Brutal Planet
Alice broke into the fourth decade of his career by releasing his heaviest and most aggressive album to date. Filled with slow, dark riffs and lyrics loaded with social criticism, Brutal Planet shows a deviation from the usual dark comedy that fills most of the Coop’s catalogue. In fact, Alice’s sense of humor only comes out in a few songs; most notably “It’s the Little Things.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however. Many tracks, such as “Wicked Young Man” and the heavy duty title track, shine out as modern classics. Overall the album is consistent and Alice manages to successfully express his anger and concern over the issues plaguing the world.
Dragontown
Alice continues with the heavy riffs and grim, morose lyrics with this follow-up to Brutal Planet. This album is lighter though, with more of Coop’s dark and witty humor seeping through to lighten the mood just a bit. Songs like “Fantasy Man,” ironically making fun of so-called “manly men,” and the utterly silly “Can’t Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me” are enough to elicit a chuckle. Whereas songs such as the sludgy title track and “The Sentinel” carry over the heart-pounding heaviness of Brutal Planet and give the two albums some consistency that lead most people to think Dragontown is its predecessor's sequel. Overall there are no standout tracks on the album, even though the chorus to “Sex, Death, and Money” will get stuck in your head. What it gives though is a batch of consistently good tunes that make this one of Alice’s most tragically underrated albums.
The Eyes of Alice Cooper
Stripped down to the bare pop-punk essentials, Cooper made an album that sounds like it took an hour to make. The album is filled with simple riffs and cheesy lyrics that are either hit or miss. Some of the tracks, like the opener, “What Do You Want From Me?,” and the ballad “Be With You Awhile,” come out well and deserve more than a few listens. However for every good tune there is another that falls flat and on deaf ears. Songs like the lackluster “Detroit City,” and “Love Should Never Feel Like This,” show Alice getting caught in a generic and boring noise. The album manages to hold together though, and comes off as a good, but overall forgettable addition to Alice’s song bank.
Dirty Diamonds
This release comes in the same vein as The Eyes of…with the stripped down garage rock sound with short, simple riffs and structures. The tunes are catchy and Alice finds himself standing in front of a very together-sounding band as he delivers his quick easy songs. The tracks prove to be slightly less hit or miss as Coop’s previous work. The album does have one major issue running through it though: the lyrics. Though Alice has never been hailed as the greatest lyrical wordsmith of all time, this album has lyrics so cheesy that they could compete with the Coop’s painful mid-eighties contributions (“You make me wanna woo hoo hoo?" Seriously?). Overall, Diamonds is far from Alice’s greatest contribution to music, but in the end it manages to hold on as a harmless, albeit ignorable, addition to his discography.
Along Came a Spider
Loaded with a macabre story line, tons of dark humor, star-studded guest starts, and catchy pop hooks, Spider might not attain Welcome to My Nightmare status in Cooper’s cache of concept albums, but it could definitely give The Last Temptation a run for its money. Standout tracks include the sleazy “In Touch (With Your Feminine Side),” and the Slash-heavy “Vengeance is Mine.” Some songs don’t work out as well though, such as the disappointing “Wake the Dead,” and “Wrapped in Silk.” But overall Alice’s third concept album shows him in prime form, and in perfect control over his unique delivery of shock rock theatrics.
Welcome 2 My Nightmare
After thirty-five years, Steven finally fell asleep again. It’s always a heavy gamble to produce a sequel to a classic album. But Alice took that risk and managed to deliver one of his best albums since the first Nightmare. Despite having a sequel to a thirty five year old album and using original band members, Alice keeps the album sounding modern, most noticeably by sometimes shamelessly pumping his voice through auto-tune, and inviting in guest starts like Rob Zombie, John 5 and…Ke$ha. With the gloomy, auto-tune heavy opening song, “I Am Made of You,” the impression is that this new nightmare is going to be even darker than its predecessor, but as the neurotic “Caffeine,” and upbeat show tune, “Last Man on Earth,” come on, that illusion is shattered. The album is filled with upbeat songs that lighten the delivery of its macabre lyrics. Overall it is easy to say that even if this second nightmare doesn’t become a modern classic, it’s at least without a doubt Alice’s best album in a couple decades.
Alex Kendall - Music columnist at school paper: 1.5 years Wrote average 5 essays/stories/articles per month during college college career.
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