| Alice Cooper, Along Came a Spider (SPV Records) By Thom Copher Leave it to Alice Cooper to bless us with something dark, something sinister, something deviant… something highly entertaining. Along Came a Spider, The Coop’s 25th studio album, contributes nicely to a catalog which has established him as one of rock’s most original storytellers. It seems that, oh, about once per decade, The Artist Formerly Known as Vincent Furnier unveils a period-defining piece which mirrors society through “Alice - The alter ego” (outside looking in, as it were) – the 1970s had Billion Dollar Babies while Trash and The Last Temptation presented a motif of the 80s and 90s, respectively. Spider takes an inside-out approach where the story is more the character’s vision and voice rather than a perceived reflection. What unfolds is a good ol’ cloak-and-dagger/love story that only the King of Shock can tell. With this opus, we pay a visit to an old friend – Steven, whom Alice first portrayed back on ’75 on Welcome to My Nightmare. It seems that little Steven is all grown up, though not quite having resolved some, eh, issues over the years. He’s got a nickname, too: Spider. It’s appropriate, cuz he has a knack for stalking and killing specifically-chosen victims who feed his homicidal thirst, leaving them wrapped in his trademark silk once the deed is done – an arachnophobic version of “Psycho,” if you will. (The album’s promo entices us: “You trap, you kill, you eat.” Juicy, eh?) It's clear from the line "I just do the things I do / It's natural to me / There's no rhyme or reason for my odd insanity" from "Wake the Dead" that we're dealing with a methodical fiend who taunts his own exposure with the song "Catch Me if You Can." Everything’s hunky-dory for Spider until "girl meets bug" and the killer falls in love with his latest victim whom he cannot bring himself around to kill. Could this be the end of Spider? Well, not to give it away, let’s just say that Alice shows his affinity for Alfred Hitchcock in the suspense department. Musically, Spider revisits a cornucopia of classic Cooper. “I Know Where You Live” and "I'm Hungry" sound like freshly laundered cuts from the early albums Killer and School's Out while “Killed by Love" recalls Alice’s ballad phase - remember “Only Women Bleed” and “I Never Cry”? The heaviness of more recent works is also well represented with “The One That Got Away" and "Vengeance is Mine" (which features smokin' lead work by Slash of Guns 'n' Roses/Velvet Revolver). Cooper’s touring band (guitarists Keri Kelli and Jason Hook, drummer Eric Singer and Chuck Garric on bass) comes together to give the singer his tightest sounding album in many a moon. And, Alice’s vocals (in contrast to the majority of 60-plus rockers) are as strong and sneery as they were when he was a kid belting out “I’m Eighteen.” The Cooper camp should be commended. The media blitz surrounding the album’s release has been electrifying – check out www.alicecooper.com and follow the links; it gives a ton of album info and is a good study on how an artist should present a website. In an era besieged by sub-par musicianship and nauseating trends (hmm, I think that I’ve said the latter about every era since the disco heydey), it seems that the geezers are accounting for a large proportion of quality albums (Priest, Motley, etc. also carry the torch with dignity). Alice Cooper wraps nearly 40 years of showmanship and social commentary into a disc which can be summed up, simply, as decadent pleasure. (“A dark and menacing album for dark and menacing times.” – A.C.) (Thom Copher once touched Alice Cooper’s platform boots which are on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. He was escorted from the museum without incident.) |