Well, who on Earth would have thought that after breaking a long
\nsix year silence in 2000 with the stunning
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> album that Alice Cooper would follow up with
\nhis next studio album barely a year later in October 2001?
\nThankfully for him and for us, he realized that he was in a
\nsongwriting zone with
\nBrutal Planet<\/i>, an album that many critics considered his
\nbest work in many years, perhaps even since his early 70’s peak,
\nand he wisely chose to strike while the proverbial iron was hot,
\ncreating
\nDragontown<\/i>, another concept album dealing with mankind’s
\ngradual downfall. Musically and thematically, it’s a direct sequel
\nto
\nBrutal Planet<\/i>.<\/p>\n
One could forgive Alice for not being able to match the power
\nand ferocity of
\nBrutal Planet<\/i>, but in terms of overall quality,
\nDragontown<\/i> comes astonishingly close. While sonically it
\ncontains many of the intense industrial-tinged elements of
\nBrutal Planet<\/i>, such as the proliferation of ultra-heavily
\nlayered and distorted downtuned jackhammer guitar riffs, thunderous
\nrhythms, and ominous low end rumbles amid Alice’s tortured vocals,
\nDragontown<\/i> is much more musically diverse than its
\npredecessor. It sounds somewhat as if Alice had taken the modern
\nindustrio-metallic punch he discovered on
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> and applied that sound to various quirky
\nstyles that he has experimented with in the past, in addition to
\nexperimenting with several contemporary trends, creating yet
\nanother album in his insanely lengthy discography that sounds
\ndifferent from all the others. How a 53 year old rocker like Cooper
\nmanages to sound fresh and inventive with each release simply
\namazes me.<\/p>\n
According to Cooper, Dragontown is the worst single place on the
\nfictional Brutal Planet, and each song is a unique tale of fallen
\nangels with the roots firmly placed in thinly disguised real-life
\ntargets that he relentlessly criticizes through another serving of
\ningenius lyrics…some might find his current style a tad preachy,
\nbut at least he’s promoting a very positive message by exposing the
\nevils in society through the application of brilliant sarcasm that
\nhe has always been a master at.<\/p>\n
People who were a little overwhelmed by
\nBrutal Planet<\/i>‘s unflinchingly serious approach and intense
\ndual bombardment of a thrashingly violent sound and venomous lyrics
\nwill no doubt rejoice that while
\nDragontown<\/i> is often just as hard hitting both sonically and
\nlyrically. Alice’s patented cynical tongue in cheek sense of humour
\nis on full display again on many of the album’s tracks.<\/p>\n
The tale begins with “Triggerman”, a supercharged fast tempoed
\nheavy rocker that instantly smacks the listener in the head with
\nits roaring layers of guitars and Alice’s distorted, growling
\nvocals. The wonderful energy on this song shows that Alice is more
\nthan capable of competing with today’s rock young guns. I also love
\nthe inclusion of many highly melodic guitar lines buffering the
\nmain explosive heavy riffs.<\/p>\n
“Deeper” sounds similar to the song “Brutal Planet” with an
\nassortment of dark shredding riffs, military style beats and sombre
\ngothic chants. The song paints an unbelievably dark mood, and works
\nperfectly as the theatrical sounding descent into hell (ie.
\nDragontown) that it was meant to be as part of the storyline. I
\nlove the way the album unfolds, with each song feeling like a
\nnatural link to the next.<\/p>\n
“Dragontown”, as the title of the track suggests, is our arrival
\nin a godless, apocalyptic place where we begin our journey of
\nmeeting its numerous interesting inhabitants, who are destined to
\nremain there for all eternity as punishment for their sins. I now
\nmust warn readers that anyone who is particularly sensitive about
\nthe Sept. 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. might find this
\nsong disturbing. The music is about as creepy as it gets, and the
\nlyrics, considering that they were written months before the
\ntragedy, hit startlingly close to home: “Well, here you are \/ lying
\nbleeding on a grimy street \/ see the broken glass \/ sparkling
\ndarkly as it cuts your feet \/ smell the rotting stench \/ the rancid
\nodour of old Cantonese \/ reflections of the shattered dreams \/ feel
\nthe toxic flames all around you \/ you can hardly breathe.”
