Artist: Cooper, Alice
Label: Spitfire Records
Release: 2005
The last album’s barely settled and the tour has only just wrapped, and here’s Alice again, this time with a brand-new studio album. The old tomcat’s latest has picked up quite a few negative reviews as well as some good ones, but it’s not bad at all. Sure, he’s put out better records, but also different ones.
On this one he’s gone for a garage sound again, just with a bit more polish in the production. The big new thing is the variety of tracks: next to the classic demons-and-horror lyrics on the excellent Run Down The Devil, you get a country and western vibe on Saga of Jesse Jane, a killer punk track in Steal That Car, a bit of blues in Six Hours, a glam number in Dirty Diamonds, hard rock like Your Own Worst Enemy, great classic rock in Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies), and of course it wouldn’t be an Alice record without a ballad like Pretty Ballerina, plus probably another style or two if you dig around. As a bonus there’s Stand, with rap content and the well-known X-Zibit. In my opinion this variety is a really good thing, especially since you can spot Cooper’s lyrics in every track. That said, on a few songs he may have gone too far and earned himself no small amount of negative reviews, especially for the country and rap tracks. To wrap up: with 13 tracks, the album needs repeated listens, and it’s just not as bad as everyone says.
Cooper has already presented the album on tour, which so far has only been in Germany as part of a double-header with Deep Purple, and as usual, we haven’t had a hero brave enough to bring people to a Cooper show over here.
If you go looking for the CD in our stores, you’ll surely have a bit of trouble, since it hit our shelves very, very late, and even then you’ll only find it with some luck in maybe just the better-stocked shops – a disgrace, really.
Lineup
Alice Cooper – vocals
Ryan Roxie – guitar
Damon Johnson – guitar
Chuck Garric – bass guitar
Tommy Cufetos – drums
* Damon Johnson – bass guitar
** Chuck Garric – guitar
Production
Steve n’ Rick
Tracklist
1. Woman Of Mass Distraction
2. You Make Me Wanna
3. Perfect *
4. Dirty Diamonds **
5. The Saga of Jesse Jane
6. Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)
7. Pretty Ballerina
8. Run Down The Devil
9. Steal That Car
10. Six Hours
11. Your Own Worst Enemy
12. Zombie Dance
13. Stand
Album length: 46:48
