Welcome 2 My Nightmare [CD]

I have listened to this album constantly since it's release and I can highly recommend it as probably Alice Cooper's finest hour for well...20 or 30 years! For those like me who were disappointed with the the previous outing - Along Came A Spider - this is a complete return to form from the great man himself.

The key to the album is the diversity of musical styles on the album - there really is something for everyone! My only gripes are the "jokey" songs - Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever & Ghouls Gone Wild - which are not everyone's cup of tea. However - if you get the collector's pack edition of the album, you get the excellent bonus track - Under The Bed - which is stronger than both these songs combined. I'm baffled as to why this song wasn't one of the regular tracks on the album though as it is that good!

I'm willing to forgive Alice for putting Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever & Ghouls Gone Wild on the album though as the rest of the album is first rate. The album benefits enormously from having Bob Ezrin producing and also having the remaining members of the original Alice Cooper band back for several of the songs. Even the ballads on the album - I am Made Of You and Something To Remember Me By - are really well written and produced, something I never normally liked on Alice's albums. The fact that a lot of the songs would not look out of place on one of the original Alice Cooper band's original albums shows you just how good this album is.

Highly recommended! Now go buy!

I've been waiting for this album to be released for months; since Alice first tweeted about it way back when .... and it's worth the wait.

Since the original 'Welcome To My Nightmare' I've bought numerous Alice albums but it was always going to be difficult to beat that classic. Now let me be clear, 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare' doesn't match the original but it is the best album since without a SHADOW of doubt (in my opinion).

Clever clever start with the piano hook from 'Steven' (original WTMN album) leads into the excellent 'I Am Made Of You'. Up-to-date and a little 'Kanye' as the song begins

Track 2 ('Caffeine') is a strong rock track and then 'The Nightmare Returns' and the intro to 'A Runaway Train' promises touches of inspiration a la original WTMN ..... but slips into some solid but not memorable rock.

Banjo and oompah music are hugely entertaining in the brilliant 'Last Man on Earth' and then there's 'The Congregation'; love it!! LOVE ..... IT .... !!

The next three tracks are ok but the 10th track ('Something To Remember Me By') is a weak ballad I'm afraid; it feels like a placeholder, a poor substitute for a track that should have been a 'Only Women Bleed II'.

'When Hell Comes Home' is an edgy and GREAT track about the horrors of abuse and is followed by a good link up with Ke$ha (yes, I know ..... me too) in 'What Baby Wants'.

The next track is ..... bland but then it's followed by an instrumental medley from the original 'Welcome' album. Bonus track is a cover and is okay I guess.

So in summary I'd say four things: -

- This is a definite 4 *'s but I can't give it a '5' because it doesn't quite match the original 'Welcome' album.
- there are some tracks on here that I WILL definitely listen to death; brilliant
- shame about 3 of the 15 tracks; feel like poor subs or space fillers
- I'm about to listen to the original 'Welcome' album again as this (W2MN) is a great follow-up album AND it reminds me that the original 'Welcome' is just IMMENSE and should be in everyone's collection. I can see this album re-igniting interest in the original for sure.

Alice, sit back and feel bl**dy smug mate; job well done

It's been a long time since Alice Cooper, Godfather of theatrical shock rock 'n' roll, came up with anything that could be described as Classic Cooper.

In the 70's - on just about every album after the first two psychedelia and Zappa influenced releases - the Alice Cooper Band, then Alice Cooper the solo artist, were responsible for some of the best conceptual, diverse and greatest music in rock.
But for a man who once decided to Flush the Fashion the reality is that, for the last three decades, it's primarily been formulated 80's and 90's Trash 'n' roll and Millennium melodic metal.

There have been exceptions, such as 1994's The Last Temptation (a serious return to form) but the chances of Alice Cooper ever revisiting the classic era or recreating something quintessentially Cooper, seemed remote. At best.
But who could have dreamed...

Welcome 2 My Nightmare is, as the name suggests, a sequel or themed follow up to the classic 1975 original.
Cooper had at first considered a sequel to his 2008 album Along Came a Spider, but Bob Ezrin (producer and influence on just about every Alice Cooper release of the 70's) wasn't taken with the idea and the pair decided to go further back for inspiration and return to nightmare's past.

