Alice Cooper Dirty Diamonds

Alice Cooper has always been about theatre and great music. From his start with Easy Action and Pretties for you, the band’s music was shaping. By the time Love It to Death arrived, the theatre was in full bloom. Alice Cooper went on to release increasingly superior music with enhanced theatrical appeal every six months, an amazing and superhuman effort with great sounding music every time. By the time Billion Dollars Babies rolled around, a decidedly more radio friendly sound was evolving. Alice Cooper, the band, crashed after Muscle of Love, an excellent – and highly underrated - follow-up to the high selling Billion Dollar Babies, perhaps a little less anthemic but worthy of the band’s name regardless. That album’s “Teenage Lament ‘74” revealed a band still in touch with his audience’s natural angst.

Alice’s “solo” efforts were a little less exciting despite the fact that Alice always remained in top form with his theatricality and his very recognizable voice. Subsequent albums, many of which were good, were arteries in search of a heart to fill. With the advent of Marilyn Manson, it is understood that Alice Cooper still has a reach if his imitators use his props to gain an audience. Unfortunately, Alice Cooper hasn’t enjoyed the level of success he had during the glory days of the original band, not counting the few solo works (Goes to Hell, Welcome to My Nightmare, Whiskey & Lace, Trash, and Hey Stoopid) that appeared after the demise of that band.

With the release of Dirty Diamonds, we have a very interesting thing happening; Alice is blending Mark I Alice Cooper legacy music with the after-Alice Cooper Alice. And it is quite enjoyable. The album is a mix of tunes that stretches time and houses songs that pay homage to the classic periods. Dirty Diamonds is also an exercise in the straight take with all of the songs reportedly recorded with no overdubs.

Alice feels quite comfortable in this album as he allows his voice to take on the ghosts of the past. Dirty Diamonds almost sounds like it could have been a part of the 70s body of work in areas. In “You Make Me Wanna,” Alice’s voice is has the vigor and youth of his early years. With a blend of humour and “Desperado,” “The Saga of Jesse Jane” runs a line with a cross dressing cowboy with a stab at country, intolerance, and Mark I Alice Cooper bravado and originality. “Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)” begins its life like a page borrowed from “Gutter Cats vs The Jets,” the same snarling voice, the same vein.

“Pretty Ballerina” is a cover from The Left Banke (“Walk Away Renee”) and is a shock and surprise when you first come across it. It is a ballad that sounds like a take from the Killer-era. But not everything is classic Alice from the past. There still has to be evolution. “Run Down The Devil,” Your Own Worst Enemy,” “Stand,” a bonus track found as the last song on the album.

There are 13 songs on this latest release of Alice Cooper’s career. Dirty Diamonds is his 31 st album and he is showing signs of new change. Dirty Diamonds isn’t his best but it is his best in quite a few years. Drawing strengths from his past and his present, Alice Cooper rips the grooves with his familiar brand of music as he delivers a grand mix. Alice shows that he can still do it when he wants.