Los Angeles / give me Norfolk, Virginia / dial one oh four ten oh nine / tell the folks back home th...
Los Angeles / give me Norfolk, Virginia / dial one oh four ten oh nine / tell the folks back home this is the promised land calling / and the poor boy is on / the line
Member since:17.02.2004
Reviews:159
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What is going on? An album from the Coop with no Vincent Price, no mention of spiders or ghoulies or axes dripping with blood? Is that legal?
Recorded in 1980 at a time when the Coop's career, not to mention general health, was in serious decline, it sees him updating his sound with a glossy hi-tech production courtesy of Roy Thomas Baker. Several times during the course of this album (which clocks in at barely half an hour) it brings to mind those early 1980's videos. You know, the kind of ones where skinny Americans in even skinnier ties prance around in front of dazzling flourescent lights, whilst some twat in sunglasses trys to look cool by standing in front of a synth and hitting the keys one at a time.
Baker also produced The Cars first album, and this sounds uncannily similar. The music, as such, leans more towards the sound of those 80's US bands like Quarterflash, Loverboy and Marshall Hain......ie glossy, overproduced and ultimately soulless. The saving grace is the usual Cooper self-deprecating ironic lyrics. Was there a band? Dunno, it all sounds fed through a Fairlight to me. OK we have Alice Cooper (vocals), and Mr Fairlight (synths, bass vocoder, treated guitars and electro drums). Job done!
The one truly great track on here is a cover - Clones (We Are All)......sounding very much like Gary Numan's "Cars".. if you follow the Pink credo that an album where the cover version is the best song on it automatically means that album is shite (and that's a credo that has served me well down the years), bear in mind poor Mr C's condition during this album recording. Because the next track, Pain, is lyrically one of Alice's finest recordings. "I'm the lump in your head when you step on the rake", sings poor Alice. This is from a man who's come from multiuplatinum status (1975's Welcome To My Nightmare) to being a footnote in just five short years. Model Citizen is pure hilarious, self-mocking Alice Cooper at his very best. "I'm a friend of Sammy Davis......casually....(he's a model citizen)....I think I've got them fooled again....."
Do you really want a track by track review? No, suffice to say that this is still driving rock, but tempered with such hi-tech production that it sounds it could have been recorded yesterday. Nowadays it would be called electro-rock. And it would be hugely popular. But Alice was just one of many artists who found themselves at a crossroads at the dawn of the 80's, with the punk and new wave cutting the ground from under their feet. He would disappear in a welter of alcohol, drugs and mind problems before a triumphant return later in the decade. But it's safe to say the world wasn't ready for these sounds at the time.
After reading lots of bad reviews of this, I'll admit I actually quite like it. It's short and slick enough not to get boring and it's so obviously not an Alice album in the true sense that instead it feels like an experiment. Certainly it won't be to everyones taste, even long-time Coop fans, but given the current trend for all things early 80's (Franz Ferdinand, Duran Duran etc) if you like that stuff give this a try - you might be pleasantly surprised.
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From what I've heard of Alice Cooper I've always thought of him more as an AOR-with-extra-guitars comedy turn than a serious musician, although he has produced a few good songs over the years. I hadn't realised he went through something approximating to a Duran Duran phase as well. I wonder if the snakes in his stage act at the time had to wear ruffles and make up. I heard him interviewed by Jonathan Ross recently and he came over very well, although the featured tracks from his new album were very formulaic and I came away with the impression that he's more interested in playing golf than making music now. Shame, as formulaic music or not he's still an entertaining performer.
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