tracklist
01. I’m Alice
02. Welcome To The Show
03. All Over The World
04. Dead Don’t Dance
05. Go Away
06. White Line Frankenstein
07. Big Boots
08. Rules Of The Road
09. The Big Goodbye
10. Road Rats Forever
11. Baby Please Don’t Go
12. 100 More Miles
13. Magic Bus



good tune, I hear hints of Elected in there. It's pretty fuckin' cool The Coop is still making new music and touring at age 75.

Yeah, I hear the hints of Elected. The vocals remind me of Space Pirates. Production is a bit muddy, but the song is fairly good overall. Looking forward to what the band songs sound like (only Ryan had a hand in this one).

The track list might hint that this is the last Alice Cooper album (especially 'The Big Goodbye'). He's 75 years old, yet he still rocks.

It's not planned to be the last album. He's already confirmed that there's another one in the works (word is it could be with the original group). All the songs on this are to do with life on the road.

Good track.

Coincidental that I'm actual on an Alice Cooper kick right now, having just purchased all of his earliest albums.

Never heard of Elected before though.

This should be another great record - as everything in his catalogue is.

You really think that? Perhaps it depends on how you define great, but out of 28 albums, you don't think there's any that are merely good, decent, average, or poor?

It might be bit of an exaggeration, but other than Pretties for You, I genuinely like the other 27 albums. Every single one has stuff on it that I listen to regularly. Alice has the best discography of any artist - it's super varied, and he generally beats others at their own game depending on which style he is emulating. I have my complaints about his work (particularly the last decade, even though I like all of those albums), but he consistently manages to write songs that rank amongst my favourites every time he puts out a new album.

I like them all except for Pretties For You and Easy Action. I posted this in another thread but if anybody fells like copying and pasting the list and doing their own fav from each album, I'd be curious to see what others think.

Pretties For You –
Easy Action –
Love It To Death – Is It My Body
Killer – You Drive Me Nervous
School’s Out – My Stars
Billion Dollar Babies – Billion Dollar Babies
Muscle Of Love – Muscle Of Love
Welcome To My Nightmare – Escape
Alice Cooper Goes To Hell – Wish You Were Here
Lace And Whiskey – It’s Hot Tonight
From The Inside – The Quiet Room
Flush The Fashion – Grim Facts
Special Forces – You Look Good In Rags
Zipper Catches Skin - Adaptable (Anything For You)
DaDa – Pass The Gun Around
Constrictor – The World Needs Guts
Raise Your Fist And Yell – Give The Radio Back
Trash – Why Trust You
Hey Stoopid – Snakebite
The Last Temptation – You’re My Temptation
Brutal Planet – Brutal Planet
Dragontown – Fantasy Man
The Eyes Of Alice Cooper – Love Should Never Feel Like This
Dirty Diamonds – The Saga Of Jesse Jane
Along Came A Spider – Wrapped In Silk
Welcome 2 My Nightmare – Last Man On Earth
Paranormal – Genuine American Girl
Detroit Stories - $1000 High Heel Shoes

Top 10 songs

1. Brutal Planet
2. Why Trust You
3. The Quiet Room
4. My Stars
5. Pick Up The Bones
6. Billion Dollar Babies
7. Last Man On Earth
8. Millie and Billie
9. Spark In The Dark
10.$1000 High Heel Shoes

I'd agree that he has one of the best catalogues around, and for a 28 album discography, there is an impressively low number of truly weak entries. Every album has at least a few songs worth listening to. That said, there's no chance I'd say Pretties for You or Along Came a Spider aren't duds, or Lace and Whiskey and Easy Action are better than average.

Spoiler tags for list of favourite songs and such (trying to do a top 10 songs might break my brain though)

I like Along Came A Spider myself a middle of the pack album for me but Lace And Whiskey would be near the bottom though it still has some good stuff on it.

top 10 albums for me would be

1. From The Inside
2. School's Out
3. Brutal Planet
4. Raise Your Fist And Yell
5. Alice Cooper Goes To Hell
6. Detroit Stories
7. Trash
8. DaDa
9. Dirty Diamonds
10.Zipper Catches Skin

Weirdly enough, although I do like the title track from School's Out it's not one of my favorites, the songs that make the album for me are My Stars, Blue Turk, Luney Toon, Public Animal #9 and Alma Mater.

Bottom 5 albums would be
1. Pretties For You
2. Easy Action
3. The Eyes Of Alice Cooper
4. Lace And Whiskey
5. Paranormal

Lots of good picks on both of your lists. Here is mine:



I actually like ACAS more than the average Alice fan. There are missteps on it (in particular, I Know Where You Live sounds really underpowered during that first verse and I'm not a huge fan of Salvation), but I think the songs are there, and this would be a better record with someone different producing it. His weakest era to me (outside of the first 2 albums) is the post-WTMN, pre-Blackout era. There are good songs scattered amongst those 3 records, but I'd put Goes To Hell near the bottom of his discography and Lace & Whiskey not much further up. On the other hand, the title tracks of both records + Guilty, It's Hot Tonight, I Never Cry, and You and Me are all awesome, so I still revisit them often.

