{"id":37720,"date":"2003-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-09-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-eyes-of-alice-cooper\/"},"modified":"2003-09-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-09-30T00:00:00","slug":"the-eyes-of-alice-cooper","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-eyes-of-alice-cooper\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eyes Of Alice Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first few years of the 21st century have seen Alice Cooper’s
\nbusiest creative period since the late 1980’s. To quickly recap, in
\nlate 1999, the sprawling four-disc career spanning box set,
\nThe Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper<\/i>, was released, bringing
\nrock music’s greatest shock rocker (and just plain overall great
\nrocker) back into the spotlight after several years in obscurity.
\nThis was quickly followed up by the critically-acclaimed
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> studio album in 2000, Cooper’s first disc of
\nnew material in six years. Year 2001 saw the release of both a new
\ngreatest hits package (
\nMascara & Monsters: The Best Of Alice Cooper<\/i>), and
\nBrutal Planet<\/i>‘s conceptual continuation, the studio album
\nDragontown<\/i>. And in a truly shameless plug, you can go and
\nenjoy reading my reviews of all the albums mentioned above
\nright here<\/a> on the Daily Vault, in the
\narchives.<\/p>\n

So, with the Halloween season of 2003 upon us, Alice Cooper
\nreturns once again with another palette of fresh new music that
\nclearly demonstrates that he is still in the zone of superb
\nsongwriting quality that began with his
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> comeback 3 years ago.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the somewhat misleadingly titled
\nThe Eyes Of Alice Cooper<\/i> (sounds more like something you’d
\ncall a greatest hits compilation, doesn’t it?) is Cooper’s 23rd
\nstudio album in a career that now spans 35 years, and it is the
\nfourth straight disc that has no filler. That’s certainly no small
\nfeat for an artist who’s been around for such a long time,
\nespecially one who has arguably been through as many phases as
\nDavid Bowie.<\/p>\n

Before I continue, I should explain that the
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> storyline was conceived as a trilogy, and
\nalthough
\nThe Eyes Of Alice Cooper<\/i> follows the first two albums of
\nthat trilogy (
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> and
\nDragontown<\/i>), it is NOT the conclusion of the story. Cooper
\nsaid he simply wanted to take a breather and release nothing more
\nthan a collection of uplifting, meat and potatoes rock ‘n roll
\nsongs, with no concept in sight, before returning to complete the
\nBrutal Planet<\/i> trilogy in the future.<\/p>\n

Inspired by the current successful wave of retro-garage rock
\nbands like The White Stripes, The Hives, The Datsuns, and The Yeah
\nYeah Yeahs, among others, Cooper wanted to revisit the raw,
\nabrasive sound of his early 70’s masterpieces like Love It To Death
\nand Killer, which along with seminal albums from hard\/garage rock
\ncontemporaries of that time like The Stooges, MC5, and the New York
\nDolls, provided the blueprint for the current successful wave I
\nmentioned above.<\/p>\n

Now, you might think that the embrace a style of music that by
\nits nature is created and performed by adolescents by a man of
\nCooper’s age would likely result in a very out-of-touch,
\nembarrassing attempt by an old rocker to recapture the glory of his
\nyouth. After all, unpolished garage rock, the forerunner of the
\npunk movement, was a reaction against mature, commercialized music,
\nfull of energy and power and reckless abandon, sometimes with
\npolitical rebellion along for the ride, and other times just for
\nfun.<\/p>\n

Against the odds,
\nThe Eyes Of Alice Cooper<\/i> is awash with this youthful spirit
\nfrom beginning to end. In a bold move to capture the necessary
\nurgency for the album, Cooper recorded the entire album live in the
\nstudio with his backing band in a mere two weeks, an unheard of
\nspeed in the recording process these days. There are virtually no
\noverdubs – approximately 20 takes of one song a day were recorded,
\nand they picked the version they liked the best. Very efficient
\nwithout any unnecessary tinkering, the resulting fresh, live sound
\ncrackles with purpose and passion.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview Cooper stated that although he is
\nphysically 55 years old, his health has never been better and that
\nmentally he doesn’t feel a day over 18. The effortlessness with
\nwhich he was able to write 13 tracks brimming with youth on this
\nnew release is perfect evidence of that. His vocals have quite
\npossibly never sounded better, and he infuses them with a
\nridiculous number of different personalities to fit the nature of
\nthe song in question.<\/p>\n

Fast, powerful and raw guitar riffs adorn the majority of songs
\nwith bluesy little licks thrown into the little spaces here and
\nthere. This, combined with loads of catchy verse and chorus
\nmelodies and Cooper’s usual brilliant, satirical lyrics make for a
\nridiculously enjoyable listening experience.<\/p>\n

Some of the album highlights include the witty opener, “What Do
\nYou Want From Me,” a song essentially lampooning the typical
\nwhite-trash lifestyle, “Man Of The Year,” a satirical knockdown of
\narrogant know-it-alls, the wonderfully addictive first single,
\n“Novocaine,” a very jaded look at failed relationships, and the
\nhorn driven “Bye Bye Baby,” which brings to mind his 1971 classic
\n“Under My Wheels.” The obligatory ballad this time around is the
\nfantastic “Be With You A While.” Alice Cooper has never written a
\nmediocre ballad, but this one in particular stands apart with its
\nuse of a Hammond organ keeping Cooper’s sentimental vocals company
\nin what has to be one of his finest compositions.<\/p>\n

Legendary MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer drops by to supply riffs on
\n“Detroit City,” Cooper’s affectionate tribute to the original mecca
\nof garage rock, in which alongside himself he name drops the likes
\nof Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Kid Rock and
\nEminem, as peers who have all had important early successes
\nthere.<\/p>\n

“This House Is Haunted” brilliantly revisits the demented,
\npsychotic, heavily theatrical side of Cooper’s past, sounding like
\nit could have been an unreleased track from the 1975
\nWelcome To My Nightmare<\/i> album sessions. I can’t begin to
\ndescribe how awesome this song is. Cooper softly sings an
\nunsettling, ghostly melody to the accompaniment of nothing but
\nalternating acoustic guitar and mandolin, with an eerie sounding
\nclarinet along for the ride. Chilling stuff! I really wish he would
\nmake an entire album in this style.<\/p>\n

Of course no true Alice Cooper album would be complete without
\nthe inclusion of a track so hilarious that it will have you laugh
\nout loud. Here that track is “The Song That Didn’t Rhyme,” an
\nabsurd number teasingly poking fun at the awful songwriting and
\nmusicianship commonly found in mediocre bands. The line where
\nCooper sings about the “drummer always being out of time” right as
\nthe drum fill fumbles awkwardly in the background is a classic
\nmoment.<\/p>\n

There is doubt that
\nThe Eyes Of Alice Cooper<\/i> is yet another in a long line of
\nmust-have releases for not only fans of Alice Cooper, but also for
\nanyone looking to become one. After having spent the previous few
\nalbums exploring very heavy subject matter surrounded by extremely
\ndark, punishing music, with this release he returns to the musical
\nstyle that made him famous, and I’ll be damned if it isn’t the most
\npurely joyous, FUN album he’s made since those early years. Easily
\none of the best discs of 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":26484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5676],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37720","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-alice-cooper","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37720","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=37720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52140,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37720\/revisions\/52140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37720"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37720"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}