:54
4. “Bad Place Alone” … 5:05
5. “You’re My Temptation” … 5:10
6. “Prayer” … 5:37
7. “Unholy War” … 4:11
8. “Lullaby” … 4:28
9. “It’s Me” … 4:40
10. “Cleansed by Fire” … 6:13
Band:
Alice Cooper – Lead Vocals
Stef Burns – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Greg Smith – Bass, Backing Vocals
Derek Sherinian – Keyboards, Vocals
David Uosikkinen – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Chris Cornell – Lead Vocals (“Stolen Prayer” and “Unholy War”)
Dan Wexler – Guitar (“Lost In America”)
John Purdell – Keyboards (“You’re My Temptation”, “Lullaby”, “It’s Me”)
Lou Merlino, Mark Hudson, Craig Copeland, Brett Hudson – Backing Vocals
Produced by: Andy Wallace, Don Flemmin, Duane Baron, John Purdell
One of my favorite Alice albums and it was also the second Alice album I ever bought. I FINALLY now own this on CD, after originally having it on cassette. I always wanted to upgrade to a CD, but because I was already so familiar with the album, it took me years to finally do it. The $6 price tag I found online recently convinced me to go for it.
This is a concept album and it’s a departure from his two previous efforts, Trash and Hey Stoopid. Those albums were full-strength pop-metal releases and while some of that sound is still here, it’s a much more serious affair and Alice has incorporated the sounds of his mid to late ’70s output. The more serious theme of this album is reflected in the absence of pop-metal songwriter Desmond Child and there are no cameos by pop-metal stars like Jon Bon Jovi, Steven Tyler, Slash or Nikki Sixx. Instead, Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell shows up for some vocals (I have read that Extreme’s Gary Cherone was also going to sing on the album, but scheduling problems arose).
This is a dark album that deals with Steven (from Welcome to My Nightmare) battling his temptations to join the traveling carnival of The Showmaster (aka – the Devil), where he would have to sell his soul. There’s some debate as to how this ties in Welcome to My Nightmare. Is it a prequel? Or is it a “reboot” of the Steven character? Who knows? Its even more confusing when you consider 2008′s Along Came a Spider, was another concept album, and it dealt with a serial killer called The Spider who is credited in that album with the name of Steven. On an interesting note, the original title for this album was going to be Along Came a Spider. There’s obviously a connection between all three, but I guess only Alice knows where the pieces fall. It’d be pretty cool if he adapted these albums into a Steven novel someday.
Speaking of stories, to coincide with this album’s release, there was a three-issue miniseries released by Marvel Comics written by Neil Gaiman that fleshed out this album’s story (Cooper AND Gaiman came up with the album’s concept).
Just a fantastic release that I never get tired of listening to, there is no filler at all. “Sideshow” definitely sounds like classic Cooper. I remember when my dad heard it for the first time (a Killers/School’s Out Cooper fan), he made that comment. “It’s Me” is one of my favorite Alice ballads.
Highlights: “Sideshow”, “Nothing’s Free”, “Lost in America”, “You’re My Temptation”, “Unholy War”, “It’s Me”, “Cleansed By Fire”
ALICE COOPER – The Eyes of Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper – The Eyes of Alice Cooper (2003, Eagle Records)
1. “What Do You Want from Me?” … 3:24
2. “Between High School & Old School” … 3:01
3. “Man of the Year” … 2:51
4. “Novocaine” … 3:07
5. “Bye Bye, Baby” … 3:27
6. “Be With You Awhile” … 4:17
7. “Detroit City” … 3:58
8. “Spirits Rebellious” … 3:35
9. “This House Is Haunted” … 3:30
10. “Love Should Never Feel Like This” … 3:32
11. “The Song That Didn’t Rhyme” … 3:17
12. “I’m So Angry” … 3:36
13. “Backyard Brawl” … 2:36
Band:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Eric Dover – Guitar
Ryan Roxie – Guitar
Chuck Garric – Bass
Eric Singer – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Wayne Kramer – Guitar (“Detroit City”)
Teddy Zig Zag – Keyboards, Accordion, Percussion
Calico Cooper – Backing Vocals
Scott Gilman – Saxophone, Clarinet
Produced by: Alice Cooper and Mudrock
It took me a few spins to fully get into this album, but its a welcome return to Alice’s roots! After producing two albums that were influenced by industrial metal (Brutal Planet and Dragontown), Alice became influenced by the glut of garage rockers that were the critics’ darlings in the early ’00s and decided to show’em how someone from the old school does it right down to the recording process — most the tracks were recorded in full live and the album was wrapped within two weeks!
