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Featured Review:
Welcome 2 My Nightmare — Alice Cooper |
Review by The Seeker
When a band makes a sequel to a popular album it usually wreaks to me of desperation or foolhardiness. I don't really see Alice as desperate or foolish, though. And to a certain extent, it can really erode an artist's legacy. Unless, of course, the sequel is great. Which, I'm pleased to say, is the case here. This album not only enhances my opinion of Alice Cooper, but GREATLY enhances my opinion of producer and the co-writer of the bulk of the material, Bob Ezrin. Bob has really outdone himself with this gem. He has positioned Alice for greatness and then Alice has done the rest.
Although the album is a pretty good piece of work from front to back, there is not too much that is new or surprising except for the opener "I am made of you", which is an unbelievably gorgeous piano piece that features Alice on auto tune (which I am not an opponent of, BTW) and is just outstanding. Now, Alice has done ballads before (and does on this album as well with the song "Something to remember me by"), but this one is a full blown epic moody hard guitar rock ballad. And it really gets this album off to a big bang. To not much surprise, the songwriting genius Desmond Child kicked in on this one as
well. Alice shows up next with "Caffeine", a vintage (read early 70's) slammer, that kind of sets the lyrical tune of the album about a man that states "I know inside that if I close my eyes it will be the death of me". Nightmare (on Elm Street) indeed!
Eventually, our hero does fall asleep and "The Nightmare Returns" reprises the opening theme:
"I'm a little tired and feeling hazy, I just need to rest my eyes"
"But I won't go to sleep because it's crazy, what happens to me in the night"
"Cause when I go to deep into my slumber, ugly faces, awful places, I don't want to go"
"No"
The nightmare theme continues with songs like "A Runaway Train" ("Now I'm sleeping in the graveyard on the wrong side of the dirt"), "The Congregation" (which visits various "rooms" in Hell occupied with Wall Streeters, lawyers, and telemarketers), the bouncy "Ghouls Gone Wild" (pun intended which meshes Eddie Cochrane with any surf movie song ever), the hilarious "Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever" which apparently expouses the theory that when disco died it went straight to hell. Literally. And my god, after this one finishes with the rap parts, you should hear the sonic boom finish. Wow! The band also beats The Rolling Stones at their own game with "I'll bite your face off".
When I heard "Last Man on Earth", I literally wept with joy:
"I can take this town and just burn it to the ground, smash every window that I see"
"I can smoke, I can drink, I can swear and I can stink"
"There ain't no one to bother me"
"Don't need to care about tomorrow, I got no pain, I got no sorrow"
"I'm the last man on earth, so tell me what's it worth, am I beggar or a king?"
"Got no trouble, got no time, eternity is mine"
"I've got a whole lot of everything"
All I can envision is Burgess Meredith in that classic episode of The Twilight Zone where he is the only man left on earth and is overjoyed. At least temporarily. When Hell Comes Home" is really dark, and it really different from the other tunes, which are less serious and more comical. It's about a boy with an abusive father that decides one day that enough is finally enough. Not really a crime in my opinion. What is a crime is that you will never hear "What Baby Wants" on the radio, which is so catchy and GREAT, it's stupid. Ke$ha sings on and was one of the co-writers of this monster (pun intended) hit
(at least in my mind).
Another interesting fact about this album is that playing on a few cuts on this album is the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper Band (Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith) who didn't play on the original "Nightmare" and Steve Hunter (who did) plus tons of other lumineries such as Vince Gill, Kip Winger, Rob Zombie and John 5.
The album winds down with the awesome closer "I gotta get out of here" which hits an explosive climax that explains the whole nightmare which is followed by the "credit music" piece "The Underture", which is a great theme instrumental music piece tying musical themes from both the original nightmare and this one. Although there were several fantastic albums I've reviewed this year, this might be my pick for album of the year.
If you like Alice Cooper, concept albums or theatrical rock, buy this now. Right now. Don't wait another second. And for god's sake, don't fall asleep.
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