Released: 1991
Tracks: Hey Stoopid; Love’s a Loaded Gun; Snake Bite; Burning Our Bed; Dangerous Tonight; Might as Well Be on Mars; Feed My Frankenstein; Hurricane Years; Little By Little; Die For You; Dirty Dreams; Wind-up Toy
Best track: Might as Well Be on Mars
Tracks to skip: Dirty Dreams
I didn’t list it on the tracks up there, but the first track is actually Poison, the main single from Alice’s previous album, Trash. I dubbed this album from my brother and decided to stick Poison on here. Kind of a cheesy song, but it’s all right. Now, on to the ‘official’ album. Damn, just the sound of this thing takes me back to 1991. Alice Cooper had gone underground for quite a while in the 80’s and it was really the previously mentioned Trash that brought him back into being in the public eye. This album expanded on that and itself spawned some popular singles, Hey Stoopid & Feed My Frankenstein. There are all kinds of guest stars on this album, like Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Slash and a whole lot more than I can’t remember right now. Before I put this in I was thinking I might not like it (a lot of albums I’ve reassessed have not aged well for me), but I’m pleasantly surprised that this album still holds up. This is definitely heavy metal, but I’d put it somewhere in between the glam stuff like Motley Crue/Ratt and the heavier stuff like Judas Priest/Ozzy. It’s catchy. These guys are average enough players, so the musicianship isn’t mind blowing or anything, but I’m really impressed by the songwriting. These are all damn good songs. I think that’s always been one of Alice Cooper’s strengths.
Of course Hey Stoopid is a great lead off track (and an anti-drug one too) as are all the rest of the ones on side 1. Dangerous Tonight reminds me of King Diamond, as does Might as Well Be on Mars. He’s kind of like a poppier version of King Diamond (in places). Speaking of Mars, that’s a great song. The verse riff is cool as hell. Feed My Frankenstein got some nice exposure due to being in Wayne’s World and even though it’s a ‘penis song’, it’s still pretty amusing. Steve Vai does a bizarre and extremely cool solo in it. Hurricane Years freakin’ rocks. A lot of the lyrical subject matter on this album is love/sex based, and it can get annoying after a while. I don’t really care for most of the song part of Die For You, but the chorus is good. Dirty Dreams is the only bad song on here. Once again it’s sexual (with that title? No, never!) and it’s just lame. I guess he had space to fill.
The album ends with a very different song. Odd. It seems to be about a kid who’s locked up in his room because he’s a tad hyper and has a vivid imagination. It’s kinda trippy. Good song though. Well, all in all I’m quite surprised I liked the album as much as I did. Face it, Alice Cooper is a good songwriter. It’s apparent to me now (well, still) why we listened to this so much back when it came out; it’s a good album.
Rating: 85
January 13, 2008, 
8:25 pm
Write a comment