Welcome 2 My Nightmare, Review

If you follow my twitter account you know already that this is going to be a very a favourable review.  I fell in love with this album pretty quickly.  I had been anticipating it for some time now as the original 1975 Welcome to My Nightmare is a favourite of mine. 

I love this recording for the same reasons as I love the 1975 original.  First of all, it is a concept album.  I admit to being a bit of a sucker for concept albums.  I love listening to an CD in its entirety as a complete work of art and the concept album completely plays into that.

Furthermore, like the first, this CD contains many different musical styles throughout.  Hard rock, ballads, a touch of disco (although done somewhat sarcastically), southern rock, seventies, and others are all thrown in the blender that is the album.   Having said that, this is predominantly a hard rock record.  There are also some different instruments used throughout as well as various sound bites and narrations for an overall quirky, humorous and fun adventure.  

I won’t go into a whole lot of detail about the story here, I don’t want to give too much of it away for anyone who may want to indulge but a few brief details none the less.  It opens with our main character (is it Alice or Steven or are they one in the same, I was never quite sure) fighting sleep.  He eventually succumbs to tiredness and the nightmare continues. Throughout the ride we get tons of typical twisted Alice Cooper imagery.  I won’t reveal how it ends.

As for the songs themselves just a few highlights as well.  It opens in similar fashion as the original release with a bit of a creepy slow to mid temp introduction to the story.  This track, titled I Am Made of You will not become the classic like the opening Welcome to my Nightmare title track on the 1975 record, but it is an awesome tune. 

There are several rockers on here including track number two, Caffeine.  It fits in here as the protagonist of the story is still fighting sleep.  Other rockers include Runaway Train and I’ll Bite Your Face Off.  There is also the much talked about duet with Kesha titled What Baby Wants, another great tune on the disc.  This one is also a harder rocker and Kesha’s vocals fit in perfectly.

Also worth mentioning is the song, Underture.  It is an instrumental number that blends together many of the melodies from this current recording as well as those from the original 1975 Nightmare. 

Although I often use the word disc in this and all my reviews, I actually purchased this one on itunes and with it came a near 20 minute track of Alice talking and taking us through the album one song at a time.  He talks about the influences and musical style of each number and walks us through the story one step at a time.  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this too. 

I often find when you are anticipating something for a long time it can never live up to the hype.  Well for me, this one did.  I have read some mixed reviews out there, but I think just like the first one, it’s great fun and very worthy of being called a sequel to the original classic. 

Grade:  A +

Favoutite Tracks:  Put it on and let it play from start to finish.  But I do particularly enjoy I am Made of You, Caffeine, and I Gotta Get Outta Here.

School House Rock, Part Two

Part two of my School House Rock songs to commemorate the opening of school next week.  Three more songs featured below starting with a double dose of Alice Cooper. 

Great American Success Story, Alice Cooper

Today I am presenting a pair of Alice Cooper tunes to the list.  I am beginning with the lesser known of the two from the 1986 album Constrictor.  The song is an upbeat rocker that tells the story of a down and out person trying to turn his life around, clean up and go back to school.  As the song progresses it appears he certainly did make it back to school.  However, once he is there it appears he simply gets infatuated with his female teacher.  I always liked this song and I always liked this album.  I only recently learned that Kip Winger, from the 80’s band Winger played base on Constrictor.  See....you really do learn something new everyday. 

School’s Out, Alice Cooper

This song most definitely has to be on any list of school rock songs.  It is a rock anthem that I probably should be writing about in June at school’s end and not now.  The song was originally included on Alice Cooper’s fifth album of the same name released in 1972.  This was when Alice Cooper was known as a band and not a solo artist.  In a school I worked at for 8 years we would play this one through the P.A. system as the students would exit the building on the last day.  Some of us would be standing in the doorway with high fives, handshakes and the occasional hug.  I would see the gleam in the eyes of my students and I know they saw the same in mine.  With much mutual respect for each other (I hope) we smile, bid farewell and at the same time have an understanding that we are glad to be taking a break from each other too. 

Teacher Teacher, by 38 Special

38 Special released this song in 1984 as part of the movie Teachers soundtrack.  The song is a great catchy rock track and if you watch the movie it is actually played in just about its entirety during the opening credits.  I re-watched this moving this summer and I loved it.  Some of it hits school life dead on and some of the themes ring through to this day.   As for 38 Special, this is my favourite song by them although they’ve had other catchy radio friendly singles such as Caught Up In You, Hold on Loosely and Back Where You Belong.  A friend of mine had a greatest hits CD and it was a decent collection of songs.  As an aside I have used the song Teacher Teacher as one of my custom ring tones for anyone who is a work colleague of mine.  

