ALICE COOPER/WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE ANCL 2011 (-75) UK

I stayed a big Alice Cooper fan from the start up to and with "Billion Dollar Babies", then my delight started to wane and I eventually stopped buying the records. Reason for that was I thought non of the follow-ups were even close to the BDB magnum opus and what we heard later on was a former master at a downslope. Now I'm reaquainting with his eighth studio LP, which also was the first without the old band, instead a closer cooperation between him, producer Bob Ezrin and guitarist Dick Wagner - those three involved in writing all eleven tracks - with further backing provided by a couple of prominent studio musicians. It's a kind of theme album, handeling a guy's various nightmares. I do miss some of the direct fit rock'n'roll backing you could get from the former band, but apart from the somewhat posher sound it's a lot better than I remember. Melodies varying between styles and genres with emphasis on rock'n'roll, having a fair share of catchy moments and lyrics at least partly as dark as ever. So I'm slowly starting to change my mind here and as the vinyl spins actually hear something worth getting in deeper with and rediscover. Let's see where that goes. For now it's some of the harder rock tracks that make me sit straight up in the listening chair - "Escape", "The Black Widow" and "Department Of Youth" - reminding of the Alice I used to know. Issued and reissued on every possible format all over the world through the years. Premiere US on Atlantic (SD 18130). First UK had "spider" label as shown here and fully laminated cover with lyric/pic inner. (KÖÖP*)