Article Database
Publications
Entertainment Weekly
Hey Stoopid Album Review
(Entertainment Weekly, 1991-07-19)
At this point, the thought of a new Alice Cooper album is both admirable and pathetic, just like the idea of a 45-year-old man playing the role of decadent, mascara-streaked rock star. But give Alice credit: He knows that it's ridiculous too and that rather than even attempt an adult image, he's better off constructing a nothing-but-good-dumb-fun album like this follow-up to his 1989 comeback, Trash. Hey Stoopid is radio-friendly hard-rock fluff of the Bon Jovi or latter-day Aerosmith genre, but with better hooks than anything on, say, Jon Bon Jovi's solo album. Like Kiss, Cooper has settled into a respectable middle-aged rock formula: choruses that resemble football-stadium chants, truckloads of hammer-on-anvil power chords, and lyrics that work best when they are indeed stupid ("Feed my Frankenstein/Hungry for love/And it's feeding time"). Granted, the album is only a faint echo of the creepy and wonderfully adolescent rock theatrics of his 1970-73 gory days. But as long as Alice keeps getting the joke, he can wear all the eyeliner he wants....
This is Sequal Tap
(Entertainment Weekly, 1993-03-12)
It has always been Spinal Tap's destiny to seize the throne of rock & roll while, as only they could put it, "Stinkin' Up the Great Outdoors." Directionless, rock has stumbled from heavy-metal thunder to gangsta rap, a huge musical pizza with a number of toppings. But the public hungers for something new, and Spinal Tap is a steaming helping of future shock. Playing better than the metal monsters we're supposed to take seriously (this monster excluded, needless to say), they broke out of Rob Reiner's 1984 mock rock doc, This Is Spinal Tap, and escaped into reality, swooping down like a Klingon bird of prey, scooping up arenas full of screaming fans. They know one heroic battle cry, "Break Like the Wind," and anyone foolish enough to stand against them will be blown away....
A Fistful of Alice Album Review
(Entertainment Weekly, 1997-08-08)
Just what you've been waiting for: a live Alice Cooper album baited with one new studio track. Well, he hasn't lost his voice, and chestnuts like "I'm Eighteen" still resonate. But unless you consider the presence of guests like Slash, Rob Zombie, and Sammy Hagar an inducement, you'd do just as well to pick up a copy of Coop's Greatest Hits. Rating: C+...
News Report
(Entertainment Weekly, 1998-11-13)
Go Ask Alice: Sharp-eared metalheads aren't alone in hearing echoes of Alice Cooper's '71 hit "Eighteen" in "Dreamin'," a song from Kiss' current Psycho Circus album. Six Palms Music Corp., copublisher of "Eighteen," filed a complait for copyright infringement against "Dreamin'" authors Bruce Kulick and Kiss member Paul Stanley, as well as Polygram Publishing and Mercury Records, Oct. 21, in the U.S. district court in L.A. The complaint alleges that "Dreamin'" is "substantially similar" to the earlier tune, which was collectively written by members of Alice Cooper. Evan Choen, an attorney for Six Palms Music, says he hopes the matter can be settled out of court: "It's just a question of whether the Kiss people will agree that these songs [sound] just too much alike. I don't see what Paul Stanley could possibly say; he's certainly not going to say he's never heard 'Eighteen.' " A Kiss spokesperson declined to comment on the suit. ...
Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Album Review
(Entertainment Weekly, 1999-04-23)
Unlike some latter-day shock-rockers, the Coop understood the value of a good song, and this four-CD retrospective is packed with 'em, from garagey, pre-AC gems like "Don't Blow Your Mind" to classic teenage wasteland anthems like "School's Out." The first two discs are especially revelatory, tracing the band's metamorphosis from naïve Yardbirds copyists to sicko psychedelicists to the definitively tough, tuneful hard-rock unit they became in the '70s. Hey, kids: Skip those Marilyn Manson tickets and invest in this instead. ...
Brutal Planet Review
(Entertainment Weekly, 2000-06-09)
Nowhere near as dire as you'd fear, the Coop's latest finds our hero spinning characteristically grim fables as his backing band gamely grinds out old-school hard rock melodies and cliches, There's nothing close to "Eighteen" or "School's Out" here, but tracks like "It's The Little Things" prove AC is one of the few fogies who can make this shameless self-pastiche palatable. B-
Tom Sinclair....