The Revenge of Alice Cooper (earMusic) is the first album with the original Alice Cooper band since Muscle of Love. Making it the band’s 8th album together, and Cooper’s 30th. Bob Ezrin is handling production duties to help them remember what they did back in the day. It opens with the lead single “Black Mamba,” which is slinky and theatrical. Rather than try to recapture the fire that was burning when they recorded Muscle of Love, they are side-stepping this favor of touching on a more “Schools Out” style of borderline Broadway-drama mixed with the Garage Rock sound Cooper has been dipping his boots in the past few albums. 

To their credit, it is pretty energetic for a band in their mid-seventies who have not played together since the 1970s. For 77, Neal Smith’s drumming is solid, though “Up All Night” feels more AC/DC than what these guys used to do, and Cooper’s vocals are way up front, and we have a 77-year-old Alice singing about how he can keep it up all night. They are better off going in a more horror-oriented direction with a song like “Kill the Flies” finds things starting with a creepier atmosphere before going into more four-on-floor rock n roll. Cooper’s vocals bring back a more theatrical feel. There are things on this album like harmonies that sound like they have not aged. 

”One Night Stand’ is darker, which is an improvement, and lyrically it’s about a serial killer, which is better than him diving back into the “Poison” mood of his hair metal albums. “Blood On the Sun” feels like a cross between a country song and The Doors, mixed with their more Rock strut. Cooper’s voice sounds amazing for his age. The arrangement might not be as progressive as their earlier work, but it takes some interesting twists and turns. “Crap That Gets in the Way of Your Dreams” makes fun of rock songs and struggling musicians with little self-awareness.  It is almost as mean-spirited in its social commentary as Frank Zappa, but effective. 

“Famous Face” is another song that finds them grooving more than expected. It feels a little like early Punk but with a more depressed attitude. This makes sense, considering they got their start playing with bands like The Stooges. His voice once again wins the day for “Money Screams.”They pull from varied sides of what they once did with “What a Syd,” sounding like it could have come from “School’s Out.”

As for rocking out, they next take another stab at straight-up Rock N’ Roll with “What Happened to You.” He comes closer to carrying a harder edge on “I Ain’t Done Wrong,” though there’s more of a blues feel to the overall mood. “See You On the Other Side” is more melodic than some of the rock jamming they were doing in the album’s latter half. Perhaps not at the level of Billion Dollar Babies or Killer, it is better than what other rockers close to his age are doing, it’s closer to “Muscle of Love” than it is “Love it to Death,” it should exceed most expectations while still congruent with what these guys used to do. 

Buy the album here:
https://alicecooper.lnk.to/Revenge

9 / 10
WIL CIFER
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