A masterpiece (Welcome To My Nightmare: Expanded Edition - Alice Cooper)

Member Name: TheAdder

Product:	Welcome To My Nightmare: Expanded Edition - Alice Cooper
Date:	02/08/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pretty much faultless, this is a timeless classic.

Disadvantages: Maybe could have gone a song or two more but that's just being greedy.

Born Vincent Damon Furnier on 4th Feb 1948 in Detroit, Michigan USA, Alice Cooper has thrilled audiences worldwide since the mid 1960's. His roots lie in rock music but changes his sound and style regularly to keep surprising us. Well known for his theatrical live shows, over the years his props have included gallows, guillotines, electric chairs and an assortment of ghoulish henchman all vying for his soul.
Welcome To My Nightmare was released in 1975 and the sound is very much of that era, raw and uncooked but well balanced and sprinkled with enough effects when necessary. With so much going on in the songs and the concept and feel of the album overall, the temptation would have been to over produce but gladly that didn't happen and it maintains a bodacious appeal. Surreal and dreamy though it is, you would have to still class it as a rock album, but whatever you class it as, it is music, entertaining and is in my humble opinion his best ever...

From its provocative, haunting intro to the funky psychedelic rhythm, the title track WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE signals the album's intent from the off. Cooper straps you into your open top sarcophagus, pushes you into Spook Valley and gives you a guided tour of his fertile imagination. Punctuated by swells and stabs from a potent brass section, this a perfect opener for the concept album. It lets you know that for the next 10 songs you're going to get juggled above an abyss of madness and fantasy but most importantly, hear some stonking good music.

DEVIL'S FOOD is next up and introduces itself with a simple but strong riff. The song itself could benefit from being a bit longer as it's pulsating stuff but you forgive the length as it gives way to the macabre tones of the horror movie legend Vincent Price introducing you into the third song THE BLACK WIDOW - "Man has ruled this world as a stumbling demented child king long enough!" you've got to love that. The song incorporates a bouncy, chugging verse with a hypnotic chorus and gets somewhat triumphant toward the end. Cooper extended this song considerably during the live shows by adding a guitar war against the backdrop of a huge hanging web across the stage.

A change of mood and direction brings us the brilliant SOME FOLKS. This wouldn't be out of place in a Broadway musical with its piano strut and clicky fingers intro but there lies a joyous threat in the undertones of the lyrics. 2 minutes in, it bursts into the first of its 2 'cop car chase' tempo changes. It is a gloriously crafted number and only Alice could tap dance to a song about necrophilia.

The next song is the ambient ballad ONLY WOMEN BLEED, an emotive piece of song writing which showcases Cooper as a vocalist. It is sometimes easy to forget that when he's not playing Mr Nasty and killing himself and others around (on stage might I add!), he has a natural, soulful, bluesy tone to his voice that empathises as much as it intices.

After the gentle ending to the previous song, DEPARTMENT OF YOUTH comes stomping out of the bedroom like an angry teenager should. It's a blast, doesn't take itself too seriously and marches around the streets with it's sing-a-long hands in the air outro. Donny Osmond would not approve.

COLD ETHYL is an out an out great rock song, simple as. Plenty of verve, it bounces around from pillar to post. A raw riff over a refreshing cowbell driven beat, a song you'll never tire of hearing. A personal favourite of mine since I first heard it.

After 2 straightforward rocky offerings, YEARS AGO sees us go back into the nightmare. Disturbing, childlike, tormenting and engrossing. A song that creeps all over you with its eerie man and boy conversation later on. The listener is then snapped out of their trance by the piano intro of STEVEN. Tickling each vertebra with every note it guides you into a chilling vocal before eventually the monster comes out to play. Develops into a powerful mini film score before going back for the 3rd verse. A classic, brilliant live song as most of them are but this one always seems to stand out.

Out of the wreckage, peering cautiously through the smoke comes THE AWAKENING. This is an hallucinogenic, dreamlike interlude setting us up for the finale. I love this sort of thing that Cooper does, which is just enough, tantalisingly keeping you on the edge... come a little closer kind of thing.

ESCAPE wraps things up comfortably. Rocky, happy even and very easy to listen to. A foot tapper, head bobber, nice and upbeat. A bright tidy end to a quite stunning album.

OVERALL - This is a remarkable piece of music and songwriting. Ambitious and compelling throughout, it bounces you on its knee while sliding a knife between your ribs. The whole sound and feel of the album is spot on. Cherish this, for we will never see the like again.

Summary: If you've not got it, buy it. If you've got it, go and stick it on now.