Published on Oct 11, 2001
You know, this follow up to Alice Cooper’s masterpiece from the
the previous year is a great album in it’s own right, but let’s
face it, topping
Welcome To My Nightmare would have been pretty much
impossible, so instead of following up a brilliant album with a
stinky one, which is often the case with many bands, Alice followed
up with a more than solid effort that does not make the mistake of
trying to copy the previously successful formula.
Stylistically, this album is all over the place, with an
eclectic mix of songs ranging from metal to disco, broadway, and
soft pop ballads, ensuring that there is something for everyone.
While a lot of people probably see that as desperation or a lack of
cohesion, I personally think that is one way to keep an album
interesting, and Alice does get away with most of his seemingly
misguided forays into unexplored musical territory here mainly due
to the hilarious, often self depreciating lyrics and
way-catchier-than-they-have-a-right-to-be hooks throughout each
track.
On this album it’s very apparent that he does not take himself
seriously at all, and that sort of humilty goes a long way…it’s
all about having fun and being entertained, and this album
certainly delivers in that regard.
Lyrically, it’s another concept album, this time about Alice’s
descent into hell itself and over the course of the songs the story
unfolds about how he attempts to escape…sounds like another
devilish experience eh? But whereas
Welcome To My Nightmare was a twisted album, this one is
very light hearted, funny and self mocking…I’m sure a lot of
people would find this album downright silly and cheesy, but it
doesn’t pretend to be anything more than an entertaining listen,
and it certainly does an excellent job if you give it a
chance…when I first heard it I was like, “What the fuck was he
thinking???”, but after mutilple listens it just dawned on
me that this is great stuff after all.
It starts off with “Go To Hell”, a glorious, voodoo tinged funk
rocker about just that; the descent into hell…some heavy duty
riffs here courtesy of guitar virtuosos Dick Wagner and Steve
Hunter, the two brilliant guys who played on the previous
album…two fine examples of the best of 70’s hard rock guitarists,
guys who had tremendous technical ability who played tastefully and
with feel, unlike all those 80’s clowns who did nothing but try to
show off their speed at doing scales…fuckin’ wankers. Sorry about
that slight tangent; I tend to get carried away with certain
things.
Does the thought of Alice Cooper doing disco frighten you? I
thought so! Well, this was 1976, and disco was starting to hit big
in the mainstream, so I guess Alice, along with many other hard
rock bands at the time, felt they had to include a “dance” song on
their albums, and here it is a song called “You Gotta Dance”. It
doesn’t seem to make much sense at all, but I think the hilarious
idea he had here is that you have a rock icon who is totally
reviled by the moral mainstream majority, yet he is able to get
away with penetrating the most popular mainstream form of music of
the day. I’m sure a lot of parents were very worried when this
so-called satanic figure started to wind up in their homes doing
disco! Is nothing sacred??
I personally love disco and this song is no exception…it
really gives me that urge to sway those hips and shake that ass!
Besides, it’s great to see Alice experimenting with new styles
instead of just doing the same thing over and over and getting
creatively stale as a result, kinda like AC/DC, who I think are
awesome, but there’s no excuse for putting out the same album 17
times.
“I’m The Coolest” is a neat, strange little song where Alice
really lowers his voice to play the role of the devil, to a funk
groove of all things! “I Never Cry” was the big hit off this album
and strangely enough (or not), its a sappy ballad again, but well
written nevertheless. He sure could write good ballads when he
wanted to.
“Give The Kid A Break” has to be the funniest song Alice ever
wrote, and certainly one of the most bizarre by a major artist. He
sings a duet with himself, playing himself bargaining with the
devil, who is once again also sung by himself in a much lower
register, with the accompanyment of a large female soul choir all
in the trappings of a very upbeat pop tune!
“Guilty” is a straight forward rip roarin’ rebellious rocker;
“Wake Me Gently” is another sappy sort of very mainstream sounding
ballad with female back up singers until midway through it
unxpectedly takes a hard rocking turn. Another totally weird, yet
endlessly amusing song is “Wish You Were Here”, a funk/disco tune
with hard guitar riffs thrown in, and it’s about him writing a
letter from hell to his wife back home, before Alice then puts his
masterful twisted mind to work covering an old tin pan alley
classic from 1918 “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” in a way only he
could. Then the optimistic album closer “Going Home” finishes with
great pomp and circumstance through orchestral and choral
bombast!
Alice shows his range as a performer on this album.
Unfortunately, it’s a range not many people want to see from him
and it isn’t nearly as powerful as the legendary Alice of a few
albums earlier, but that’s completely beside the point. It’s still
an awesome album in it’s own regard.
Sure, on
Goes To Hell rock gets sacrificed for ultra melodic showtune
musical type material, but it’s so goddamn catchy and fun that you
can’t possibly not enjoy the shit out of this album! My friends
(who are not big Cooper fans) love this material best because it’s
so upbeat and love Alice’s refreshingly non-serious approach. It’s
such a blast to listen to because you can tell that he had a really
great time recording these songs. His lyrics and performance are
absolutely hilarious!
He realized what a joke it was that people actually took him
really seriously up to this point, and he beat everyone to the
punch with this record’s concept by making fun of himself before
anyone else had a chance to. That’s just part of his genius…from
beginning to end, this is a light hearted parody of himself that
never fails to entertain the listener musically and lyrically.
Goes To Hell was his way of telling the world that he’s not
some anti-christ as he was being unfairly demonized by the
conservative elements of society, but that he’s an entertainer and
nothing more. So many people just don’t understand what he’s trying
to do, and because of this, they dismiss a lot of his music.
To someone who’s not very familiar with what Alice is all about,
of course
Goes To Hell sounds ridiculously cheesy and campy, like a
sort of Muppets musical with him as a guest star. And of course
people expecting some shocking madman will also be disappointed. A
skidmark in your undies is more shocking than anything on this
album.
That’s all beside the point though. I used to hate this album
for the very same reasons I just mentioned why others don’t like
it. But after I bothered to listen to it closely a few times, I
realized what was going on, and the result is masterful. Don’t skip
this one…it’s one of his finest, but in a much different way than
before.