Shock rock king Cooper connects to his past
Alice Cooper
Detroit Stories | EARMUSIC Genre: Hard rock
Key track: Social Debris
There can be no mention of classic rock without including Alice Cooper.
Cooper's influence on the hard rock/shock rock genre is legendary. Following his '70s superstardom, subsequent decades saw the singer become as well-known for his golf game as his glam one.
But his Bob Ezrin-produced early albums such as Love It To the Death and Welcome to My Nightmare remain essential listening for emerging rockers. The artist has recognized this lately. His live show is dominated by early material.
Now he has reunited with Ezrin and a bunch of famed players from the heyday of the late '60s and early '70s Michigan scene for Detroit Stories. An homage to the place that first embraced the Alice Cooper band's wild stage antics and high-volume attack, the album follows the well-received Breadcrumbs EP, which included covers of fellow scene stars such as Suzi Quatro and the MC5.
Detroit Stories continues the momentum begun with that record. Here are five things to know about the album, which mixes some more well-chosen covers and originals for a career highlight:
1 Rock & Roll
The Velvet Undergound was as New York as could be. But Lou Reed mentions Detroit rock stations in the band's song numerous times. Cooper gives the song a full-tilt Motor City makeover, making it a soul-tinged boogie that could have come off of an album like Killer or Billion Dollar Babies. He sounds great growling out Reed's lyrics, right down to the cowbell-driven “it's all right” singalongs. Joe Bonamassa handles lead guitar duties.
2 Our Love Will Change the World
Cooper himself admits that this cover of Outrageous Cherry's 2005 indie hit is one of his oddest song selections ever. It is certainly the most pop tune in his whole catalogue, chiming with handclaps and chirpy choruses. But there is also an underlying cynicism about the hippie-era lyrics of the tune as he sings it. The feeling is that you like the way love changes the world, or else.
3 Hail Mary
over-amped is sort One pure that part prototypical Cooper's Chuck rockabilly, Berry, contemporaries punk this one of song part the well. such The as mix The that Stooges Ezrin played gives the so entire album is like his work on classic early Aerosmith records such as Get You Wings. The guitars cut through like so many razors. Crank this in your GTO on the way to catch the Kiss Destroyer tour, or something like that.
4 Wonderful World
Cooper always had a great baritone, which he tended to blend in with his most nasal snarl on songs such as The Ballad of Dwight Fry. This song mirrors that effect, right down to its ominous booming drums juxtaposed against demonic lullabye breaks. Goofy and fun.
5 Shut Up And Rock
How is it that this song hasn't been written already? It's 2:10 minutes of pure attitude with plenty of tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Who hasn't wanted to sing, “Don't want to hear about your painful past/i don't care anyway ... Just shut up and rock.”
Adrian Younge
The American Negro | Jazz Is Dead
Genre: Jazz/hip-hop
Key track: The Black Broadcast This ambitious and expansive personal work comes from sometime Jay-z, Kendrick Lamar and Wu-tang Clan producer and the Midnight Hour member Adrian Younge. Pulling together spoken word pieces, big orchestral songs, chants and much more, the 26-track record is a sonic manifesto “detailing the systemic and malevolent psychology that afflicts people of color.” The similarities between this release and revolutionary records such as Max Roach's We Insist!, Archie Shepp's Attica Blues and the work of the late, great Gil Scott-heron are many. All of which makes it an important contribution to the canon of African-american political music and a heavy listen.
4 Mars
Super Somali Sounds From the Gulf of Tadjoura | Ostinato Records
Genre: African funk/pop
Key track: Daroor (The Rain Didn't Come)
Ostinato Records' compilation titled Sweet As Broken Dreams received a Grammy nomination. Now the label returns to mine the magnificent archives of the national radio station of the Republic of Djibouti, to produce an entire album by one of the most popular acts featured on that record, the Somali supergroup 4 Mars. Combining elements of reggae with sinuous brass, chanted group choruses and some quite psychedelic organ and electric guitar, songs such as Dhukla Hooyo (Motherland) are amazing discoveries.
Mouse On Mars
AAI | Thrill Jockey
Genre: Experimental electronic
Key track: Youmachine
AAI (Anarchic Artificial Intelligence) draws material from across the catalogue of the Berlin-based experimental duo of Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma. But it is uniquely sequenced to explore the pair's fascination with technology moving into the future. Working with a number of collaborators, the music forms a narrative within mesmerizing grooves, frenetic pulses and pounding beats. The vocals are actually all “spoken” by an AI, which was programmed with the text and then manipulated by the musicians. It's jarring at times, always interesting .
Russell Louder
Humor | Lisbon Lux Records Genre: Pop
Key track: Cost Of Living
Montreal-based, P.e.i.-born vocalist Louder has been building to the release of his nine-song debut with a rollout of six singles over the 2019-20 period. The sound is deeply indebted to '90s electropop acts such as the Eurythmics, Yazoo and Jimmy Sommerville.