The Alice Cooper Thread

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Paranormal is pretty damned average as well. Welcome 2 My Nightmare i thought was excellent though.

Much as I dearly love the opening track, I wasn't too keen on W2MN. It's also odd that I got a magazine cd copy that had a bonus track (Under The Bed) that was much better than most of the official album songs.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by SymbioticFunction

Much as I dearly love the opening track, I wasn't too keen on W2MN. It's also odd that I got a magazine cd copy that had a bonus track (Under The Bed) that was much better than most of the official album songs.

That's the version i got too. A Classic Rock fan pack. The mag is good but the cd's are lacking i thought. (I have a Motorhead and Slash one as well) There's never a proper booklet with the cd's, no lyrics, really basic all round.

[SymbioticFunction]

It was worth buying just for the Under The Bed bonus track.

[SymbioticFunction]

Rise arrived 15 mins ago. I've got to get ready for work so won't be able to listen until tonight. However I did quickly skip through the cd out of curiosity and it seems that 4 of the 16 tracks are just 60 secs or so 'sonic doodlings'. So it appears that the album is really just 12 tracks - 9 new songs and 3 cover versions.

[SymbioticFunction]

After just one listen, I'd probably award somewhere around 4/5 to the new Hollywood Vampires album. btw The cd cover looks much better in real life as it uses gold print.

But it's always a bit odd with immediate scores, I'd have to listen again to properly judge - my opinion might well change. The current stand-out tracks seem to be Who's Laughing Now, People Who Died and Congratulations.

Currently undecided if I prefer Paranormal or Rise but as long as it's not another Along Came A Spider (seriously, what the hell happened there??), I'm quite pleased.

I've got some professionally shot for television YouTube Hollywood Vampire gigs stored on my PS3's hard drive and I think I'll rewatch the most recent one on Sunday afternoon whilst my wife is at work (they haven't been officially released so please don't ban me for advocating piracy!).

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

No reason to trust any review.

I only mentioned it because Susan also posts reviews and scores for gigs and releases

You saying you don't trust me?

Thst's nice, I must say!

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Just looked in the latest Kerrang! (Download review issue)

The Vampires album gets 3 K's. Pretty average really.

Originally Posted by SymbioticFunction

Not sure that I trust a Kerrang score.

Some previous Kerrang reviews

Zipper Catches Skin: November 4th, 1982 - Dave Dickson - No number rating, but: "...I suspect Vincent Furnier has lost all control over the monster that is Alice, and, unleashed, the creature appears to be floundering aimlessly without much idea how to use his freedom. A return to 'The Inside', Vincent, would probably do you and Alice the world of good."

Da Da: December 15th, 1983 - Neil Jeffries - No number rating, but "...With further spinning, this could well become a latter day A.C. classic because 'Da Da' already sounds better than anything he's done in yonks. Thank goodness for Alice!!!"

Raise Your Fist And Yell: October 17th, 1987 - Chris Welsh - 4/5 "Dealing more directly with the music, one finds this is a powerful piece of work that Alice rightly considers to be his best in years. Certainly the guitar work by Kane Roberts is packed with string grinding power, and Alice summons every ounce of bile and ire as he soap boxes about 'Give The Radio Back' and threatens 'You're in my way' on 'Step On You'. 'Hello my little pretty, don't we look yeuk!' he slobbers on 'Not That Kind Of Love'."

The Life And Crimes: May 8th, 1999 - 4/5 "but, let's face it, this box set lark is purely for the ardent fan. Nobody's realistically going to fork out a fistful of tenners for an introduction to an artist they don't know - they're gonna a buy a greatest hits album from the bargain bin. And when you get down to assessing the actual music, the rarities/demos content here could be shoved onto a single CD, which is something of a disappointment."

Brutal Planet: June 17th, 2000 - Steve Beebee - 2/5 "These plodding, self-parodying rockers crawl Manson's shadow and are supposedly 'linked' around one theme: that the world is sometimes unpleasant. Not exactly a revelation. The production is glossy enough, but only the sample-infected 'Blow Me A Kiss' - co-written with old Cooper and Kiss cohort Bob Ezrin - exceeds the average. Sadly, the type of mechanical animals Alice Cooper has been left with are the ones with flat batteries."

The Eyes Of Alice Cooper: September 27th, 2003 - Paul Travers - 4/5 "There's no 'Under My Wheels' on here, but 'Man of the Year' and 'What do you want from me' come close and, as the band rip through this funny, raw and sneering collection it soon becomes clear that this is the best AC album in years."

As for the Vampires, I stand by my comments from a few years ago when the project was first announced. In my opinion, they are no more than a gimmick band consisting of one TRUE legend (Alice), one rock hero (Joe [be honest tho, how well known is he outside of Aerosmith?]) and one failed actor (Johnny [I would suggest he hasn't made a good film since 'The Corpse Bride' in 2005]).

I will probably get the 'Rise' album at some point, but I'm willing to wait until it ends up being sold cheap in a charity shop!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Susan Foreman

As for the Vampires, I stand by my comments from a few years ago when the project was first announced. In my opinion, they are no more than a gimmick band consisting of one TRUE legend (Alice), one rock hero (Joe [be honest tho, how well known is he outside of Aerosmith?]) and one failed actor (Johnny [I would suggest he hasn't made a good film since 'The Corpse Bride' in 2005]).

I will probably get the 'Rise' album at some point, but I'm willing to wait until it ends up being sold cheap in a charity shop!

Well Susan it's always been clear you don't like Depp, but to say he's a failed actor is tosh as is saying he' hasn't made a decent film since 2005. To be honest if he hadn't made any films since 2005 he'd still have made a hell of a lot of very good ones before that and could never be classed as a failure.

If we are being petty like that you could also say Alice hasn't made any decent music since Poison - how well known are his songs since then outside of Alice's fan base? You can't have one rule for Perry and one for Alice.

[Rik]

Depp is a great actor and a fantastic musician, I like Hollywood Vampires personally and it’s because of him and Joe Perry, for me it’s Alice Cooper who’s the weakest link in that band

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Well Susan it's always been clear you don't like Depp

I don't recall ever saying I didn't like him

What I do think is that he made some great films up until 'The Corpse Bride' ('Cry-Baby', 'Edward Scissorhands', 'Ed Wood', 'Sleepy Hollow', 'From Hell', 'Curse Of The Black Pearl') and some really awful films after it ('Alice In Wonderland', 'The Lone Ranger', 'Into The Woods', 'Mordecai', 'Alice Through The Looking Glass')

Maybe 'failed actor' was being too harsh, but in my opinion he's certainly made some bad movie decisions over the years

[SymbioticFunction]

I certainly don't want to sound out of order but I would suggest that it's a mistake for a big fan to wait for Alice's 29th studio album to turn up in a charity shop. It's certainly superior to 'Pretties For You', the non-Poison 'Trash' music and the non-Vengeance Is Mine 'Along Came A Spider' music. I don't personally see a Cooper collaboration with Joe Perry, Tommy Henriksen and Johnny Depp as a bad thing. This is a fun album imo and well worth checking out.