Released By : Universal Music
Genre : Hard Rock, Classic Rock
Link : http://alicecooper.com
Tracklist:
1. I Am Made Of You
2. Caffeine
3. The Nightmare Returns
4. A Runaway Train
5. Last Man On Earth
6. The Congregation
7. I’ll Bite Your Face Off
8. Disco Bloodbath Boogie FEVER
9. Ghouls Gone Wild
10. Something To Remember Me By
11. When Hell Comes Home
12. What Baby Want
13. I Gotta Get Outta Here
14. The Underture
In the early months of 1975, the world was introduced to the first official “solo” album from ALICE COOPER titled WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE. While it was certainly quite well received when it first surfaced and showed enough to secure a long future for Coop, over the years it grew into something much more than that and is these days rightfully heralded as an absolute classic. Since then Cooper’s career has ebbed and flowed with as many misses as hits and now, thirty-plus years later Cooper has resurfaced with a direct sequel that goes by the quite obvious title of WELCOME 2 MY NIGHTMARE. The idea certainly sounded good on paper when it was first getting spoken about, especially when details surfaced about master producer, and producer of the first NIGHTMARE album Bob Ezrin was on board, then the deal being sweetened with addition of a few members of the original ALICE COOPER band in Neal Smith, Michael Bruce and Dennis Dunaway, not to mention the inclusion of Dick Wagner who was also a vital cog in the original NIGHTMARE machine.
Suffice to say that all of this information had die-hard Coop fans in raptures and all of a sudden WELCOME 2 MY NIGHTMARE became one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2011. Now before I passed judgement on this album I listened to it multiple times but even though I feel ALICE COOPER is almost one of those “untouchable” artists that is hard to knock I have to admit that I think this album is a complete disaster and a definite low point in COOPER’S career. Before we even get to the music let’s start off with the atrocious album cover, sure it follows the general vibe of the first album what with the whole upside-down triangle and the bugs and moths in the background, but where the first one was a very artistic and iconic piece of artwork, this new one looks a little bit like a tenth-grade photoshop mock-up.
I could have forgiven the artwork had the music been something special, but unfortunately that didn’t happen either. Fair enough that Cooper always tries to do something different, but really when you’re doing a sequel to an album I think the least people should expect is for it to sound like the artist on the cover. Look, there is a few pretty good tunes here to be sure, for example I’LL BITE YOUR FACE OFF combines trademark Cooper lite-horror lyrics with an obvious nod to ROLLING STONES musically. I also quite enjoyed the ballad track SOMETHING TO REMEMBER ME BY and while it doesn’t even come close to classics like ONLY WOMEN BLEED and YOU AND ME it’s still a great shout-out to early day Cooper and one of the highlights on an otherwise ordinary album. Sadly though the rest of the album really never takes off and is a bit of muddle that is pretty hard to take. The first track I AM MADE OF YOU for example is done entirely in auto-tune vocals, and while the effect may be interesting there’s no doubting that just shouldn’t be used in any circumstance ever again, especially not on a bloody ALICE COOPER record of all places. Then there’s the horrible DISCO BLOODBATH BOOGIE FEVER, that attempts to be a bit of tongue-in-cheek payout to dance music but actually ends up sounding more like a WEIRD AL YANKOVICK TUNE than anything else. GHOULS GONE WILD has a sixties surf-rock feel to it complete with ooh-ahh backing vocals, and just when you think this album couldn’t have been any more of a disappointment along comes a duet with none other than dime-a-dozen manufactured pop tart KE$HA, and while the song itself has some good ideas it actually comes across sounding as bad as you would imagine and almost feels like a last-ditch desperate measure by Cooper to try and remain relevant in today’s music scene.
Words simply cannot describe my level of disappointment with this album and it realy does feel to me as though the once mighty and unstoppable ALICE COOPER has become a parody version of himself and should have just left things well alone. I may have been a slight bit less harsh had this album gone by another name, but if you’re going to release a direct sequel to an album as amazing as WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE then you bloody well better do it right. I’m sure die-hard Cooper fans will defend this album with all their might, but the fact is WELCOME 2 MY NIGHTMARE is a big stinky pile of crud.
Written By ZeeZee
Rating : 3/10
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