Overall, my only real criticism of Alice's is career is that I think reuniting with Bob Ezrin has resulted in taking him off track over the last 15 years. I can't help but feel this upcoming album is being negatively influenced by him, given that he was the one trying to walk back Alice's explanation of what the record is.

Edit: Didn't give my top 10 albums:

Unless I've misread, looks like the only 'top song' we all have in common is Pass the Gun Around. What a gem it is. That solo


Yeah, although the title track is rightfully considered a classic, the deeper cuts on this album are where the real quality is. Such a diverse and cohesive record - one of the best I've heard from anyone.

Pass The Gun Around has always been my favourite from DaDa, but over the years, I've really grown to appreciate Fresh Blood. That might be the most overlooked song of his entire blackout period (largely because everyone correctly recognizes Pass the Gun Around as the best song of the era).

Yes, Fresh Blood is my number two pick from Dada (with I Love America third - the final stretch of that album is really strong). Not that it'll happen, but I'd be interested to hear it live - I reckon the three guitar line up could really make it work. Even if they just do an instrumental jam of the mid section / outro, I think it'd be really cool.

It's funny how I always knew about Alice Cooper ever since I first saw Wayne's World around age 12 or so, and I always suspected that I liked him, but I'd never heard more than a few of his most well known tracks (School's Out, No More Mr. Nice Guy, etc.). But I just bought all his albums with his first band and his first few with his 2nd up through Whiskey and Lace, and while I'm not done listening to them all yet, so far almost everything is solid.

I can see why people don't like Easy Action, but I actually don't think it's terrible. I DO think Pretties for You is pretty damn bad. But Easy Action is kind of interesting as a transition from his overly flowery hippie rock on his first album to what would later become his true rockin style. I would certainly say it's sub-par, especially for Alice, but it's interesting as a sort of snap-shot of the time period it comes out of.

Killer, Love it to Death, School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies are all great albums (I haven't listened to the others I mentioned yet), and they are so much more varied than I thought they'd be. Alice (meaning both him and his band/bands) really mixes things up. He alters his vocal style in all sorts of interesting ways, his lyrics are always brilliant, and really the entire band is solid. They've got all kinds of different tracks. I never really knew he was so varied.

However, from what little I've heard, I'm not too big a fan of his 80s material. The only albums of his I have from the 80s are Raise Your First and Yell and Constrictor, and I haven't listened to either in many years and don't even remember what Constrictor sounds like, but I remember not really being all that into Raise Your Fist, which is funny seeing as I've heard a lot of people here praise it as his "most metal album."

I think I'll have to go back and listen to it again. Maybe I'll like it more, but I doubt I'll think it holds a candle to his 70s material.

I consider myself a fan, owning every studio album and most live albums, but this stretch in the early to mid 80s was very spotty. I don't find much to like on these:


Flush The Fashion
Special Forces
Zipper Catches Skin
DaDa
Constrictor
Raise Your Fist And Yell

Flush the Fashion and Special Forces are two of his weaker records (still with several good songs each), but Zipper Catches Skin is a lot of fun. Much better than its reputation, largely because it's so absurdly coked-up and hilarious. DaDa is almost like the complete opposite, and I love it because there's no album like it. I'm not even sure what genre you would call it. I might have mentioned it on this board before, but there's an hour-long podcast with Dick Wagner from a few years ago where he talks about the making of this record, and it really enhanced my appreciation for the album. Even if it's unpopular to like most of these 6 records you mentioned, this is the one that I find most Alice fans love.

Constrictor and RYFAY are sort of curious choices to me on your list - they're probably the two records that should have gotten Alice onto the archives. RYFAY is basically Alice doing Bark At The Moon IMO. Constrictor isn't as fast or heavy, but it's got so many hooks. Life and Death of the Party, The World Needs Guts, and He's Back are some of his catchiest songs. There are probably a couple of filler tracks towards the end, but I still like every song.

I think I'm so positive about albums that might not be 10/10s because I'm just in awe of Alice's consistency. No matter the style, he always puts together something interesting, and it's easy for me to appreciate the a record for what it is, rather than what I want it to be. I think this is because his most classic records already have so much variety on them. Look at Welcome to My Nightmare - how do songs like Some Folks, Cold Ethyl, Only Women Bleed, and The Awakening all fit together? They really don't, musically. Same thing with B$B (Unfinished Sweet, No More Mr. Nice Guy, Mary Ann, I Love The Dead - all totally different). So when I try to picture the "ideal" new Alice album, I don't know what it should look like. For this reason, it's really easy for me to just enjoy whatever he does.

