Alice Cooper new Album Released August 31

by Kevin Surbaugh  contributor to Blogcritics.org

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I have a confession or better yet an admission. When I grew up in the 70's and 80's I was not a fan of Alice Cooper. However, in the 90's something happened that changed all that. Alice Cooper changed. He recognized his weakness' in faith and accepted the God of his youth. The God his dad used to preach about all those years ago. His band quit and he hired a new band and released that first album that I fell in love with, The Last Temptation. That was 1994. Now twenty-four years later, I had the chance to have a listen and review his latest album, A Paranormal Evening at The Olympia Paris.

This album follows last years (2017) the release of the studio album Paranormal (Cooper's first in six years), which was the best chart-performing album by Alice Cooper in decades. That album had the American rock legend taking his exciting live show all over the world, accompanied by "the best band he has ever had." That tour ended in Paris on December 7, 2017, in Paris at the "world-renowned Olympia Theater, where this album was recorded.
This live album is a 90-minute release featuring classics such as “Poison,” “School’s Out,” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” gems like “Pain,” and newer numbers like (Paranormal single) “Paranoiac Personality.”

The album captures a rock 'n' roll show at its peak and is one of the best live releases by Alice Cooper, featuring his longtime band guitarists Nita Strauss, Tommy Henriksen and Ryan Roxie, bassist Chuck Garric, and drummer Glen Sobel in front of an excited audience, says the promotional media release.

Awesome Music with a Message

The music still has that sarcasm, that his fans have come to love, but there is a message.  It may not be, the overt in your face message that Stryper and other Christian bands do. However, for a band that isn't thought to be Christian at all, the message is there and can be seen for those that take time to actually listen to the lyrics.   In my effort to write this, I listened and then listened again to each song.  Sometimes, three or four times. In the first song, Brutal Planet, Cooper sings about how horrible this world is.  His lyrics include the words:

Right here we stoned the prophets, Built idols out of mud, Right here we fed the lions, Christian flesh and Christian blood, Down here is where we hung ya Upon an ugly cross, Over there we filled the ovens Right here the holocaust.

Granted it is not as good, in my humble opinion, as "Lost in America", my favorite Alice Cooper song, but it is still a fantastic song. I could certainly have it as the first song to be added to my cell phone's music player.  Other songs on the album included, which was released on earMusic and on two CD set or two (colored) LP set:

Compact Disc Set

CD1:

1. 1. Brutal Planet
2. 2. No More Mr. Nice Guy
3. Under My Wheels
4. Department of Youth
5. Pain
6. Billion Dollar Babies
7. The World Needs Guts
8. Woman of Mass Distraction
9. Poison 10. Halo of Flies

CD2:

1. Feed My Frankenstein
2. Cold Ethyl
3. Only Women Bleed
4. Paranoiac Personality
5. Ballad of Dwight Fry
6. Killer/I Love the Dead themes
7. I'm Eighteen
8. School's Out

LP (colored) Set

SIDE A:

1. Brutal Planet
2. No More Mr. Nice Guy
3. Under My Wheels
4. Department of Youth
5. Pain
6. Billion Dollar Babies

SIDE B:

1. The World Needs Guts
2. Woman of Mass Distraction
3. Poison
4. Halo of Flies

SIDE C:

1. Feed My Frankenstein
2. Cold Ethyl
3. Only Women Bleed
4.  Paranoiac Personality

SIDE D:

1. 1. Ballad of Dwight Fry
   2. Killer/I Love the Dead themes
   3. I'm Eighteen
   4. School's Out

   On Tour

   Overall, even though it is not my favorite, I would still give it four and a half stars out of five. As for Cooper, he is touring the country and has the following upcoming concerts.
   
   • 10/4 — Albany, NY — Palace Theater
   • 10/9 — Charlotte, NC — Ovens Auditorium
   • 10/10 — Atlanta, GA — Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
   • 10/12 — Chattanooga, TN — Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium
   • 10/13 — Biloxi, MS — Beau Rivage
   • 10/14 — Houston, TX — White Oak Music Hill Lawn
   • 10/16 — Irving, TX — The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
   • 10/17 — Park City, KS — Hartman Arena
   • 10/19 — Memphis, TN — Orpheum Theater
   • 10/20 — St. Louis, MO — Peabody Opera House
   • 10/21 — Cedar Rapids, IA — Paramount Theater
   • 10/23 — Des Moines, IA — Des Moines Civic Center
   • 10/24 — Rockford, IL — Coronado Performing Arts Center