Welcome to another “Album by Album Challenge.” For those that are new here, the “Album by Album Challenge” is where I take a band’s entire discography and listen to every album in order of release from front to back. With my unforgiving and well-aged ear, I call it how I hear it. In some cases, I find that what I once thought was good is actually pretty crappy and sometimes crap manages to age into something pretty kick ass. And in some cases, face melting is still just good ol’ face melting.
Welcome to Part III of the Alice Cooper Album by Album Challenge. That later spectrum of the solo career was a bit hokey wasn’t it? Well, Alice took some time off and then in 1986 staged a comeback that put him not only back on the map but had him experiencing even more success than he had previously. Constrictor introduced Alice to a whole new generation of hard rock/metal fans and Alice would continue to consistently put out music all through the 80’s and into the 90’s. But how did this stuff stack up? Well, read on and you’ll find out!
THE NIGHTMARE RETURNS
Constrictor
Release Date: September 22, 1986
The Good: Teenage Frankenstein, The World Needs Guts,
The Bad: He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)
The Indifferent: Give It Up, Thrill My Gorilla, Life And Death Of The Party, Simple Disobedience, Trick Bag, Crawlin’ The Great American Success Story
Back in ’86 when this album came out I was all about this one. I thought it sounded so cool for such an old dude. Don’t get wrong. I loved Alice’s early shit but this just sounded so modern at the time. Well, hearing this album now it actually sounds more dated than his older stuff. That aside, this is a fun album. It’s not amazing and it’s not blowing but this is pretty much the album Alice needed to make. The face of hard rock/metal had changed so drastically and he needed to either shit or get off the pot and he knew he had to keep up with the times.
Teenage Frankenstein is such a great song but it’s “The World Needs Guts” that really fucking rules. It’s a great song but these are about it. The other songs on Constrictor definitely don’t suck but they are extremely forgettable at best. The one truly shitty song on this one is “He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)” from the Halloween movie or something. So much drum machine. So much suck. Like I said, this is the album that Alice needed to make in order to come back but the songs just aren’t there. With that being said, I don’t find this one really worth it to own. Find those two tracks and you’re golden. Matter of fact, try and find a copy of “The Nightmare Returns” (the concert film from this comeback tour) and you’ll be good to do since those songs are on there.
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Raise Your Fist and Yell
Release Date: September 28, 1987
The Good: Freedom, Roses on White Lace,
The Bad: Give the Radio Back
The Indifferent: Lock Me Up, Step on You, Not That Kind of Love, Prince of Darkness, Time to Kill, Chop! Chop! Chop!,
So here’s the deal. This album opens up with probably one of my all-time favorite Alice tunes. “Freedom” is such a great fucking song but man, after that one everything is just “meh.” First off, the album actually sounds WAY fucking better than Constrictor but much like Constrictor, the songs are just weak. The band actually plays really well but this was Alice trying to be metal. Can we just talk about what a fucking monster drummer Ken Mary was and how bad ass Kip Winger’s bass/backing vox were? Over all, this is a sound that worked for him for the most part and it would forge the direction that he would go for the remainder of his career but the songs just weren’t refined or even all that good.
“Prince of Darkness” almost made the cut but it just lost steam for me and “Chop Chop Chop” had some potential but it just fell flat for me. I did have to give some points to the band for “Gail” which tried to reach back to the “Welcome to my Nightmare” era (think “Mary Ann”) but the problem was that this song just went on too long and even with its big kick in just lost it for me. I really did like “Roses on White Lace” (loved the Icarus Witch cover of this one) but once again the rest of the album just did nothing for me.
Note: GET THE SONG “Freedom.” Everything else might as well just be buried in obscurity.
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Trash
Release Date: July 25, 1989
The Good: Poison, Only My Hear Talkin’, Trash,
The Bad: Spark in the Dark, Why Trust You, Bed of Nails, This Maniac’s In Love With You, Hell Is Living Without You, I’m Your Gun
The Indifferent: House of Fire,
Wow. Talk about a slap in the fucking face. When Trash came out I played the fuck out of this album. I really thought this album was the shit but now… oh brother. These songs. After looking at the credits, I shouldn’t be surprised to find out that Desmond fucking Child is all over this one. Good god this just explains so much.
“Poison” is still a great song as is the title track. I even dug “Only My Heart Talkin’” but man, the rest of this album is just shit dishwater. Ok, well honestly, “House of Fire” isn’t horrible but it’s just a lot of “meh.” This is the kind of direction that drove Aerosmith right down the fucking drain but right up the charts. Maybe that’s what Alice was shooting for. A hit album? Well, he totally got one but in return got one of the most dated sounding platters released in this era. I’m so glad this one’s over. Next!
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Hey Stoopid
Release Date: July 2, 1991
The Good: Hey Stoopid, Love’s A Loaded Gun , Burning Our Bed, Dangerous Tonight, Feed My Frankenstein, Hurricane Years, Little By Little, Wind Up Toy
The Bad:
The Indifferent: Snakebite, Might as Well Be on Mars, Die For You, Dirty Dreams
Holy shit. It’s amazing what 2 years and getting rid of Desmond Child can do for Alice Cooper. Ok, well, the Child gets one song writing credit here (Dangerous Tonight) but at least it didn’t suck. This album is every bit as great as I remembered it being and the funny thing is that even the songs that I found to just be “OK” are still that way. This album sounds really great and I’m really stoked as to how well this album has held up over time. I even found myself liking songs like “Feed My Frankenstein” and “Hey Stoopid” even more than I remembered. There’s also a lot of greatness in “Love’s a Loaded Gun” and damn if “Hurricane Years” isn’t one of Alice’s greatest moments.
Hey Stoopid is a totally fun and enjoyable album that is chockfull of great songs. Even the “ok” songs are enjoyable. They just don’t stand as strong as the great songs on this album but even those tunes are light-years better than the shit on Trash. Hey Stoopid is a really great listen and this album holds a lot of great memories for me. It’s just so nice to hear it holding up after all these years and doing so so well.
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The Last Temptation
Release Date: July 12, 1994
The Good: Sideshow, Nothings Free, Lost in America, Bad Place Alone, You’re My Temptation, Stolen Prayer, Unholy War, Lullaby, It’s Me, Cleansed by Fire
The Bad:
The Indifferent:
When this album came out in ’94 I remember loving the hell out of it. Well, nothing’s changed with that. This is a really fantastic album and an unsung classic that is sadly ignored. What I love about this album is that this is Alice reaching back to those classic Alice Cooper Band roots but also keeping his foot planted in the more modernized hard rock sound that he has so comfortable found a fit. The opening song and “Lullaby” totally remind me of songs that could’ve been on Welcome to My Nightmare while songs like “Lost In America” and “You’re My Temptation” would’ve sounded very at home on Hey Stoopid.
Stay Tuned for Part IV: Alice Cooper 2k!
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