On
September 13, 2011, rock's most notorious villain returned to take us
on another frightful trip into his twisted nightmares! That's right,
I'm referring to the one and only Alice Cooper. His latest musical
offering is a sequel to his classic 1975 album, "Welcome To My
Nightmare." Just like it's namesake, the sequel, Welcome 2
My Nightmare is
a vintage 70's-sounding Alice Cooper album. It even includes many of
the cast members that helped to create the original...most notably,
producer Bob Ezrin, as well as three members of the original Alice
Cooper band: guitarist Micheal Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and
drummer Neal Smith.
With
that many things going for it, any fan of the original Alice Cooper
band would assume that they couldn't go wrong...not so! For me, this
album was decent, and it did have some good moments on it, but as a
whole, it really wasn't as strong as it could have been. It is fun
and there is much of Alice's trademark humor in the tunes, but I
definitely would not count this one among his best work. For all of
it's good points, there are an equal number of flaws. First, the
album really lacks the darker, horror-tinged side of the Alice
character; fans of his classic work want that sense of menace that he
does so well...it's part of the fun, because he balances it perfectly
with his humor. As I said, the humor is there, but the menace is not!
Another
bad point is that this one is all over the map in terms of musical
styles, which makes for a very inconsistent experience melodically. Don't get me wrong, differing musical styles are not a bad thing, but
the artist has to take great care to ensure that the transition
between styles happens smoothly and logically. The changes should
make some kind of sense. In this case, they really don't. The styles
are so different from song to song that the album feels like a bunch
of quirky musical oddities stuck side by side without any kind of
rhyme or reason. There is nothing to tie everything together and make
the album as a whole into a cohesive listening experience. This is
very detrimental when you consider that this is a concept album with
a story to follow.
As
for the songs themselves, the quality is about fifty-fifty. Several
of the songs here are really good, but unfortunately, there are also
several tracks that go so far out into left field that they just
leave you scratching your head in confusion! The tracks that stood
out to me include: Caffeine, The Congregation, and When
Hell Comes Home. I also enjoyed the album's first single and
video, I'll Bite Your Face Off. But to be honest, none
of the other tracks really grabbed me.
The
bottom line: this album is entertaining and fun, with several great
moments. The songs are decent, but overall, it is not Alice's best
work. I would give it about three-and-a-half out of five stars!
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