Posted by After working on a few songs on Paranormal and its follow up Detroit Stories, the Alice Cooper group have finally gone the whole hog and reunited for new album The Revenge of Alice Cooper. It is the group’s first record in 52 years and sees them reunited with producer extraordinaire Bob Ezrin, even guitarist Glen Buxton (R.I.P) makes an appearance on one track.
The slow burning bluesy groove of ‘Black Mamba’ and its insidious hooks greets you to this 54 minute shock rock reunion. Its successor ‘Wild Ones’ is a driving rocker with a restless riff and a simple but effective earworm of a chorus. The final single is the thumping ‘Up All Night’ – a foot tapping rocker about a man’s dalliances in, and prowess with, ladies of the night. These singles are indicative of the band’s eighth effort, catchy rock and roll with good musicianship, humorous lyrics and the occasional flash of psychedelica. It is nothing new but it is good to hear.
It has all the hallmarks of a classic coop album, even if it doesn’t reach the giddy heights of Killer or Billion Dollar Babies. ‘Blood on the Sun’ is the woozy, prog leaning number replete with some good solos and instrumental passages. ‘Kill The Flies’, with its relaxed pace and crunchy guitars, is about a madman driven further up the wall by flies. The commercial sheen of ‘Money Screams’, with its classic rock guitar work and sweet harmonies is a personal highlight and tells of the corrupting power of money. While ‘What a Syd’, channeling ‘Some Folks’ style finger snapping jazz, is one of few homages to their old partner in crime Glen Buxton.
Talking of such the effervescent ‘What Happened To You’ contains guitar from the deceased gunslinger, and is honky tonk, bar room romp. The lighter waving goodbye that is ‘See You on the Other Side’ ends an album that may not match the golden years and could easily lose 4 or 5 of its 16 tracks, but is still a good blast of fun and finger tapping rock and roll. They have still got it.
7/10
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