Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare
by Kevin Wierzbicki
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Oh my god what's this males-wearing-makeup world coming to? On this sequel to Welcome To My Nightmare, Cooper's 1975 debut solo album, it's not thirty seconds into the opening number "I Am Made of You" that Alice has his vocals running through---gasp---Auto-Tune! Eventually the song ditches the effect and swoons into a big slow ballad with a few requisite guitar parts but for a minute it sounds like Cooper really is going to lay out a nightmare for his fans. Rest assured though that there's plenty of the typically-twisted Cooper of old on hand; "The Nightmare Returns" is a brief interlude that mashes-up music box tinkling with a big rock overture that Cooper chants over in a menacing clown voice while the delightfully-titled "I'll Bite Your Face Off" has Alice growling out the title-repeating chorus to a Rolling Stones-influenced melody. The song also contains a brief piano riff that pays homage to "Pinball Wizard" as played by Elton John; there's no obvious reason for the part's inclusion other than maybe to give older fans a flashback to the era that Cooper seeks to recreate here. Oompah Loompah vocals power the tongue-in-cheek sing-along "Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever;" again you have to wonder what Cooper was thinking but then again you can't lose sight of what the concept of the album is---that of a man trapped inside his own unsavory thoughts. With that in mind you shouldn't be surprised by the surf-rockin' "Ghouls Gone Wild" or by Coop's radio-ready duet with pop star Ke$ha on the album's best cut by far, "What Baby Wants." Just about every album Cooper has made as a solo act has been uneven and Welcome 2 My Nightmare is no different but there's a lot more fun here than dumb and it's nice to hear Cooper's old cohorts Denis Dunaway, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith rip it up on a few tracks.
Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare
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