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45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coopers returns with vengence!!!, 8 Jul 2008
After two garage albums it seemed inevitable that Alice would have another crack at the concept album.The problem for Cooper is that his output has been so vastly varied over his career that one persons poison is another's delight.
A serial killer named Spider is the focus of the album and seems to be sung in a first person perspective.
Musically the album dips into Alice's past.
1. Prologue/I Know Where You Live: Great guitar riff and seventies style lead.I believe there is even some tambourine in there!!!
2. Vengeance Is Mine: This could belong on Dragontown, great melody
3. Wake The Dead: Sixties psychedelic feel with vocals that match, good guitar riff and nice bass work.
4. Catch Me If You Can:Pretty straight rock song, good chorus with intelligent guitar breaks.
5. (In Touch With) Your Feminine Side:Good chorus and another seventies groove!
6. Wrapped In Silk:Excellent bass work and great guitar interplay.
7. Killed By Love:The ballad!!! Actually works well and is helped by nice backing vocals and a great Alice vocal.
8.I am Hungry:To my ears, a definite nod to the original ACG,nice Bruce type riff. A good measured lead solo.
9. The One That Got Away:Good melodies and a fine arrangement, a seventies feel again!
10. Salvation: This sounds as though it could of sat quite happily on the Go to Hell album, nice drum work, mixed with inventive bass playing and a big chorus!
11. I Am The Spider/Epilogue:A zombie feel and a deliberate plodding and down beat(what do you expect, its about a serial killer),with another great guitar riff!
This album demands many listen to fully appreciate all its wonders, to me this is the most satisfying Alice album in years, and like any truly great album it makes you work to fully explore its brilliance.
There is a real retro feel that is offset by clean and modern production.If you listen through head phones it brings another dimension to the sound!
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
...back to the 70's as Alice returns with a killer concept..., 17 Jul 2008
Well, it looks like the garage rock years are over, as Alice returns to his old stomping ground - the concept album! This time it tells the charming tale of a serial killer named Spider, whose trademark is wrapping his victims in silk. Hurrah! But don't worry, this is cuddly 21st century Alice, so he gets his comeuppance when he goes all girly and falls in love with one of his victims. Boo!
He's stuck to his road band for this trip to the studio, so Kiss drummer Eric Singer, bassist Chuck Garric and guitarists Keri Kelli and Jason Hook handle the majority of the work on the album. And all that time spent touring has paid off. They sound like a proper band, not just a bunch of session guys who've popped in to pay the bills. There is room for some guests, though, and Guns n' Roses / Velvet Revolver fella Slash lays down an excellent solo on "Vengeance Is Mine", one of the highlights on the album. In a novel twist Ozzy Osborne whips out his mouth organ for some, well, pedestrian harmonica work on "Wake The Dead", where he also gets a co-writing credit.
It's a surprisingly heavy album, especially considering that for studio album number 25, Alice has brought in a new production team in the shape of Danny Saber, formerly of Black Grape, and Greg Hampton who's been working on an album project teaming up ex Guns n' Roses guitarist Buckethead and Bootsy Collins. But any fears that this would end up a dance crossover are firmly dashed, despite some heavy synth work on "Catch Me If You Can", which I'm sure will get pushed as a single.
Despite the return to the concept album, the sound is more similar to his Brutal Planet and Dragontown albums than it is to the seventies sounds of Welcome To My Nightmare or From The Inside, especially the large amounts of riffing laid down by Keri Kelli and Jason Hook. The one track that totally fails is the big ballad, "Salvation", which just pales besides older material like "How You Gonna See Me Now". Luckily, there is an array of material that rocks out and will, doubtless, slot happily into his never-ending tour. "Wrapped In Silk" and "I'm Hungry", for example, are custom built for audience sing-a-longs. Finally, things come full circle in the closing track "I Am The Spider / Epilogue", when an old, old friend pops in for a cameo.
He may have turned 60 this year but there's no sign of him fading away, as this really is a good Alice Cooper album, one that tries to tie in the various musical strands he's pursued over his career, and will be a delight for anyone whose followed him on the way.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Honest Review., 3 Aug 2008
90% of reviews on amazon are written by fans trying to promote their favourite artist with effusive praise. But here's a level-headed review.
My qualifications: I've been a big Alice Fan since the early 70s. I'm old in other words.
This CD is good. But no it is not up there with his great 70s work. In those days Alice turned out perhaps 7 or 8 awesome albums worthy of 5 stars. This is worth four. It's solid, it's worth buying, but no it's not his best work. Since 1980 Alice has produced a few four star albums: Last Temptation, Brutal Planet, Dragontown, Eyes, Stoopid, Trash. This fits right into your collection beside those. But don't compare it to From the inside, Billion Dollar Babies or Welcome to my Nighmare. Because it's not THAT good.
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