And good move it was too, because Welcome 2 is a startling return to form, diverse in content and themed around the nightmarish scenarios of the original without ever copying or rewriting that classic material. The Lyrics vary from dark and black to the thoughtful and downright funny.
Having Bob Ezrin back at the controls (and contributing to the writing and arrangements) has also paid dividends. It's a clean production but intentionally and successfully captures the vibe of the original Nightmare and that 70's sound.

And it doesn't hurt that members of the original Alice Cooper Band - Michael Bruce (guitars, keyboards) Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums) all make appearances on the album and have individual co-writing credits on the their three featured numbers (the other ACB original, guitarist Glen Buxton, sadly died in 1997).
Guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on a number of ACB albums (and worked with Cooper in the latter half of the 70's) also gets to flex his six-string fingers on a few of the tracks.

The album opens in grand fashion with `I Am Made of You.'
The song starts with a familiar chill courtesy of the revisited piano intro from the original Nightmare's `Steven` (the central player of the 1975 album and a recurring character on other Cooper records). The mid-tempo number builds from its piano-vocal opening to become a theatrical piece that is almost rock opera in scale.
It's already being hailed as a classic Cooper song.

For all the darkness of the concept there is a serious amount of fun to be had with Welcome 2.
`Caffeine' is infectious fun-filled rock and roll, based on the dangers of grabbing yourself too much of that stimulant - a too-wired-to-sleep nightmare for many.
`A Runaway Train' (featuring the ACB musicians) thunders down the rock and roll tracks in the tradition of `Under My Wheels' while `Last Man on Earth' is an observation after the Runaway Train crash, sung and arranged in a Vaudeville meets Cabaret style.
And although Cooper has stated `The Congregation' was inspired by the Beatles, it's loudly and clearly the greatest song Green Day and Oasis never got together to do.

Just about every song carries a macabre theme however.
Some are very dark in tone, such as 'When Hell Comes Home' (dealing with family abuse), while some levity is restored with the surf rock of 'Ghouls Gone Wild' and 'Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever.'
The latter is a truly awful song (but then that's the point), presented in a very specific musical and lyrical form to reinforce the fact that disco, sadly, never dies.
Even when everyone else does.

For all its diversity, Welcome 2 still manages to throw up a surprise or two.
Female singer/ rapper Kesha guests as the Devil in `What Baby Wants' while the soft rock ballad `Something to Remember Me By' would seem to be a strange choice for an album full of nightmares.
But this is an Alice Cooper album and things are never as they first appear...
'Something to Remember Me By' actually sat unused and unsung for over thirty years but here has finally found a home. And a fitting home it is too - musically it's the nicest piece on the album but lyrically it's being sung to parts of a corpse.
As you do.

The album closes with the instrumental `The Underture,' another rock opera piece.
The track revisits themes from both Nightmare albums and features guitar work from Dick Wagner, another musical sparring partner of Cooper's from the 70's and early 80's.
The very nature of the piece means it should be the opening number but, again, this is an Alice Cooper album - so where else would it be but the end.

The Alice Cooper Band releases, from Love it to Death onwards, helped define 70's rock. And there's an argument for Killer being THE Alice Cooper album.
But as regards the individual and performer known as Alice Cooper, three solo albums stand out as showcases for the musical diversity and originality of the artist...

Welcome to My Nightmare is the 1975 album that set Alice Cooper on his way as a solo artist and theatrical shock and roll performer.

From the Inside is another concept album, this one based around the singer's stay at a sanatorium due to alcoholism and health concerns.
Released in 1978, Inside is his finest 40 minutes and most accomplished work.

Zipper Catches Skin takes its musical lead from early 80's post-punk new wave and features lyrics that are tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic and just plain funny.
Zipper was not well received and didn't chart in the US or the UK, but it's a sometimes humorous, sometimes bizarre and a genuinely unique Alice Cooper release.

Nightmare themed rock... biographical conceptual rock and roll... quirky off-the-wall musicality. Each helps define Alice Cooper.

As does Welcome 2 My Nightmare.
Some 36 years after the album that inspired it.