Dirty Diamonds - Alice Cooper

On 4 July 2005, the new Alice Cooper album "Dirty Diamonds" was released in the United Kingdom. This is his 27th official album release during his long career than spanned four decades so far. Produced by Steve Lindsey and Rick Boston, the album was recorded and mixed in Los Angeles during February and March of this year.

Alice's career and music style has been versatile, to say the least. He's gone through the motions, ...
...metal - cumulating in his latest two albums that are more or less classified as 'Detroit Garage Rock'. Whilst Alice's previous release, "Eyes of Alice Cooper", appears to be a little bland with its three chord three-minute songs, "Dirty Diamonds" is definitely a notch above the rest and the best album produced since "Brutal Planet". It is also one of those albums that clearly exposes Alice's talent as a singer and clearly ... more

On 4 July 2005, the new Alice Cooper album "Dirty Diamonds" was released in the United Kingdom. This is his 27th official album release during his long career than spanned four decades so far. Produced by Steve Lindsey and Rick Boston, the album was recorded and mixed in Los Angeles during February and March of this year.

Alice's career and music style has been versatile, to say the least. He's gone through the motions, from classic rock to electronic, from glam rock to heavy metal - cumulating in his latest two albums that are more or less classified as 'Detroit Garage Rock'. Whilst Alice's previous release, "Eyes of Alice Cooper", appears to be a little bland with its three chord three-minute songs, "Dirty Diamonds" is definitely a notch above the rest and the best album produced since "Brutal Planet". It is also one of those albums that clearly exposes Alice's talent as a singer and clearly shows the range of his vocal abilities, stretching from melodic and beautiful singing to screaming, from deep barritone to higher pitches. Like with his previous album, this album was simply produced in the studio, without digital enhancement and dubbing, as Alice was keen to retain the original sound of the music.

"Woman Of Mass Distraction " opens up the album with heavy drums and three-chord guitar playing, that resembles something that could be found in the repertoire of nu-rock bands of today. The listener almost expects the track to go into hardrock after the opening, but then it mellows out somewhat. The song is about a man who likes to break women's hearts - then he meets his match in this woman of mass distraction, who is as ruthless as himself.

I have to admit, that initially I did not like the song at all, mainly because it sounds very much like it could have been written by a amateur highschool band. The chorus is far from sophisticated - it starts off alright in terms of lyrics, even though some might find them offensive: "Some girls try to get you in bed, some girls like a kick on the head" - and then it simply falls into a shouting "She's a woman… some kind of woman" . However, once the listener gets over the poor chorus, the song is actually quite enjoyable from a melodical perspective.

"You Make Me Wanna" is more of a middle-of-the-road rock, the kind of thing you want to listen to while driving down the highway and could almost expect from a Tom Petty track laced with a little more of rock music feel. The track conveys the feeling of summer days. Again, the chorus is just a little bit cheesy with words such as "You make me wanna ooh-ooh-ooh". Well, what on earth is that supposed to mean? I am sure you are besotted with this lady… but if all your lyrics on other tracks are so are so strong and direct, why can't you just say what you want to do with her? In the middle there is a very catchy instrumental part. In all, this is a great song to dance and sing along with.

"Perfect" is one of my favorite tracks on the album, after I actually understood what the lyrics meant. A little slower rock, with a very melodical bit of singing, showing how versatile Alice's voice really is. It's very different from any singing I ever heard Alice do before. The melody is almost bordering on country rock, like you would expect from Lynyrd Skynyrd. It also has a bit of the feel from an early Rolling Stone's album. Initially, I thought this song was about a woman who was perfect in bed, but was a very unattractive lady once "the bedroom lights were on". On closer listening, however, the listener realises that the track is really about the 'Pop Idol' phenomenon. A very good looking lady, going on stage - crumbles ones she is in the spot light and is not so perfect after all. From that perspective, the lyrics are very clever and very topical.

"Dirty Diamonds" starts with a slow melodical intro, then goes into a glam-trash/ punky kind of melody, involving a load of keyboards and drums. Alice's voice goes back to a more speaking/ shouting nature, far from the singing on the previous track. It is not one of the best tracks on the album, which is sad, considering that on the Australian leg of Alice's 'Dirty Diamonds' tour, this was actually only one of two tracks of the new album that he played live, the other one being "Woman of Mass Distraction".

"Pretty Ballerina" might be recognised by some people, as it was a hit by a New York City band called 'The Left Banke' during the 1960's. This is a sweet, yet dark, little ballad, again demonstrating the range of Alice vocal abilities. He exhibits a soft, melodic kind of singing. It is a superb little soft track, ideal to sway and dance along to. Alice apparrently loved this song very much when it was first released. As his wife Sheryl was a dancer herself, there is probably a bit of sentimentality involved for him with this song. He himself stated in an interview that the song appealed to the romantic side of him.

Without wanting to put down The Left Banke, I personally felt that Alice's version was a lot better than the original, mainly because the listener can actually decipher the lyrics properly, which I found very hard to do from some of the original Left Banke tracks.

"Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)" sounds a little like a Texas bar saloon song in terms of the melody, especially with the piano bits inserted here and there. It is another one of those great tracks to listen to when travelling in the car during the summer time. It is one of my favorite tracks on the album - even though the chorus to me appears to be something that was forced together in an attempt to rhyme the words, "Sunset babies, all got rabies"? Cancer maybe, burned and wrinkly skin, maybe? But rabies? In any event, the chorus is catchy and bound to stick in your head for a little while after listening to the album. The lyrics are clever, as they often are with Alice - my favorite line being "And I'd buy her a diamond collar, if she's only throw me a bone". There is some speculation that this might be a lyric referring back to Paris Hilton - which is a distinct possibility as Paris Hilton does in fact feature as one of Alice's stage show on his current 'Dirty Diamonds' tour. Incidentally, it has been rumoured that this track may be released as a single.

