Alice Cooper : "the Revenge of Alice Cooper"

 The first album with the original Alice Cooper band since "Muscle of Love".  Bob Ezrin is also producing it. The first song, "Black Mamba" was the first single released from the album. Does it perfectly capture the fire enough that it picks up where they left off on "Muscle of Love"? Almost, it is pretty energetic for a band in their mid-70s who have not played together since the 70s. I like the first song better than "Wild Ones." This is because it is darker, and darker is what sets them apart from other bands on "Love It To Death". 

For 77, Neal Smith's drumming is solid, though "Up All Night"  feels more AC/DC  than what these guys used to do, and Cooper's vocals are way up front, and we have 77 year 77-year-old Alice singing about how he can keep it up all night. Um, ok.  'Kill the Flies ' finds things starting off with a creepier atmosphere before going into more 4 on floor rock n roll. Cooper's vocal does bring back a more theatrical feel. The chorus could be better. Just think of the songs this has to stand up against if you think I am being too critical. There are things like harmonies that sound like they have not aged. 

''One Night Stand' is darker, which is an improvement, and lyrically it's about a serial killer, which is better than him diving back into the "Poison" mood of his hair metal albums he went on to make without these guys. "Blood On the Sun" feels like a cross between a country song and the Doors, mixed with their more rock strut. Cooper's voice sounds amazing for his age. The arrangement might not be as progressive as their earlier work, but it takes some interesting twists and turns. "Crap That Gets in the Way of Your Dreams" makes fun of rock songs and struggling musicians with little self-awareness.  It is almsot as mean-spirited in its social commentary as Frank Zappa, but effective. 

"Famous Face" is another song that finds them grooving more than expected. It feels a little like early punk but with a more depressed attitude. This makes sense considering they came up playing with bands like the Stooges. His voice once again wins the day for "Money Screams."They pull from varied sides of what they once did with "What a Syd" sounding like it could have come from 'School's Out'. Then "Intergalactic Vagabond Blues" sounds more like a jam than a song, as it is not the most focused thing on the album. 

As for rocking out, they next another stab at straight-up rock n roll with "What Happened to You". He has been chasing more of a garage rock jam feel on some of his other, more recent albums, so things like this are not a surprise, but I prefer it when he takes a harder edge. He comes closer to this on "I Ain't Done Wrong," though there's more of a blues feel to the overall mood.  "See You On the Other Side" is more melodic than some of the rock jamming they were doing in the album's latter half. I will give this one a 9.5, so not at the level of his most classic work, but way better than other rockers close to his age are doing, it's closer to "Muscle of Love" than it is "Love it to Death" which might play into why I am not blown away by it, as it's not what I expected, but still congruent with what these guys used to do. 

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Alice Cooper : "Paranormal"

Alice Cooper was my second concert as a kid so we go back a ways. This new album finds him  going for a sound more akin to his later 70's work and less of the overt metal he had been stomping around in since his return in the 80's. I am not sure if it's the production or not , but his voice sounds amazing. It's like these are vocals lifted right from the 70s. Perhaps these are the paranormal powers at play and the christian golfer was just a joke and Vincent sold his sold his soul to the devil to retain the voice of his youth. If so it's worth it because I almost can't believe my ears. While he sounds good I am not sure of the Hendrix like funk that propels "Dead Flies" . Bob Ezrin is working with Cooper again which helps him find his way back to his more classic sound. "Fireball" is just well written rock song. There is a filter on his voice which sets him back into the mix along side the guitars. It's good to hear him singing more and not just relying on what had become his trademarked gritty narrative.

He steps out of the 70s and into his take on modern radio rock with "Paranoiac Personality". He steps back into a more familiar role vocally to blend this with his more post- Trash body of work. The backing vocals even remind me a little of Def Leppard.  "Dynamite Road" is the first song that I am digging because it sounds like a cross between "the Devil Went Down to Georgia" and "Radar Love" and is not really the kind of rock that Alice does best. "Private Public Breakdown" is an improvement, but not as strong as the first few songs, opting for a more Rolling Stones school of rock. "Holy Water" is not totally removed from some of the other songs Alice has acquired over the years, but it it's not my favorite either. It did grow on me on the second listen. "Rats" is another case of where it's not totally out of left field for him and while he does cover a wide range of rocks many flavors, this one is just to vanilla for me.

The more Pink Floyd / Dada like tone of "the Sound of A" is more satisfying for me as it's darker and seems to wink and the weird new wave time period of Alice that I love. The last two songs are preformed with the original Alice Cooper band, who have preformed in the past as Billion Dollar Babies/ He plays it pretty safe on the cross dressing ode "Genuine American Girl" where he claims to be only 30 out of 50 shades of gray. "You and All Your Friends" captures the more radio friendly sound of classics like "Elected" or perhaps to a less bombastic extent "Under my Wheels" Lyrically one of the smarter songs as Alice makes a political statement more veiled than some he might have espoused in the past. The playing of the Alice Cooper band on these songs is failry conservative and far from the more progressive slant of an album like "Killer". The same could be said for this album as a whole, it starts very strong and show a more melodic side as it progresses sinks into a safer rock n roll formula. So I'll round it up to an 8.5 for now , but that is lagging way behind his more classic work.  '