{"id":1882,"date":"2017-07-26T14:31:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T18:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/?p=1882"},"modified":"2017-07-26T14:55:24","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T18:55:24","slug":"alice-coopers-paranormal-welcome-back-to-the-nightmare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2017\/07\/26\/alice-coopers-paranormal-welcome-back-to-the-nightmare\/","title":{"rendered":"Alice Cooper’s Paranormal: Welcome Back to the Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a little silly how happy it makes me to hear Alice Cooper<\/a> sing lines like, \u201cPlease watch your step dear, the world is out to beat you\/Don\u2019t you know there\u2019s cannibals designed to kill and eat you\u201d over a snarling guitar riff. There has always been a large dose of kitsch to Cooper\u2019s work, a perfectly satisfying mix of rock and roll rebellion and haunted house theatrics. He\u2019s been able to keep that up for nearly fifty years, and he\u2019s in fine form on his new album, Paranormal<\/em>, out 7\/28. The line I quoted is from \u201cDead Flies,\u201d a slapstick broadside of modern times that includes, among other nuggets, the line, \u201cYour phone knows more about you than your daddy or your mother.\u201d <\/p>\n

Paranormal puts twelve new tracks together with six classics, including \u201cNo More Mr. Nice Guy\u201d and \u201cSchool\u2019s Out,\u201d recorded live in 2016. The bridge between them being two new songs recorded with original Billion Dollar Babies, guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. It was also produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced about a dozen of Cooper\u2019s albums, including those early landmarks School\u2019s Out<\/em>, Billion Dollar Babies<\/em>, and Welcome To My Nightmare<\/em>. He also produced The Wall<\/em>, which is obvious in some spots on this album (try not to think about the marching hammers from The Wall when listening to the ominous organ-and-guitar driven \u201cThe Sound of A\u201d). <\/p>\n

Plenty of bridges to the past, and the realization that all the right things about Cooper haven\u2019t really changed. That musty, dreadful smell you get when you first enter a funhouse and everything goes dark, before the pneumatic hiss thrusts a ghost wrapped in chains at your cart \u2013 that\u2019s what you get in sonic form from the first chiming guitar arpeggio on the title track. \u201cI\u2019m condemned to the long, endless night,\u201d Cooper sings. Again, how happy that condemnation makes me. \u201cAnd my shadow has lice of its own,\u201d he continues, \u201cWatching you while you sleep all alone.\u201d Fast cars, big guitars, rats gnawing on human flesh, and maybe an occasional jazz hand. What more could you want from the man? <\/p>\n