The Eyes of Alice Cooper is raw and loose garage rock ‘n’ roll with some punk thrown in (though “Be With You Awhile” sounds like one of his late-70s ballads you might hear on the radio). There’s really not a whole lot of “shock rock” or dark moments like there were on Brutal Planet, Alice is out for a good time and shows it with some of his usual playful & humorous lyrics on “Man of the Year”, “Novocaine” and “The Song The Didn’t Rhyme”. The most macabre-sounding song of the bunch is “This House Is Haunted”, which for some reason always makes me think of Disney World’s Haunted House ride. Would be cool that have them play THAT while on the ride.
Even though I welcomed Alice’s move away from nu-metal with open arms, I can’t say this album is any better than his previous two efforts. They are all good albums and worthy additions to his storied career, but different beasts. If you wanna be angry, listen to Brutal Planet. If you just wanna have fun, listen to The Eyes of Alice Cooper.
Highlights: “What Do You Want from Me?”, “Novocaine”, “Be With You A While”, “Detroit City”, “Spirits Rebellious”, “This House Is Haunted”, “Love Should Never Feel Like This”, “Backyard Brawl”
ALICE COOPER – Brutal Planet
Alice Cooper – Brutal Planet (2000, Spitfire Records)
1. “Brutal Planet” … 4:40
2. “Wicked Young Man” … 3:50
3. “Sanctuary” … 4:00
4. “Blow Me a Kiss” … 3:18
5. “Eat Some More” … 4:36
6. “Pick Up the Bones” … 5:14
7. “Pessi-Mystic” … 4:56
8. “Gimme” … 4:46
9. “It’s the Little Things” … 4:11
10. “Take It Like a Woman” … 4:12
11. “Cold Machines” … 4:14
Band:
Alice Cooper – Vocals
Ryan Roxie – Guitar
China – Guitar
Phil X – Guitar
Bob Marlette – Bass, Keyboards, Guitar
Eric Singer – Drums
Produced by: Bob Marlette and Bob Ezrin
After 1994′s The Last Temptation, Alice took a six year break from recording (the longest in his career). The Last Temptation shook off the 80s pop metal of Trash, Constrictor, Hey Stoopid and Raise Your Fist and Yell and featured similarities to his 70s work, but in 2000, Alice’s “comeback”, Brutal Planet, was another shift in sound. This time a drastic one which had more in common with the industrial metal of Rob Zombie (Alice’s “pick” to be his successor, should he ever desire to step down from being the King of Shock Rock) than Bon Jovi or the original Alice Cooper band.
I remember “Brutal Planet” was made available for streaming and it took me awhile to get into it. Alice inspired Rob Zombie greatly, so it was sad and disappointing to see Alice trying to play catch up with the new generation by taking a stab at industrial metal, which was then a trendy sound for many young metal acts.
I listened to this album a lot when it came out, just because I was a huge fan of Alice, but I could not get over Alice’s new heavier sound. It just didn’t seem natural to me. 70s Alice, 80s Alice… Anything but industrial Alice! In the last few years though, I’ve come to really appreciate it for what it is. Personally, 80s Alice is my preference, but Brutal Planet has some great songs, even if they aren’t what I would consider to be Alice classics. The lyrics are great to boot and I remember many reviews at the time giving high praise to them, saying they are some of this best.
There’s a general sense of doom and pessimism (see “Pessi-Mystic”) to the album. There’s not a lot of Alice’s signature humor outside of “It’s the Little Things”. This is angry Alice. This is an Alice that’s a bit more serious and the album focuses on real world tragedies instead of his usual tongue-in-cheek macabre. This album is a different kind of Alice, but one that I’ve come to enjoy.
The one song that really sticks out just from the rest, for the fact that musically it is so different than the rest of the album, is “Take It Like a Woman”. It is just one of a few numbers Alice has done throughout the years that I consider to basically be follow-ups to his signature ballad “Only Women Bleed”.
There was a really great Alice song left off the album, and it too, did not fit in with the rest of the songs — “Can’t Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me”. It definitely showed that fun, twisted side of Alice and sounded like a great fit for Trash or Hey Stoopid. It eventually ended up on international special editions of Dragontown.
On a superficial note, I’ve always hated the cover the and pictures of Alice the album had. Alice just didn’t look like Alice. He looked like a old bum. Maybe that’s what they were going for, but it didn’t work for me.
