The album is written about Alice’s origins, and especially the origins of the hard rock music scene of Detroit when he was growing up, and when he came back with The Alice Cooper Band. Here, Alice and his co-writers tried to incorporate those memories of the Detroit music scene into the songs and into every part of the album as a whole. Not only incorporate those sounds into this album, but he also used musicians of that similar ilk, and indeed used songs from Detroit bands of that era, performing his own cover versions of those songs to further intone his Detroit Stories. Alice was making a real attempt to return to the roots of rock and roll, mixing a lot of blues, jazz and soul along with the hard rock and humour that Alice has always been renowned for.
There is a cast of thousands helping out to perform on this album, and in a lot of ways it is an old time Detroit reunion given the people involved. Producer and co-writer Bob Ezrin is back, the man who helmed the desk for most of those Alice Cooper band albums in the early 70’s as well Alice’s first solo pieces, and his recent albums as well. His influence is noteworthy here again. In amongst the tracks that he and Alice co-wrote with other people, there are four cover songs here from other bands tied up in the history of Detroit hard rock. The opening track is a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll”, though the lyrics that paint a picture of New York are morphed here to reflect Detroit instead. The cover of Outrageous Cherry’s “Our Love Will Change the World” has a more Alice-defined rock sound than the original. The cover of MC5’s “Sister Anne” is very much played in an Alice Cooper way, so much so you could believe it really was one of his songs, and the album concludes with a cover of Bob Segar’s “East Side Story”. All have been included to flavour the history that Alice has tried to purvey with this album, to look back at the music that in some ways made him the artist he is today.
Once again there is the return of the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper Band to not only help out in the writing of several tracks, but indeed to perform on two of them. Drummer Neal Smith co-wrote “Social Debris”, and bass guitarist Dennis Dunaway co-wrote “Drunk and in Love” and “I Hate You”, and both of these two and guitarist Michael Bruce joined Alice to record “Social Debris” and “I Hate You”. It has been a nice part of the last three albums to have that history recognised and have these guys come together to still be a part of something special. Others who are prominent in the recording of the album include MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Grand Funk Railroad’s singer and guitarist Mark Farner, and legendary guitarist Joe Bonamassa.
Alice Cooper often has a theme or indeed a story behind every album he records, and that works really well here again. By looking back and trying to make a record that not only pays tribute to the music that shaped his career fifty years ago, he has also tried to keep it relevant to the music lovers of today without losing its own uniqueness that has Alice Cooper stamped all over it. How he has managed to do this, as well as utilise all of the musicians he has gathered together here, in the middle of a pandemic, is quite amazing. And yes, once again the songs that Alice seems to do best, those ones where he pokes fun at things without changing stride and yet still being able to keep it in a serious mode is amazing.
The great thing about Alice is that every album he releases, you can put on and listen to it from start to finish without any qualms, because it is Alice Cooper. Sometimes it is for the music and the musicians, and sometimes it is just for the stories Alice is telling through his lyrics. Above all, how can you not just enjoy listening to Alice sing? It is almost comforting putting on his albums, just to listen to his dulcet tones coming through the speakers.
What Alice is a genius at is being able to adapt his music not only to the genre rock is following at the time, but still being able to make it so that it doesn’t lose its ‘Alice Cooper’ feeling. What do I mean by that? Well, simply that an Alice Cooper album is always an Alice Cooper album, but they are still different in adapting to the style of the time. Listen to Killer or Welcome to My Nightmare or Constrictor or Trash or Dirty Diamonds or Brutal Planet or this album. Every single one of them is different in musical style based on the era it was written and recorded, and yet each album is still essentially Alice Cooper. He has been a chameleon and a genius in order to be able to do this for 50+ years. Anyone who enjoys Alice Cooper’s music will be able to put on any one of those albums and enjoy it for what it is, because their essence never changes even if the style of music does.
Is this a great album? I wouldn’t say so, but terming any album “great” in the current day always feels a bit wrong. If you like Alice Cooper in every era, then you will enjoy this album. I don’t know how long you will listen to it before you move on to something else, or how often you will pull it off the shelf to listen to in preference to any of the other 27 Alice Cooper albums in the future, but for what it is, in the year we are living, it has all the usual Alice Cooper goodness about it.
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