CD Odyssey Disc 956: Alice Cooper

Last night Sheila and I went to see Dwight Yoakam. We were pretty excited that he returned after cancelling last year (also, he apologized and explained what happened, which was appreciated).

The show itself was a disappointment, although no fault of Dwight’s. The sound was so terrible you could hardly distinguish song from song. It was a reminder of the dangers of arena rock. Also, here’s a hint to concert goers: your camera flash doesn’t work beyond a few feet. Please turn it off!

Anyway, from a show that was well below my expectations, let’s turn to an album that exceeded them.

Disc 956 is….Welcome 2 My Nightmare

Artist: Alice Cooper

Year of Release: 2011

What’s up with the Cover? It’s an homage to the original “Welcome To My Nightmare” album from 1975 (reviewed back at Disc 449). Alice is looking a bit rougher 35 years later, and now writes his name in blood instead of art deco lettering. Hey, times change.

How I Came To Know It: I am a huge Alice Cooper fan (I’m writing this wearing one of my three Alice Cooper t-shirts), so this was me buying his latest release. Alice has done a couple live albums since this record was released, but no new studio albums, which is a bit of a bummer.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 26 Alice Cooper studio albums. I had originally reserved space for “Welcome 2 My Nightmare” at the bottom of that list, but after giving it a couple of listens, I was pleasantly surprised. That said, Alice Cooper has made a lot of great records, so I can only put it in at #24, slightly edging out “Brutal Planet” (reviewed at Disc 883).

Ratings: 2 stars

If you are long-lived and prolific enough you can start to reference your own mythology. After almost 50 years of making music, Alice Cooper has earned the right to do that, and the material to back it up. “Welcome 2 My Nightmare” isn’t perfect, but it is an album that only Alice Cooper could make. No one else has the right combination of staying power, depth of understanding of what makes hard rock hard, and a willingness to try new things even well into his sixties.

Like the cover art would suggest, the entire album is set up as a long-awaited sequel to Cooper’s first solo album, 1975’s “Welcome To My Nightmare.” My negative reaction when I first heard it was based in making comparisons with that record, a rock masterpiece that has been in my life since I was five years old.

However, on revisiting the record I realized that while Cooper’s attempt at a sequel falls well short of the original, most sequels not titled “The Empire Strikes Back” tend to do that. The very act of making the attempt is intriguing, and it allows Cooper to further develop themes on the original album, while also speaking of his own journey as a performer through the intervening years.

The best example of this (and best song on the record) is the opening track, “I Am Made of You”. The song works lyrically on three levels.

First, as Alice Cooper talking to his other self (Vince Furnier) about how he is not truly a different person (as Cooper sometimes characterizes his alter ego in interviews) but rather a creation he developed himself from his darker parts. As Cooper puts it:

“In the beginning

There was only night…

I was shattered, left in pieces

And I felt so cold inside

But I called you from the darkness

Where I hide.”

A concept many performers wrestle with, but none so creatively or openly as Cooper has over the years (often leading to his self-destructive relationship with substance abuse). Here, an older Cooper looks back at the nightmare he has created, and takes ownership.

Second, the song can be taken as a conversation between Cooper and his audience. A reminder that all those dark things we thrilled to listen to him sing about were the manifestations of our own id, and our own troubled tortured darker selves. “Alice Cooper” the character is empowered as much by our adulation as by the divisionary thoughts of the artist he inhabits.

And third, obviously Cooper is noting that this new record was born out of the nightmares of the original. Throughout, the song has the signature Cooper sound of somewhere between creepy and anthemic, both in just the right proportions.

While the tracks that follow aren’t as strong they do show Cooper gamely pulling in all of the influences he’s absorbed over a half century of making music. The frenetic “Caffeine” hearkens back to his early eighties rock/new wave crossover sound. “The Congregation” feels like his late eighties anthem metal crossed with early Cooper band influences. On “Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever” he even works in disco beats not heard since “Alice Cooper Goes to Hell” with a healthy dose of musical theatre.

Not surprisingly, the strongest influences related back to the original “Nightmare” album, featuring direct musical lines pulled from classics like “Stephen” “The Black Widow” and others. When I first heard these, it irked me, but now I see Cooper is taking old musical arrangements and marrying them to a new sound to create something different.

The album features a fair bit of modern pop influences, and I think I heard some voice modulation effects at one point that felt very out of step with the record. There is even a duet with Ke$ha called “What Baby Wants” which is a marriage between radio pop and Cooper shock rock. I really wanted to not like this song, but damn it’s catchy. I’m filing it under guilty pleasure.

The record is produced by long-time Cooper collaborator, Bob Ezrin. Ezrin just gets Cooper’s crazy brilliance like no one else, and the combination is always magical. The songs on this record aren’t the classics of yesteryear, but they are strong melodically and Ezrin understands that they work better when you take risks with them.

Near the end of the album on “I Gotta Get Outta Here”, Cooper fully reveals his theme; the man in 1975’s nightmare has died. He thinks he’s in a dream, but he’s actually in the afterlife. Maybe it is Cooper’s way of saying that he’s killed the Alice Cooper character, and subsumed it back into himself in a more health pairing. Maybe it is just him thinking this would be a cool way to make the sequel bigger, better and creepier.

The song ends with a chorus singing a catchy little ditty of “what part of dead don’t you get?” and Cooper doing his signature theatre as the incredulous artist trying to talk his way out of the situation. Then an “Underture” which incorporates musical themes from the original album and this one and…we’re out!

Or we should be. My disc has four more bonus tracks (mostly live) that add over 17 minutes of material and push the album over 70 minutes total. It makes the whole thing feel bloated, so I prefer to stop listening at “Underture”, when the CD Odyssey rules aren’t compelling me otherwise.

A quick note on the actual physical CD. Even though we live in a digital age, Cooper continues to give fans a great CD booklet, with lyrics, high production values and lots of creepy art. Thanks for taking care of the little things, Alice.

Best tracks: I Am Made of You, The Congregation, When Hell Comes Home, What Baby Wants, I Gotta Get Outta Here