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Alice Cooper Rocking Like He's 18

Call it the career that won't die. Just when you're ready to count 43-year-old Alice Cooper out of the runing, the outrageous patron saint of shock rock and vaudeville-metal releases a vital album, Hey Stoopid, his 21st, and turns in a back-to-form performance on the Operation: Rock & Roll tour.

Adored and deemed influential by just about every hard-rocker on the charts, Guns N' Roses included Alice's sinister voice on "The Garden" off Use Your Illusion 1. In August, Cooper (nee Vincent Furnier) was inducted into Hollywood's Rock Walk on Sunset Blvd., and in September, traffic slowed to a standstill when Cooper and his band played a free lunchtime gig in New York City's Time Square. On September 30th, the veteran rocker kicked off a European tour with up-and-comers The Almighty.

"I think there are maybe ten major acts that aare considered 'classic,' and I think Alice is one of those," the man responsible for "I'm Eighteen," "School's Out" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy" says. How does he keep up with the younger set? "I'm in better shape than I was when I was 25. And whe I was 25, I was a mess."

-- Gary Cee

Alice Cooper's Schlock rock

Alice Cooper / Hey Stoopid (Epic)
2.5

Big guitars, big drums, big choruses, big everything. The vocals ar piled on so think you feel like you're listening to the Abyssinian Baptist Gospel Choir. There's an allstar cast too: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Slash, Ozzy, Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars.

The songs range from rockers like the anti-suidice anthem "Hey Stoopid" and the paean to lust "Feed My Frankenstein", to power ballads like the sappy, broken-hearted "Die For You". They're listenable enough and Alice's wicked signing is as good as ever, but nothing really grabs you. Ultimately, the album sounds very generic and contrived, with that let's-cram-as-many-hits-as-possible quality. It sounds god on the stereo, but doens't do much for the soul.