The first Alice Cooper album I listened to in full was Trash. I was a tennager and it was a time in my life when I started to take a real interest in music. For Alice Cooper, Trash was a comeback album which became a smash. With the help of Desmond Child, a songwriter who is responsible for some of the biggest hits of the 80’s, Alice Cooper became current.
Decades on, Trash sounds more dated than Cooper’s earlier 70s albums. This new album, Detroit Stories, has more in common with the earlier classic Cooper.
The songs here have a real raunch and roll feel and there is a direct straight ahead humour. In some ways this album is not to be taken too seriously. One song tells a story of a five year old who is bored until they find a rock n roll radio station. Another song describes someone getting out of jail and raising hell with a girlfriend. Yet another song tells the story of a man who is infatuated with a woman he philosophises with. The woman is then described as ‘a devil with angel eyes.’
The songs are littered with some interesting one liners. Consider ‘I saw you baby and I pissed my pants,’ or ‘We are all pessimistic creeps.’ This is the stuff of real life. These songs tell stories of rooted people, often struggling in one way or another. There is still humour in that. There is a certain quality in this humour, in the acknowledgment that we are all flawed in some way. These songs are therefore a way of expressing solidarity.
Near the end of the album, there is a touching moment when Cooper leaves the telephone number for a suicide prevention helpline as part of the track Hanging on by a Thread - Don’t Give Up. Despite the theatre of Cooper’s music, here is a moment where he shows a concern for real people.
This is an album I will go back to from time to time. Here I will find a proper artist at work.
Review by Glenn Robinson
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