ALBUM REVIEWS

ALICE COOPER Paranormal earmusic

It’s still summer, but school is back in session as Alice Cooper teaches us how it’s done.

The shock-rock godfather goes old school on this two-disc set, reuniting most of his original band from the ’70s on two tracks. Guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith join Cooper on Genuine American Girl, a satiric look at gender identity from one of rock’s original gender-benders, and You and All of Your Friends, an apocalyptic revenge song against those who despoiled the planet and “painted heaven black.”

Cooper is just as lethal with his current band. Dynamite Road is his own Detroit Rock City, about a car crash that kills his band, but leaves Cooper alive to complain that God allowed his Cadillac to be totalled.

Guest musicians include ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover.

MAPPE OF A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone Paper Bag Records

A Canadian artist who spent time busking in Australia and playing heavy metal with his friends has taken his work in an ethereal new direction.

The result is an art-rock delicacy, A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone. It’s an airy mix of haunting melodies and meandering soundscapes that resembles the music of Bon Iver but manages to find its own way home.

The artist — Tom Meikle of Whitby, Ont. — builds the work of Mappe Of on a folk foundation but leans on technology for a dreamy sound-ride. On Cavern’s Dark and Nimbin, for example, delicate melodies rise and fall, mingling Meikle’s vocals with fingerpicked acoustic guitar and swelling accompaniment.

Of course, work this self-conscious runs the risk of seeming precious, and Meikle has hinted at hidden layers of meaning here. But as background music — for a cocktail party, say — it just might be perfect.

LANA DEL REY Lust for Life Interscope

Lust for Life, Lana Del Rey’s fourth album, expands her takes on life inside her fishbowl with observations about living in America. A youthful woman of perpetual sadness, Del Rey still sounds like a torch singer but here she also reflects on the outside world.

The 16-song album opens with Love, capturing young love. On the title track, The Weeknd helps her spell out exactly what it’s about.

Stevie Nicks guests on Beautiful People Beautiful Problems, while Sean Ono Lennon appears on Tomorrow Never Came.