I still can't find anything to like on those first two records, the only song I can kind of stand is Return Of The Spiders. On the other hand I don't really feel the need to skip any songs on the rest of his studio albums. My top 100 Alice songs in chronological order


Long Way to Go
Is It My Body
Hallowed Be My Name
Second Coming
Ballad of Dwight Fry
Be My Lover
Desperado
You Drive Me Nervous
Luney Tune
Blue Turk
My Stars
Public Animal #9
Alma Mater
Raped and Freezin'
Billion Dollar Babies
Crazy Little Child
Muscle of Love
Man With The Golden Gun
Woman Machine
Some Folks
Steven
Escape
Go to Hell
Didn't We Meet
Guilty
Wake Me Gently
Wish You Were Here
Going Home
It’s Hot Tonight
King Of The Silver Screen
From the Inside
Wish I Were Born in Beverly Hills
The Quiet Room
Millie and Billie
Serious
For Veronica's Sake
Jackknife Johnny
Grim Facts
Dance Yourself To Death
Who Do You Think We Are
Don't Talk Old To Me
You Look Good In Rags
Zorro's Ascent
Make That Money (Scrooge's Song)
Adaptable (Anything for You)
I'm Alive (That Was the Day My Dead Pet Returned to Save My Life)
Former Lee Warmer
Dyslexia
Scarlet and Sheba
Pass the Gun Around
Thrill My Gorilla
Life and Death of the Party
The World Needs Guts
Great American success Story
Freedom
Give the Radio Back
Step On You
Prince Of Darkness
Time to Kill
Roses On White Lace
Poison
Spark in the Dark
Why Trust You
Bed of Nails
This Maniac's in Love with You
Snakebite
Burning Our Bed
Dirty Dreams
You're My Temptation
Lullaby
It's Me
Brutal Planet
Wicked Young Man
Blow Me a Kiss
Eat Some More
Pick Up the Bones
Pessi-Mystic
Fantasy Man
Disgraceland
It's Much Too Late
Love Should Never Feel Like This
Perfect
You Make Me Wanna
The Saga of Jesse Jane
Sunset Babies
Run Down The Devil
I Know Where You Live
Catch Me If You Can
Wrapped in Silk
Caffeine
A Runaway Train
Last Man on Earth
When Hell Comes Home
Paranoiac Personality
Genuine American Girl
Social Debris
$1000 High Heel Shoes
Hail Mary
Drunk and in Love
Independence Dave

my top 3 from DaDa are

1. Pass the Gun Around
2. Former Lee Warmer
3. Scarlet and Sheba

\

Yeah, I know to go back and listen to these again. It's been a few years since I've last heard them and my perception of these may change.

will try get a listen to this album. i'm not very familiar with any of the 2000s albums to be honest
great he is still around and making tunes and touring. looking on his wiki page he has barely taken a break from touring in 50 years!

a couple more tunes from The Coop.

I really liked "Paranormal" as it was very hooky and somehow reminiscent of his classic material but "Detroit Stories" was just neutered corporate balderdash and the new tracks don't sound promising to me at all.

Another thing that turns me off at the moment is the shadow of the old chicken "incident" (which I had totally forgotten about since every other "rock star" seems to have bitten some heads off and you just lose track of the carnage).

On "Good Morning Britain" he explains what happened. It starts at 5:18. At 6:06 Susanna Reid says: "It wasn't you, it was the audience. We finally laid that myth bare." And he's grinning like a grinning idiot.

Vincent, bare without your persona: You don't throw animals anywhere – whether they have wings or not! And you don't throw animals at a crowd – as crowds are idiots anytime, anywhere. One more thing: Yes, it was you, the audience and you!

I eat my words. The new one (7/10) is much better than "Detroit Stories" (4-5/10).

On "Detroit Stories" the band tried to simulate the 60s and ended up sounding like a spin-off of the sterile Hollywood Vampires. On "Road" they don't pretend they're something they're not. Instead, they just go out and rock. The production is a bit rougher around the edges and there's some much needed dirt on the six strings. It's Aerosmith dirt rather than desert rock dirt but anything is better than nothing.

Despite some detours to 70s Cooper, e.g. "Road Rats Forever", the vaudeville theatricality of "100 More Miles" and the late 60s Who cover, the bulk of the album is 90s rock, e.g.:

- The riff in "Dead Don't Dance" has a Non-Fiction (Tecchio, Lorenzo) / Soundgarden vibe.
- The only thing that differentiates "Big Boots" from a Cinderella song on "Heartbreak Station" is the absence of Tom Keifer. The verses in "Go Away" also have that bottleneck Cinderella vibe.
- The verse riff in "The Big Goodbye" reminds me of Phil Campbell on "Sacrifice" or "Civil War".
- Etc.

And that's a good thing in my book. Considering the age of the band members, they seem to be allowed to revisit their own past instead of somebody else's.

Bottom line: If you can come to terms with the fact that these tracks are always the same formulaic 3+ minutes, that innovation is as absent as outstanding instrumental performances or the epic storytelling of "Welcome to my Nightmare", you'll definitely have a good time with this one.

It's a pretty solid hard rock album. Some nice heavier moments, and a good ballad in Baby Please Don't Go (my favourite song so far). That said, for now at least, there's no songs that really stand out like on his other recent efforts (eg I Am Made of You, Wonderful World, Fireball, The Sound of A). Lyrics can get a bit naff, but that's not a big concern for me. I feel a fair amount of tracks here could work well live, but unfortunately newer material doesn't get much of a look in on the setlists these days.

Overall, I'd probably say the only album from the past 20 years or so (excluding Hollywood Vampires) that it's better than is Along Came a Spider, but it's still a welcome and enjoyable addition to the Coop's catalogue.