The Eyes of Alice Cooper [Green Eyed Cover]

'Return to form' is a misleading tag the album has acquired, I think. The musical direction on this is more to do with the fact that bands like 'The Darkness' are currently big, rather than Alice wishing to deliberately recycle old ideas. Nevertheless whatever the reason, Alice sounds more comfortable playing in the more traditional sound of 'Eyes' than on 'Brutal Planet'. One of my criticisms of the last two albums was that whilst Alice is an amazing rock musician, as a metal artist he really doesn't cut it. In the same way Metallica fail miserably as rock artists. Alice can blow any wannabe grunge band off the stage an into the strategically placed garbage van left out in the parking lot. However comparing 'Brutal Planet' to 'Brave New World' (released the same year) leaves Alice looking kinda embarassed I think.

With this in mind, Alice's attempt to get back to what he does best (last done on his masterpiece 'The Last Temptation') sounds like thumbs up on all accounts. 'Eyes' isn't like 'Temptation though. 'Eyes' is an easy goin feel good rock album, not a dark concept album about the loss of innocence and the battle of good versus evil.

'What Do You Want From Me' isn't the album opener that 'Poison' is. A decent enough left over from 'Love It To Death' maybe, but it's no classic. This is true of a lot of the album. Even the standout track of the piece 'This House Is Haunted' with it's creepy keyboard backing sounds like it was lifted from 'Welcome To My Nightmare'. Whilst there are experimental elements, you do very much get the feeling Alice has done all this and more better on other albums. Without doubt the most in-excuseable effort on the album is the ballad 'Be With You A While'. In my opinion Alice has never done a bad ballad, but this one is truly aweful. The riff sucks, the tempo sucks, the lyrics suck, the song sucks - avoid.

Lyrically the album is 'Hey Stoopid' without the sex refferences. The trademark Alice sense of humour is present throughout and even on the less memorable tracks, always raises a smile. If you want the trademark Alice darkness and morbidity however, there's only one really dark track here, the afformentioned 'This House Is Haunted'. Other than that the album remains depressingly jolly (for me anyway). I'm probably making the album sound worse than it is, it's not a bad album. There are some great hard rock songs here like 'Spirits rebellious', 'I'm So Angry' and 'Backyard Brawl', but the rest of the album is very soft. In fact it's probably the softest album Alice has done since the early 80's. Despite this though, the song 'Novocaine' is instantly addictive. A classic Alice hook.

Bottom line if you like this current so-called 70's rock revival with bands like 'The Darkness' etc, you'll lap it up. If you're idea of 70's revival was stuff like 'Kyuss' or 'Spiritual Beggars' though - avoid. For me this album is a dissapointment. But that's a reflection on style, not substance. My advice ? Pick up a copy of Alice's '94 epic 'The Last Temptation', which is a true return to form. 'The Eyes Of Alice Cooper' however is very much a representation of the current mass-appealing soft rock at it's hight/ugliest (delete as appropriate).