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 IV of the Alice Cooper Album by Album Challenge. After taking a break after 1994’s Last Temptation, Alice would once again make a comeback of sorts with 2000’s Brutal Planet. This album saw Alice dipping into the more modern side of heavy music with an almost at times industrial sound and down tuned guitars. This was an area of Alice’s career that I pretty much ignored so I was really hearing these albums for the first time in doing this challenge. Read on to see how they held up (if they did indeed do so).
A2K – Alice Cooper: 2000 – Present
Brutal Planet
Release Date: June 6, 2000
The Good:
The Bad:
The Indifferent: Brutal Planet, Wicked Young Man, Sanctuary, Blow Me A Kiss, Eat Some More, Pick Up the Bones, Pessi-Mystic, Gimme, It’s the Little Things, Take it Like A Woman, Cold Machines
Six years after The Last Temptation, Alice made another return with an even more modern, heavy sound that in all honesty just didn’t do anything for me. The songs aren’t bad and in all honesty, he does this kind of music really well but the whole down tuned modern metal sound just went right by me and left me with a big ass feeling of “meh”. There are a few instances such as “Blow Me A Kiss” and “Pick Up The Bones” where it sounds like he’s onto something but then all of the sudden he just loses me once it all kicks in.
The title track has become a staple of Alice’s live shows and I totally enjoy this song in a live setting way more than hearing it on this album. For the most part, the album doesn’t suck but it’s just not what I wanted to hear from Alice Cooper. This was Alice trying to be relevant for the times and I feel like he totally did it and did it well. It sounds honest and sounds really well thought out but again, I just didn’t dig it as this isn’t the Alice Cooper I love.
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Dragontown
Release Date: September 18, 2001
The Good:
The Bad:
The Indifferent: Triggerman, Deeper, Dragontown, Sex Death and Money, Fantasy Man, Somewhere in the Jungle, Disgraceland, Sister Sara, Every Woman Has a Name, I Just Wanna Be God, It’s Much Too Late, The Sentinel
So this was the first Alice album I didn’t buy when it was released. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t buy another Alice album until Welcome to My Nightmare 2. My thoughts on this album are much like they were for Brutal Planet. Dragontown isn’t as overly “modernly heavy” and the songs are a bit more dialed down. I just don’t feel that the songs are all that strong. I didn’t feel that natural pull or connection that I felt with all those early Alice albums.
I just find it kind of odd that Alice would make all of these albums and then live not play a single one of the songs. Maybe these are the songs he, himself, wants to make but he knows his audience won’t really dig it so he just records them and then sticks to the classics in a live setting. The songs aren’t horrible by any means but I just don’t like them. What cracks me up is that Alice actually seems to do this kind of music way better than the young kids that were/are doing this kind of music. It’s amazing to me that he never experienced success with that alternative metal crowd with this stuff.
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The Eyes of Alice Cooper
Release Date: September 23, 2003
The Good: Be With You a While, Detroit City, This House is Haunted,
The Bad: I’m So Angry,
The Indifferent: What Do You Want From Me?, Between High School&Old School, Man of the Year, Novocaine, Bye Bye Baby, Spirits Rebellious, Love Should Never Feel Like This, The Song that Didn’t Rhyme, Backyard Brawl
This easily has to be one of the most inconsistent Alice Cooper albums to date. This time around has Alice almost kind of going into this with a kind of New York Doll’s punk like edge. In all honesty, this sound kind of works for him but I just didn’t dig it. The albums starts out just kind of leaving me feeling “meh” but then something happens around Track #6, “Be With You A While.” This song really reminded me of the classic Alice ballads like “I Never Cry” and “You and Me” and I really enjoyed this song. “Detroit City” is a great song documenting his history and where he came from while “This House is Haunted” would be very much at home on Welcome to My Nightmare.
So what about the rest of the album? Well, it’s like this. I really wanted to like it but once again, I just felt totally underwhelmed by the majority of this album. “I’m So Angry” is such an annoying song that I couldn’t wait for it to be done but that one aside, the album was just dull to me. It was listenable and had some pretty cool moments (see above) but for the most part just felt kind of flat in songwriting, performance, and production.
