Published on Oct 24, 2001
After Alice Cooper finally made a huge comeback to the top of
the charts in 1989 with the abysmal
Trash album after spending a good decade out of the rock
spotlight, he didn’t waste any time striking while the iron was
hot, following up in 1991 with
Hey Stoopid.
This album pretty much continues in the same vein as
Trash, and that certainly is not a good thing. It’s
definitely an improvement, but considering this came out in 1991,
it sounds incredibly dated already, still suffering from the “big
rock” 80’s pop metal sound, with few exceptions. This is basically
another bland, spineless, blatant stab at commercialism… what
ever happened to Alice’s dark, thought provoking edge and
challenging and interesting musical arrangements?? Once again, none
of that is present here…what really infuriates me is that so many
of the songs here start off sounding so promising before they
predictably collapse in a mess of typical poppy guitar riffs and
even more annoying Bon Jovian choruses with large harmonized backup
choirs…I hate that.
It seems like he was trying to regain his edge but keeping a
commercial friendly sound at the same time. That’s an extremely
difficult line to straddle, and most of the time it can’t be pulled
off convincingly. You get the sense with this disc that he was
definitely moving in the right direction, but the tendency to play
it safe ultimately sinks the record. If Alice Cooper had created
such standard albums like this from the beginning, he never would
have become relevant at all. It seems at this point that he thought
to himself that he had paid his dues and that he just wanted to
coast along for the rest of his career on respectably well selling
albums that the mainstream could enjoy.
That’s right, stick to a safe and easy formula…well, despite
this album being pretty successful, it didn’t do nearly as well as
Trash, so that probably gave him something to think
about…man, if I had been a long time fan back in 1991, I think I
would have given up hope on Alice, considering by then he hadn’t
put out a really good album since 1983’s
Dada.
Once again, he enlisted some big time names for guest
appearances on this merely average disc…various members of Motley
Crue, Guns ‘N Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani,
among others…not a great idea in my opinion as that sort of thing
diverts attention from the artist. A ton of high profile guests is
better left for a tribute CD, and none of them really add anything
noticeable to
Hey Stoopid in any way.
Now for a quick glance over some of the tracks, as they don’t
really warrant much attention: “Hey Stoopid” is an okay song about
the negative results of drugs and alcohol…at least it has a
positive message I guess…it was one of the hits off this album.
“Love’s A Loaded Gun” is a pretty forgettable power ballad;
“Snakebite” starts quite well as a sneering eerie tune, but then
becomes predictable; “Dangerous Tonight” is one of the better songs
because it has a darker feel, hinting at the Alice of old, but it
also suffers from the slick production and wanky guitar sounds;
“Might As Well Be On Mars” again starts strongly with an acoustic
creepy intro but then fades somewhat due to much unecessary
repetition and overblown arrangements…still one of the better
songs he’d written in quite some time though.
“Feed My Frankenstein” was another hit, mainly due to exposure
at that time in the movie
Wayne’s World. It’s very cartoonish and silly, but features
superb guitar riffs courtesy of virtuosos Steve Vai and Joe
Satriani…rather tongue in cheek stuff, the way Alice used to be.
“Hurricane Years” is a pretty aggressive uptempo rock song, but it
isn’t particularly unique, just like most of this material, and I’m
not sure I care much for the Top Gun style guitar riff. “Dirty
Dreams” is a simplistic, juvenile tune that you’d sooner expect
from a more generic band like Kiss than from a creative person like
Alice Cooper…hearing him continue to write in this sort of style
is very disappointing and a complete waste of his potential.
“Little By Little” is a blatant Bon Jovi style rocker, complete
with Richie Sambora-type playing through a squawk box, and
annoyingly over the top “macho” vocal harmonies on the choruses
backing up Alice.
While
Hey Stoopid definitely marks an improvement in songwriting
quality, it still only comes across as a very average CD. Very
little of the material has any sort of staying power, which is a
shame because in many spots there are glimpses of the classic Alice
who hadn’t shown his face for nearly a decade at that point. I get
the sense that Alice was content to run with the pack instead of
being innovative and lead the way he used to. Fortunately for him
(and us), on future albums he would return to his true roots and
thankfully end the 1986 – 1991 period that I consider to be his
creative nadir.
Hmmm…what a pity that the elements of classic Alice that peek
through on certain cuts (usually in the form of darker lyrics) are
ultimately submerged with umemorable mediocrity. Several of the
songs have strong intros or interesting bridges but usually
collapse into mind numbing MTV friendly overblown pop hooks and
cliched melodies that might make a few ten year old girl’s panties
wet.
To sum up, even though this one offers up a similarly shitty pop
metal approach as
Trash two years earlier, it’s a tad darker, heavier, and
therefore significantly better, but that’s not saying much when
compared with something as insurmountably bad as
Trash! You simply won’t be able to get the thought out of
your head that Alice is capable of much better than this, but at
least the songs don’t all sound the same, and if you listen
closely, you can capture the odd subtle reminder of several of his
past eras.
Hey Stoopid is merely okay, and really inconsistent, and
more often than not, quite boring and basic when compared with
Alice’s best stuff. I hardly ever listen to it.