"Zombie Dance" is another slower track, a bit in the vein of "Pretty Ballerina". It is a track that would very much fit into a movie - such as a horror film that is currently in a lull and where the main characters are about to encounter some scary creature. The track is very southern in style, very melodical and very heavy in sound - it reminds you of a muggy heavy summer day, out in the sun all day, in the heat.

"The Saga Of Jesse Jane" is probably the weirdest and the funniest rack on the whole album. Seasoned Alice fan's will again be stunned by Alice's voice on this track, which suddenly becomes very deep and melodic - unrecognisable from anything else he has done before. Apparently, he tried to make his voice sound like Johnny Cash, hence the country-western type sound of this track. The song is about a cross-dressing cowboy, who is in a Texas town, wearing his sister's wedding gown and carrying his pistol in his wonderbra. The chorus makes the listener chuckle the first few times, when it poses Jesse Jane the question " Jesse Jane, are you insane? Or are you just a normal guy who dresses like a butterfly? Or are you just a Peter Pan, looking for his Neverland?" The verdict is yours, listeners.

"Six Hours" is yet another slow track, with a very muggy and heavy melody and feel, putting it in the same kind of vein of "Zombie Dance" The feeling of the song fits in perfectly with the lyrics - "there is only six hours left in the day", "Got no destination, got nowhere to go". Alice this time puts his vocal range into something that is somwhere between the softness of "Pretty Ballerina" and "The saga of Jesse Jane", again exhibiting his true and underrated vocal talents.

"Steal That Car" is probably the only song on this album that should never have happened. It is probably best classified as a punk track. Those of you who have heard his previous album. "Eyes of Alice Cooper", will probably hear the similarity to "I'm so angry" in the beat. It is a monotonous beat with three chord guitar-playing, that quickly annoys the listener. The chorus is just embarrassing, to say the least. "Everybody knows, I'm gonna steal that car. My reputation shows I'm gonna steal that car". The main lyrics are not much better, "I don't get bored in a Chevy or a Ford", for example, just show how forced rhyming can sometimes go dreadfully wrong. Again, I would put this in a category with "Woman of mass destruction", a track that sounds like it was more or less written by a high school band. Sadly, it was actually written by his current band. If Alice had said that it was written by his son, I may have given it more credit.

"Run Down The Devil" appears to be the favorite track of those fans who have had a chance to listen to the album in advance. This is a song that goes back to the melodies of his heavier albums, "Brutal Planet" and "Dragontown", deeper and heavier in terms of the melody. Alice's voice is melodic, yet a little creepy in its undertone. The track is full of clever little lyrics, such as wanting to take the devil to "the Mercury grill" and making him being "the ultimate road kill". "Kicking his future up his past", sending him "back to hell" - so that the world can sleep at night. The guitar playing on this track matches the mood of the song - riffs that add a bit to the creepiness of Alice's melody - definitely some of the best guitar playing on the entire album.

"Your Own Worst Enemy" is probably my own personal favorite on the album. This is a rocky song, again a little heavier than the rest - it nearly fits in with the "Hey Stoopid" type of sound, however, it is actually a little rougher, as there has not been much dubbing on this album to even out the rougher parts. This is a song that most people can probably relate to quite clearly. It starts of with a teasing lyric, the voice of Alice clearly reflecting the annoyance of the persons who are the subject-matter of the song, "You're your own worst enemy, you're a walking catastrophe. You get up every morning on the wrong side of the bed. You butter your hand instead of your bread. You drink enough coffee to wake up the dead...".

It is almost a teasing song in terms of both sound of the melody and singing - yet, at the same time it is a little cathartic as well, it makes the listener think about the fact that most of the daily annoyances in our lives are caused by nobody but ourselves.

There was a little bit of confusion as to whether "Stand" was going to feature on this album, as it did not appear on the track listing on Amazon. I personally like "Stand" a lot, but I hoped that it would not be featuring on the album, as it really does not fit with the rest of the album. It was originally produced for the Olympics last year and featured on the "Unity" album, but never got much exposure. The track is more of a hard rock/heavy metal type of track, that could have easily fit onto the "Brutal Planet' album in terms of melody, but not in terms of lyrics. The main problem with the track is that it gets disrupted in the middle by some rapping by Xzibit, which on its own would not have been too bad, but as part of the song just ruins the whole experience of listening.

For a while it was believed that the UK album would have another bonus track, "The sharpest pain". It is unclear at this stage whether this track is going to feature on another version of this album. If you are looking to buy this album from amazon.co.uk, please do not be misled by the track listing. The site still lists "The sharpest pain" as a bonus track, but the song does not actually appear on the album.

♦ The verdict ♦

This is an album that can truly be enjoyed by almost everyone - Alice fans, rock music fans, country music fans, ballad fans - it has something for everyone. It also has very few weak link tracks - apart from "Steal that car", every track is catchy and brilliant in its own little way. Now that I have whet your appetite for the UK version of the album, I am sure you will rush out and buy one. And maybe, just maybe, you will be buying an import version of the album, should it be decided that "The sharpest pain" will feature on it. I know I will.

♦ Further informartion ♦

Available from Amazon from for £9.99.
 

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