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Dirty Diamonds
Release Date: July 4, 2005
The Good: Woman of Mass Distraction, Perfect, You Make Me Wanna, Sunset Babies, Pretty Ballerina, Steal That Car, Six Hours, Zombie Dance
The Bad: The Saga of Jesse Jane,
The Indifferent: Dirty Diamonds, Run Down the Devil, Your Own Worst Enemy,
I really didn’t know what to think going into this album but right out the gates I was pretty impressed. The opening song “Woman of Mass Distraction” was a great song that totally caught me off guard. While I was totally digging this song, I wasn’t digging the production. It sounds so flat and just lifeless with no real dynamics to the sound. That aside, I was kind of taken back by how many of the songs reminded me of classic Alice Cooper band stuff. “Sunset Babies” totally reminded me of something that could’ve been on Billion Dollar Babies while “Pretty Ballerina” could have been Welcome to My Nightmare era stuff. Great song. You know what’s not a great song? “The Saga of Jesse Jane.”Absolutely horrible and not just a bad Alice song but a bad song in general.
The song “Six Hours” just may be one of my favorite Alice Cooper songs that I never knew even existed. What a fucking gem of a song that totally goes back to the “Dwight Fry” days. Aside from this stellar song, nothing about this album made me say, “Wow! I really need to own this one. The good songs are really just that: good. They are quite forgettable and nothing really ever grabbed me. This is just one of those albums that if you’re a completest, by all means go and get this one but really, you’re not missing anything by not having it. I’m glad I gave it a listen though.
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Along Came a Spider
Release Date: July 29, 2008
The Good: Prologue/I Know Where You Live, Vengeance is Mine, Wrapped in Silk, Killed by Love, I’m Hungry, The One That Got Away, Salvation, I Am the Spider/Epilogue
The Bad: Wake the Dead,
The Indifferent: Catch Me if You Can, I’m In Touch With Your Feminine Side,
So I have to say that I was totally caught off guard by Along Came a Spider. This album is the first album of Alice’s in a LONG fucking time to remind of classic Alice as a whole. So many of these songs could have been on Welcome to My Nightmare and this is a good thing. There are a few tunes on this album that I could live without and only one song really stood out as really bad. “I’m Hungry” is such a great song. This song would have been very much at home on School’s Out and to be honest it even kind of reminds me of something that would’ve worked great in Rocky Horror Picture Show. The highlight of the album for me was “Killed By Love” which joins the Alice Cooper ballad family. I’d love to see a compilation of Alice’s ballads as I feel that they are almost always top notch and usually end up being some of my favorites.
All in all, Along Came a Spider is a fun album. The overall concept just kind of fell by the wayside for me as I didn’t really feel like I was listening to a concept album. I could totally see just making a great playlist of Alice songs and pulling the good songs from this album and really enjoying listening to them. This might even turn out to be a grower. I just may even give this one another listen to see if my opinion changes on this one.
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Welcome 2 My Nightmare
Release Date: July 29, 2008
The Good: I Am Made of You (steven), Caffeine, Runaway Train, Last Man on Earth, The Congregation, I’ll Bite Your Face Off, Disco Boogie Bloodbath Fever, Ghouls Gone Wild, Something to Remember Me By, When Hell Comes Home, I Gotta Get Out of Here, The Underture
The Bad:
The Indifferent: The Nightmare Returns,
Welcome 2 My Nightmare is pretty much the album that I’ve been waiting for Alice to make since The Last Temptation. From the opening eerie piano notes of “Steven” that seguqy into “I Am Made of You”, I knew right away that this album was just destined for greatness. This album possess all of the schizophrenic qualities of the original Welcome to My Nightmare that makes it a truly amazing listening experience. From the fun an rollicking “Caffeine” and the psycho country of “Runaway Train” to the vaudeville “Last Man on Earth”, Alice covered all the bases and made a truly captivating and magical album. “What Baby Wants” is fucking great and hell, only Alice Cooper can pull off co-writing a song with Ke$ha and have it come out great. The real highlight for me though is “I Gotta Get Out of Here” co-written with Drive By Truckers’ lead dude Patterson Hood. Yeah, it’s that fucking good.
I know I’m probably going to get shit for this but this album really is a slice of magic. Listening to this album had me feeling so fucking good to be an Alice Cooper fan and it was just such a great listen. I do have to say that I was bummed though that this album was so ignored in the live setting. I’d love to hear some of these tunes live. “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” and “Caffeine” both kick ass live. Hell, I’d love to hear this album in its entirety. Welcome 2 My Nightmare is just proof that Alice is not out of tricks as this is the most exciting and fun album that he’s put out since The Last Temptation. Every Alice fan should own this one without a doubt.
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