1255. Alice Cooper / The Last Temptation. 1994. 4/5

Alice Cooper has been on a bit of a tear over almost all of the previous decade. Having first made a triumphant return to music with his hair metal albums “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell”, he had then dominated the charts with his Desmond Child co-creation “Trash” that had charted all over the world and brought Alice back to prominence once again, a podium he had not stood on for over a decade at that point in time. This was followed by the equally wonderful “Hey Stoopid!” that was a torch being held at the very end of the hair and glam metal movement. Through this whole period, Alice not only regained his place as the top of the tree for all round entertainer and performer of songs that people of all ages and genres could love, but proved to himself as much as anyone else that he could rise from the depth that he had crashed to in the early 1980’s and find his way back to the top of the industry.
1991’s “Hey Stoopid” fell right at the start of the world’s eclipse by grunge and alternative rock, and thus was not affected as much by the rise of this tempest. However, by the time it came for Alice to start working on the follow up to that album, he would no doubt have been very aware that he needed to adapt. And if there was one thing that Alice Cooper had been good at over the years, it was to adapt to the changing circumstances that he found himself in. The first decision that was made was that the album would return to one of Alice’s old habits, the concept album. Indeed, it would be the first concept album Alice had recorded since the album “DaDa” at the end of his blackout years in 1983. It was a savvy move, looking to lock in both his long-term fans along with the newer fans he had picked up over the mega successful past couple of albums. He formed a new writing crew, including Dan Wexler and Bob Pfeiffer, who composed most of the first half of the album, which set up the story from the outset and included the first single from the album, “Lost in America”. In the second half of the album, Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw from Damn Yankees co-wrote two songs, as did Soundgarden alumni Chris Cornell. All of these writers had experience in the style of music that had begun to dominate over the first half of the 1990’s decade, and their efforts alongside Alice gave the album the story and style it needed if it was going to make its mark on the music of the time.

As always with concept albums, you can either buy into the story being told and enjoy it for that aspect or put all of that aside and just enjoy the songs for how they each sound individually. And for me, from the first time I got the album, I have enjoyed the story as it is laid out through the album, but enjoy the album purely for the tracks themselves. Everyone will take a different viewpoint.
As for the story itself, Alice himself explained at the time of its release, "The Last Temptation takes place in an average Middle American town where one particular group of young boys, who think they've done and seen everything, stumble across this old vaudeville theater that they've never noticed before in an old part of town. Emerging from the shadows within to greet them is a mysterious figure called The Showman (who bears a remarkable resemblance to the classic Alice Cooper character himself) who runs the theater along with his assistant, the temptress Mercy. None of the kids accept the invitation to enter for a free show apart from Steven (the same Steven from Cooper’s groundbreaking album "Welcome to My Nightmare”). Once inside, Steven's temptation at the hands of The Showman begins in earnest. But will he succumb? It's all based on the question of whether or not Steven gives in to modern-day temptation”.
The crafting of the album and the story required a great deal of planning, and indeed in the long run Alice utilised several different producers for different parts of the album and story, in order to get the kind of sonic atmosphere and theatrical environment that he felt was required to make this album work. This led to Alice using Andy Wallace for the bookended tracks that open and close the show and the album, “Sideshow” and “Cleansed by Fire”. Much like a stage musical, these tracks take on the role of introducing the story, and then finishing off the tale, and Wallace’s style was perfect for this. He was also involved in the two tracks in which Chris Cornell contributed vocals, the beautiful ballad-esque “Stolen Prayer” and the more bombastic “Unholy War”, written solely by Cornell himself. Cornell’s backing vocals in “Stolen Prayer” are perfectly attuned to the track and worth the journey of this album alone. Then there was the contributions of producer Don Fleming who handled the ‘street-tough’ sound required for the tracks that followed the opening of the album, “Nothing’s Free”, “Lost in America” and “Bad Place Alone”, which needed a particular aural vocal style to fill its place within the concept, and it is performed beautifully by Alice here. And then Duana Baron and John Purdell come on board to help with the melodic and rock ballad styled songs “You’re My Temptation”, “Lullaby” and “It’s Me”. This, with three different production teams brought in to produce on story masterpiece, Alice has trodden an unusual path, and one that it is up to the listener to decide if it has worked.
The performance of Alice’s band here is exceptional. Unlike his previous two albums, there are no guest musicians (apart from Chris Cornell’s to vocal contributions) and it is just the core who play on every song. Drummer David Uosikkinen, better known for his work with The Hooters and Derek Sherinian, better known for Dream Theater, are both excellent here, along with Greg Smith on bass and regular contributor Stef Burns on guitar put their best foot forward.

Unusually for me in 1994, the first half of the year of which I had zero money due to being unemployed for a large portion of it, I did purchase this album almost immediately on its release, from Virgin Records in Pitt Street Mall in Sydney, on an afternoon I had walked into the city from where I lived in Leichhardt to deposit my work pay check. And I had excitedly gotten home and put in on my stereo, fully expecting an album as awesome as “Hey Stoopid!” and “Trash” had been. And of course, this album wasn’t that at all. It was designed for the times, it was one that was crafted in a different way from those albums that had been released over the previous eight years, the ones I had grown with and loved. And, no question, it took me by surprise. There was no big hair, huge guest artists, overplayed guitar solos and a cacophony of guest adding their vocals to the back up mix. It was... well... what I eventually came to believe was “Welcome to My Nightmare” for the 1990’s.
So, I did enjoy some of it, and some of it was a stretch. But I didn’t stop listening to it, because every time I put it on, and got to the end, there was something else that had grabbed me. And within a month, it was my go-to album at the time. When I used to drive home to Kiama for the weekend, this was the first album that went in the car’s cassette player. I knew all the words, sang them all loud. It was great. And then it eventually moved back to the CD shelves. And waited.
20 something years later, and here we are. And as I’ve said before, this is one of the main reasons I do this podcast, because it makes me go back and listen to albums that I had otherwise forgotten. And some are still not great. But from the moment I took this one back out of its cover, it grabbed me again. From the opening track, but especially from the moody opening of “Nothing’s Free”, into “Lost in America” and then the fabulous two-toned storyline of “Bad Place Alone”, I was drawn back to the fold. WHY had it taken me so long to indulge in this album again? The simple answer of course is – Alice Cooper has so many albums, and so many of them iconic. So when it comes to deciding on an album when I feel like listening to Alice Cooper... this just somehow dropped off the list. I can assure you that won’t be the case in the future. Because while this ISN’T “Welcome to My Nightmare”, or “Billion Dollar Babies”, or “Trash” or “Dirty Diamonds”, or any of another dozen suggestions I could make, this to me is still a terrific album. It transcends the time it was recorded and released, it fit then, and it still fits now. Perhaps you disagree. That’s perfectly fine. But if that’s the case, I feel you may be mistaken.