2011. A new studio album by everyone's favourite artist, Alice Cooper. This is kind of a sequel to 1975's "Welcome To My Nightmare", the debut Alice Cooper solo album. The work comes in a plethora of releases and each different one seems to sport a bonus track, not available on any of the other items. I've said, what I had to say about this. If fans are ripped off in such a way, I don't feel sorry about the decline of the music industry. You reap what you sow.
Right now, I've only the double vinyl issue (on red wax nevertheless) in my possession. The CD with accompanying magazine is still not here (Classic Rock issue), which is total b.s. as well. This was advertised as being out a full month before the albums hits the streets. Stupid marketing gimmick, I bought the Vinyl today (and I believe, the normal CD version was also available). The LP comes with a mini poster and coversized booklet. The latter is quite nice. The poster? I don't know. Kindergarten stuff. The original "Welcome To My Nightmare" doesn't have a cover graphic to write home about, but they have lowered their standards even further. This qualifies easily as one of the most horrible (pun intended) covers. Jesus Christ, what kind of amateurs are trying their "skills" these days. Where have the days gone, when talented people created good graphics?
The music? Much has been made of the fact, that the original Alice Cooper Band was back in the Studio! It was hailed as the second coming of Christ! Original? Wait a minute! Last time I checked, Glen Buxton was still dead ... so much for the claim of "original" ACG. And as far as I've heard, the rest didn't even get to be in the studio at the same time. And worse is yet to come, The living members of ACG are only to be heard on three tracks. Hardly news you need to be aware of. And what's more, wether they have lent their skills to these three songs or not, I wouldn't have noticed anyway. Alice Cooper could have hired any musician to fill out these slots, with no change to the quality. Or he could have used his current standard band on all tracks. Oh well!
The music needs to grow on you. Starting very slow and a few tracks later drifting off to funfair music and everything else between here and Transylvania, this is not the kind of album you expected of a 2011 solo Alice Cooper. Especially since the last couple of releases had the quality of a fifty ton steamroller. But after a couple of listening sessions, I'm already beginning to like this slice of music. Although this is certainly not on a par with the original "Welcome To My Nightmare", as there's to much missing and the album is still a hodge podge collection with just to many gimmicks thrown in. It's entertaining, yes, but for the most part, don't expect your rockin' Alice. Very mainstream, but sometimes you want to shout "get to the point". As negative as this might sound now, there's some excellent stuff here, but I don't rate it as high as, say, "Killer" or thereabouts. And it doesn't help, when Alice Cooper tries his hands at Disco music (even though he might make a statement here) or with this godawful bonus track on the LP version. I have better Electronica or Industrial music in my collection. Just wonder where this leftover came from!
Buy the album, when you're in a record store the next time and you can't decide wether to buy a hits collection of yesteryear or this here. At least you're on the side of the good guys.
Cheers
Devon
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