\nPhew…that’s pretty intense.<\/p>\n
The dire mood gets no lighter as we reach “Sex, Death And
\nMoney”, one of the album’s standout tracks, and maybe one of
\nCooper’s best ever, drenched with vintage cynical tongue in cheek
\nsarcasm as he sings: “When I go to the show \/ all I see on the
\nscreen is a stream of pure vulgarity \/ I wrote down a note \/ I
\ncomplained for a day to the House of Representatives \/ they laughed
\nin my face \/ they said son, you’re a one in a million minority \/
\nthe name of the game \/ is to titilate the brain and stimulate the
\nimmorality.”<\/p>\n
The chorus continues: “I was so offended as I sat for three
\nhours \/ it was mental cruelty \/ I was so shocked \/ just a little
\nmore flesh \/ just a little more blood \/ a little closer to the edge
\n\/ a little deeper in the mud \/ I’ll never be the same \/ sex, death
\nand money, sonny, makes this wicked world go round \/ sex, death and
\nmoney, it’s the gospel here in Dragontown.” I don’t think more
\nneeds to be shown to illustrate that Alice is on a roll here, and
\nmusic perfectly suits the theme, with a very sleazy, pelvic
\nthrusting rhythm that would be perfect for grinding on a
\ndancefloor. The vocal melodies are highly catchy without ver
\nsounding commercial as well. What an awesome song.<\/p>\n
“Somewhere In The Jungle” has Alice berating the apathy of
\naverage Americans when it comes to world affairs, using the recent
\nsavage massacres in Rwanda of hundreds of thousands of people as an
\nexample over which nobody in our isolated selfish society batted so
\nmuch as an eyelash. Very powerful lyrics once again, as Alice finds
\nhimself in full take-no-prisoners mode. The music fittingly sounds
\nas eerie as you’d expect hell on earth to sound.<\/p>\n
The most enjoyable track on
\nDragontown<\/i> in my opinion is “Disgraceland”, which makes me
\nlaugh out loud every time I listen to it, and along with “I Love
\nAmerica”, this has to be one of the funniest songs Cooper has ever
\nwritten. The lyrics are a very mean spirited suggestion in no
\nuncertain terms that Elvis Presley’s last years and untimely death
\nwere pathetic. To add insult to injury, Alice sings all the verses
\nin one of the most surprisingly convincing Elvis impersonations
\nI’ve ever heard…I swear you’ll be on the floor listening to this
\nstuff…fantastic! I certainly wouldn’t be suprised if you start
\nseeing Elvis fanatics picketing Alice Cooper concerts!<\/p>\n
“Sister Sara” is another hilarious story, this time about the
\nindiscreet carnal adventures of a nun! The weirdest thing about the
\nsong is that it begins with sludgy Korn-style percussive guitar
\nriffs, and Alice actually *raps* the verses. Now, before you staple
\nthat hand to your forehead and whine about Alice pandering to the
\nrap-metal crowd, I have to say that he not only pulls it off
\nwithout sounding like a fart in the wind, but the lyrics are
\nhilarious! I love the sudden shift to an innocent, mellow waltz
\ntimed section with the angelic voices of a girl’s choir. Now
\nthat<\/i> is twisted!<\/p>\n
Part of what makes these songs so much fun to listen to is that
\nyou get a strong sense that Alice was truly having a great time
\nrecording this music. He doesn’t just sing; he adds expressive
\ncharacter to seemingly every note. Just hearing a performer with so
\nmuch confidence and unique personality makes the listening
\nexperience a true joy…it’s almost like Alice is right there
\nbeside you, personally guiding you through a trip into his
\nunorthodox mind!<\/p>\n
The required Alice ballad is found in the form of “Every Woman
\nHas A Name,” a soft acoustic number with a sentimental melody in
\nthe fine tradition of the classic “Only Women Bleed”. It’s an
\nexcellent song once again…man, does Cooper even know how to screw
\nup a ballad? He certainly hasn’t lost a thing in terms of
\nsongwriting diversity.<\/p>\n
“It’s Much Too Late” throws us another musical curveball,
\nsounding like something you’d expect more from Semisonic or one of
\nthose more generic mainstream pop rock bands with it’s predictable,
\nsimple chord sequence. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great song
\nand very catchy, but I never imagined hearing Alice tackle this
\nstyle. Of course, he adds a twist that only he’s capable of, when
\nthe chorus suddenly embraces a tricky overlap of unconventional
\nchords that sound very Beatle-esque…a beautiful change of pace
\nwhich adds a snappy theatrical element to a song that started off
\nin a very misleadingly straight forward manner, despite hilarious
\nlyrics and a geeky singing voice adopted by Alice for the character
\nbeing portrayed.<\/p>\n
“The Sentinel” ends the disc on decidedly moody note, with a
\nreturn to ear-shattering, brutal riffs and more disturbing lyrics
\nthat once again are eerily reminiscent of the recent terrorist
\nattacks. Judging by the way Cooper decapitated the seemingly rising
\noptimism of the album towards the end with one fell swoop, I’d say
\nit’s a safe bet that we can expect a sequel to
\nDragontown<\/i> in the future.<\/p>\n
Well, I must say that Alice Cooper has definitely struck upon
\nanother creative high early in the 21st century, and if he
\ncontinues to craft masterpieces such as
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> and now
\nDragontown<\/i> in the future, then it will indeed be society’s
\nloss if they continue to be ignored. I highly urge anyone to start
\ntheir Alice Cooper collection with
\nDragontown<\/i>, an engrossing album from start to finish that
\ncontains a depth rarely seen in rock these days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":26024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5676],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37235","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-alice-cooper","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37235"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37235"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}