The Eyes Of Alice Cooper Fall River MA

The Eyes Of Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper

Spitfire/Eagle Records, 2003

REVIEW BY: Roland Fratzl

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/30/2003

The first few years of the 21st century have seen Alice Cooper's busiest creative period since the late 1980's. To quickly recap, in late 1999, the sprawling four-disc career spanning box set, The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper, was released, bringing rock music's greatest shock rocker (and just plain overall great rocker) back into the spotlight after several years in obscurity. This was quickly followed up by the critically-acclaimed Brutal Planet studio album in 2000, Cooper's first disc of new material in six years. Year 2001 saw the release of both a new greatest hits package ( Mascara & Monsters: The Best Of Alice Cooper), and Brutal Planet's conceptual continuation, the studio album Dragontown. And in a truly shameless plug, you can go and enjoy reading my reviews of all the albums mentioned above right here on the Daily Vault, in the archives.

So, with the Halloween season of 2003 upon us, Alice Cooper returns once again with another palette of fresh new music that clearly demonstrates that he is still in the zone of superb songwriting quality that began with his Brutal Planet comeback 3 years ago.

Indeed, the somewhat misleadingly titled The Eyes Of Alice Cooper (sounds more like something you'd call a greatest hits compilation, doesn't it?) is Cooper's 23rd studio album in a career that now spans 35 years, and it is the fourth straight disc that has no filler. That's certainly no small feat for an artist who's been around for such a long time, especially one who has arguably been through as many phases as David Bowie.

Before I continue, I should explain that the Brutal Planet storyline was conceived as a trilogy, and although The Eyes Of Alice Cooper follows the first two albums of that trilogy ( Brutal Planet and Dragontown), it is NOT the conclusion of the story. Cooper said he simply wanted to take a breather and release nothing more than a collection of uplifting, meat and potatoes rock 'n roll songs, with no concept in sight, before returning to complete the Brutal Planet trilogy in the future.