Artist: Cooper, Alice
Label: Epic Records
Release: 1991
How do you follow up the more-than-massive commercial success of the legendary album Trash? You practically can’t, but in the ears of Cooper connoisseurs, Hey Stoopid did exactly that. What’s more, this album is the real success at heart, because it’s far more Cooper-flavored and wears a lot less lipstick than its predecessor from the late eighties. It’s his second album on Epic, and once again it’s a record with no story concept holding it together, but every single track is a hard rock masterpiece. Cooper is joined by a whole bunch of famous guests again, like Ozzy, Steve Vai and Nikki Sixx, but this time they stay in the background and let Cooper himself take the lead. Alongside the album, a promo-only record also came out, on which Alice talks about strange stories, which gets almost as creepy as his lyrics.
The album has twelve tracks packed with brilliant lyrics, guitar riffs, bass, blazing drums and special effects. The title track Hey Stoopid alone gets your blood pumping. The song deals with the problem of drugs and is also the first single from the album. It’s followed by Feed My Frankenstein, which got even more airplay, especially thanks to its appearance in the movie Wayne’s World. Most of the tracks are in the same vein, like Snakebite with its killer sound of snake hissing at the start, the fast and punchy Dangerous Tonight and Dirty Dreams, Hurricane Years and Little By Little with a cool whip crack at the beginning, plus the single Love Is A Loaded Gun. Even though Cooper is known for his horrors, he simply can’t do without ballads, and that’s where his extra talent shows, because his ballads are proper power ballads, and this time we get Burning Our Bed and Might As Well Be On Mars. The closer is the special Wind-Up Toy, a mix of everything Cooper and killer rock, a creepy, balladic, quirky track.
The tour that accompanied the album was called Operation Rock ‘n’ Roll in America and simply the Hey Stoopid Tour on the old continent. As a special touch, the promo shows in the US were called Nightmare On Your Street. The shows themselves were typical Cooper, with a full set dressed in skulls, as is only right for Cooper.
All in all, it’s yet another album that writes hard rock history, and Alice Cooper shows up in that history more than a few times, and knowing him, he will again. I recommend this album to everyone who loves hard rock, especially from the eighties.
Lineup
Alice Cooper – vocals
Stef Burns – guitar
Joe Striani – guitar
Hugh McDonald – bass guitar
Mickey Curry – drums
Robert Bailey – keyboards
John Webster – keyboards
guests:
Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, Nikki Sixx & Mick Mars, Steve Vai
Production
Peter Collins
Track list
1. Hey Stoopid
2. Love’s A Loaded Gun
3. Snakebite
4. Burning Our Bed
5. Dangerous Tonight
6. Might As Well Be On Mars
7. Feed My Frankenstein
8. Hurricane Years
9. Little By Little
10. Die For You
11. Dirty Dreams
12. Wind Up Toy
Running time: 56:19
