Welcome To My Nightmare (Expanded Edition) [Remastered] - Alice Cooper > Reviews > I think you're gonna find that you belong....

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	-
Disadvantages:	-

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is probably Alice Cooper's most famous album, but don't slap it in your CD player expecting the intricate hard rock of the early 1970's stuff, or the amped-up later 80's stuff either. Alice is a consumate showman and this is pure vaudeville, especially the first five tracks. He even throws in a touching ballad, Only Women Bleed, for good measure.

Alice and the band had parted company, so America being America, the lawyers were called in, he bought the name Alice Cooper for the sake of future royalties (his given name is Vincent Furnier) recruited Lou Reed's backing band and producer Bob Ezrin, and brought out this album in February 1975. It was a huge sucess, going multi-platinum and reaching the US top 5 Promoting the record was done on the back of a now-famous TV show of the same name, aired on the ABC network on 25 April 1975, with a huge 47-date tour of North America following. That show is itself avaliable now on DVD.

The slow and sleazy title track has a fab slithering bassline and spoken-word lyrics. "Welcome to my nightmare.....I think you're gonna like it....I think you're gonna feel, you belong...." When I saw Alice at Reading in 1987 this was played fast and was very heavy, nothing at all like the version on the album.

Devils Food and The Black Widow intermingle with each other. On its own Devils Food is not very good but it complements The Black Widow perfectly, this has Vincent Price, the famous English horror film star, essaying just what the spider means to him and how it will rise to take over the earth!! Great stuff and Alice reminds us that we'll all be "humanary stew, if we don't pledge allegiance to.......THE BLACK WIDOW!!" Total ham, of course, but so good.

Some Folks is a bizarre tune indeed. It's done almost in the style of a Broadway musical, all finger clicking and percussion, with a singalong coda, "baby, baby come on and save me..." I have no doubt that David Lee Roth had this song in mind when he recorded "I Don't Want Nobody" on his late 80's solo album. A famous Alice hit, Only Women Bleed, is a sad little song about women (never!!!) and from a man so versed in gore it's really touching.

The "proper" songs start with the fabaroonie Department Of Youth, my favourite track on here. Alice is joined by a kid's chorus as he reprises a theme along the lines of his earlier hit "Elected". Watch out for this great bit at the end,

Alice sings "who's got the power?"
kids: "we have!!!"
Alice: "and who gave it to you?"
kids "Donny Osmond!!!"
Alice, "what?????"

if you listen carefully (it's on fade out) you can just hear the rest of the band fallling about laughing.

Cold Ethil is another fun track, a straight forward short rocker about necrophilia. Kids, that's having sex with dead people! Ethil, being dead, is Alice's perfect partner because she "don't have nothing to say....."

The following three tracks are a kind of suite with a linked theme. Years Ago has a squeezebox backing over a waltz, very creepy, leading straight into Steven, who we find out is a schizo, "I'm a little boy.....no, I'm a great big man......" listen to this with headphones for full effect, this has a great chilly feel, all echoed vocals, Steven's mommy calling "I'm home...."

We find out just who Steven is in The Awakening, a big dramatic number with the brass and string sections to the fore. If this song hasn't already been used in a horror film I'd be very surprised. The Awakening shows that Steven is now a wife murderer. "Following a trail of frozen spots leading me to the knife......." All bass effects and piano.

Escape, the last number, does seem a bit tacked on, but it's 2 and a half minutes of straightforward rock which is fun to listen to.

That's the album, and it's a great bit of Alice history. Highly recommended.

For some reason this CD seems to be a lot more expensive than others - I've seen it going for £8.99 (Amazon) or even £12.99 (Play.com). However your ever-thrifty Mr Pink got his for £4.25 off ebay - all the way from Belarus! It took four weeks to arrive. You couldn't make it up.

"We're the department of youth, we got the power............"