Highlights: “Brutal Planet”, “Sanctuary”, “Pick Up the Bones”, “Pessi-Mystic”, “Gimme”, “It’s the Little Things”, “Take It Like a Woman”
ALICE COOPER – Hey Stoopid
Alice Cooper – Hey Stoopid (1991, Epic Records)
1. “Hey Stoopid” … 4:34
2. “Love’s a Loaded Gun” … 4:12
3. “Snakebite” … 4:33
4. “Burning Our Bed” … 4:35
5. “Dangerous Tonight” … 4:41
6. “Might as Well Be on Mars” … 7:10
7. “Feed My Frankenstein” … 4:44
8. “Hurricane Years” … 3:58
9. “Little by Little” … 4:34
10. “Die for You” … 4:17
11. “Dirty Dreams” … 3:30
12. “Wind-Up Toy” … 5:27
Band:
Alice Cooper – Vocals, Harmonica
Mickey Curry – Drums
Stef Burns – Guitar
Hugh McDonald – Bass
Derek Sherinian – Keyboards
Additional Musicians:
Ozzy Osbourne – Backing Vocals
Slash – Guitar
Joe Satriani – Guitar, Backing Vocals
Steve Vai – Guitar
Mick Mars – Guitar
Vinnie Moore – Guitar
Nikki Sixx – Bass
Produced by: Peter Collins
Though many people have derided Alice’s pop metal years, I absolutely love them. Trash and this album are two of my favorite Alice albums.
Though the guiding hands of Jon Bon Jovi & Trash producer Desmond Child may be gone (Desmond did co-write “Dangerous Tonight” and “Might as Well Be on Mars” though), Alice, with his team of co-writers, manages to deliver another slick pop metal gem. There’s also another impressive lineup of guest musicians as well.
This album didn’t sell nearly as well as Trash did and didn’t have a big hit like “Poison” was, and that’s a real shame because this album might even be better than Trash. 1991 was getting to be a rough time to sell commercial metal though…
Highlights: “Hey Stoopid”, “Love’s a Loaded Gun”, “Burning Our Bed”, “Might as Well Be on Mars”, “Feed My Frankenstein”, “Little by Little”, “Die For You”
ALICE COOPER – Dirty Diamonds
Alice Cooper – Dirty Diamonds (2005, New West Records)
Track Listing:
1. “Woman Of Mass Distraction” … 4:00
2. “Perfect” … 3:30
3. “You Make Me Wanna” … 3:31
4. “Dirty Diamonds” … 4:03
5. “The Saga Of Jesse Jane” … 4:16
6. “Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)” … 3:28
7. “Pretty Ballerina” … 3:02
8. “Run Down The Devil” … 3:29
9. “Steal That Car” … 3:17
10. “Six Hours” … 3:25
11. “Your Own Worst Enemy” … 2:15
12. “Zombie Dance” … 4:23
BONUS TRACK
13. “Stand” [w/ Xzibit] … 4:05
Band:
Alice Cooper – Vocals, Harmonica
Ryan Roxie – Guitar
Damon Johnson – Guitar
Chuck Garric – Bass
Tommy Clufetos – Drums
Additional Musicians:
Xzibit – Rap on “Stand”
Produced by: Steve Lindsey
God bless Alice. He keeps crankin’ ‘em out on a steady basis and it’s always a solid showing. “Solid” is definitely the word here as this is a continuation of the more garage rock “back to roots” effort that was 2002′s The Eyes of Alice Cooper. There are a few more curve balls tossed in this time though.
I’ve made it no secret that I’m not a fan of garage rock, even if it is part of Alice’s roots. Eyes, this album and 2008′s Along Came a Spider are pretty much along the same vein and while all are good, I don’t find them to be amongst his best albums and each one took me some time to get into (The Eyes of Alice Cooper being the best of the bunch, IMO).
Dirty Diamonds particularly is loaded with filler, though there are some classic Alice moments such as the rockin’ “Dirty Diamonds” (a song I swore would be awesome if done live with a gangster/thief set up, and sure enough, Alice did just that) and the trademark Alice humor with the Johnny Cash-impersonation “The Saga of Jesse Jane”.
“Stand” is a “bonus track” and really seems out of place here sound like a much more modern rap rock song and featuring rapper Xzibit. It was originally released on the 2004 Olympics soundtrack. I quite like it though. Just doesn’t fit the sound of the rest of the album and it’s inclusion was an obvious attempt to get a few more sales (from hip hop, fans?).
Highlights: “Woman of Mass Distraction”, “Perfect”, “Dirty Diamonds”, “The Saga of Jesse Jane”, “Pretty Ballerina”, “Stand”
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