What does it sound like?:
I have a theory that everyone in the world likes at least one Alice Cooper song – School’s Out, No More Mr Nice Guy, Elected, Hello Hooray, Poison, whatever. I well remember as a teenager buying the School’s Out album, which came with a free pair of paper pants inside, Billion Dollar Babies, with it’s enclosed billion dollar bill, and Muscle Of Love which was presented within a cardboard box.
Well, the good news is ‘The Coop’ is back with this two disc set, his first studio album since 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare.
Produced by long term cohort Bob Ezrin, it features collaborations with luminaries such as Billy Gibbons, Larry Mullen and Roger Glover. It marks a change from the horror concept theme of his last release, going instead for a very acceptable collection of radio friendly, straight ahead commercial rock songs, somewhat in the vein of his Trash album of yesteryear. While it doesn’t quite scale the heights of that album, there are nevertheless plenty of catchy songs here, which I suspect will work well when performed live. Maybe it’s a little overproduced at times, but it’s none the worse for that.
The real treat of this release though comes on the second disc, where the remaining members of the original Alice Cooper Band (Glenn Buxton passed away in 1997) reconvene after far too many years to give us two new songs. The better of the two is Genuine American Girl, a tune that wouldn’t have been out of place on School’s Out. The other, You And All Your Friends, is ok without being especially stand out, but the two pieces together certainly bode well for the upcoming UK dates with this line up later in the year, and hopefully they are just a taster for future collaborations. The remainder of the second disc is given over to half a dozen classic tracks recorded live in May 2016 with the then current line up of the band – and really you can’t go wrong with songs like Billion Dollar Babies, No More Mr Nice Guy, Under My Wheels and of course School’s Out.
What does it all *mean*?
This is a very decent album – ok, so it’s not a classic to rank alongside albums like Killer, School’s Out or Billion Dollar Babies, but that would surely be too much to expect from Alice in 2017. Overall though, despite a couple of forgettable moments, it’s certainly a creditable effort, with standouts like Rats, Dead Flies and the aforementioned Genuine American Girl, showing that there’s still life in the old dog yet.
Goes well with…
Mascara and snakes.
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
Straight ahead FM friendly rock tunes that don’t demand too much of the listener, but still stick in your mind.
Tiggerlion says
He’s getting busy again, isn’t he. I bet his golf swing is suffering.
Bogart says
Waiting for a couple of versions of this album to arrive ( truth being I can’t remember which versions of the many I ordered) I would say it was more loyalty than expectation that made me fork out for them. I, like so many was Cooperised when the band first appeared on TOTP performing Schools Out, 45 years on and I’m still in the gang. Loyalty, loyalty, if truth be told he hasn’t made a great album since Da-Da, a couple The Eyes Of, Welcome 2, have been more than acceptable, some like The Temptation of, Dragontown, have had moments yet on the whole they’ve been purchased to compete the set. And so this will no doubt be the same, but two things to consider, 1) it will have Coop’s voice and when he chooses to use it to full effect it is a treat even if it’s singing the rule book of Lytham St Anne’s links 2) the real, proper, Alice Cooper as in the group are, minus GB of course, once again on a record. And what more could you want.
retropath2 says
Killer was astonishing and can still shock with its schlock and overall ubercompetent garage rock glory. In my top 50 of all time
Bargepole says
Alice channels Zaphod Beeblebrox on the cover 🙂
cleanersvenus says
I wonder if he’ll retire now he’s found out he’s potentially eight million pounds better off. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40715105