One more installation of School House Rock songs to come!

Welcome to My Nightmare

Anticipating Alice Cooper’s September release Welcome 2 My Nightmare got me in the mood to fire up the original 1975 release Welcome to my Nightmare.  I never actually owned a copy of this album until a couple of years ago.  I have followed Alice Cooper’s career and being an 80s teenager the first album I ever owned by Cooper was 1986’s Constrictor.  It contained the single He’s Back (the Man Behind the Mask) which was featured in Friday the 13^th Part VI:  Jason Lives.      

I enjoyed this album and picked up some other Alice Cooper recordings, but a couple of years ago when perusing a used CD store I cam across 1975’s Welcome to my Nightmare.  I went home, lay back with my head phones on and listened to it from start to finish.  I had heard most, if not all the songs before, but this was the first time I listened to the concept album in its entirety in one sitting.  I have several times since and it very quickly became a favourite of mine.  In addition to being a concept album centering around the tribulations of a character named Steven it has some great Alice Cooper music.

There are different styles, instruments and sounds throughout the album.  It makes for a very intriguing and enjoyable listen.  Your hard rockers are on here with tracks such as Devil’s Food, Black Widow and Cold Ethyl.  Your ballads are there including the well known Only Women Bleed.  Then are your strange and quirky songs with that B-movie or haunted house sounding keyboards such as Steven.  You will also hear horn sections and other assortments of sounds and effects including a spoken word narration from Vincent Price.  Alice himself changes his voice at times singing in a high pitched creepy childlike voice assuming the role of Steven. 

All in all there is never a dull moment on the record.  I enjoy listening to the music, the concept and the imagery Alice creates.  Of everything I’ve heard from Alice Cooper this one is far and above my favourite. 

Grade:  A +

Favourite Tracks:  Hard to pick but I will go with Devil’s Food, Black Widow and Department of Youth.  But for me this album is best enjoyed as a complete package.

Everything Old is New Again

A few upcoming releases from classic rockers that I am looking forward to!

Welcome 2 My Nightmare, Alice Cooper

Coming in September is Alice Cooper’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare, the sequel to the 1975 release Welcome to my Nightmare.  The original Nightmare release was a concept album that took us through the nightmare and/or life of a character named Steven.  I had heard the original Welcome to My Nightmare a few times but never owned my own copy until a couple of years ago.  It was only then that I gained a true appreciation for it and it quickly became a favourite. 

Alice’s most recent release, 2008’s Along Came a Spider, was also a concept album that tells us the story of a serial killer going by the name of Spider.  Interestingly, the character of Steven is mentioned on a few of Alice’s albums and again during the spoken word epilogue on Along Came a Spider.  Some speculate that Spider and Steven are the same person.  Both these albums are favourites of mine.  Check out my review of Along Came a Spider by clicking here. 

Welcome 2 My Nightmare is due out in September and is said to be about what else but another Nightmare, but this one worse than the first promises Alice.  (Aside:  I turn 40 in September, is this some sort of omen?)  Will we see the return of Steven?  Spider?  Going to be interesting to see what Alice has in store for us this time. 

I hope to see Alice perform in concert someday but I am not holding my breath.  I have attempted to see him in concert three times and twice had tickets purchased!  Different life circumstances prevented me from attending all these concerts.  I think over the next few days I am going to break out the original 1975 classic and the 2008 Spider album (his 25th release) and have a listen to both.

Van Halen

Next up is another of my all time favourite bands, Van Halen.  A new album is apparently recorded and back is the original line up with David Lee Roth on the vocals.  Well not really the original line up because out of course is Michael Anthony on the bass and in is Eddie’s son Wolfgang making a triple threat of Van Halen’s in the band with brother Alex still on the drums. 

There is some talk and information starting to leak around the Internet about the album that is now apparently now in the mixing phases.  There is talk of a return to that classic Van Halen sound from those early recordings.  I hope so.  I love those old songs and to this day I still find myself needing an occasional fix of tunes such as Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love, Janie’s Crying, Unchained, And The Cradle Will Rock among others.  As much as I like Sammy Hagar I rarely revisit the albums recorded with him with the exception of 5150 at times.  I am excited to hear this new Van Halen release and hopefully some new classic sounding songs for me to add to that list of old favourites.  This release will also no doubt bring about a tour that I would love to see.

Aerosmith

Next up is another Aerosmith album.  The boys are currently recording their 15th studio release.  It wasn’t too long ago we were wondering if we would ever see this.  It has been quite a career and quite the few years for Aerosmith.  There was the public feuding between guitarist Joe Perry and vocalist Steven Tyler causing us to speculate if Tyler’s days with Aerosmith were done.  Of course Tyler remained in the spotlight with his much talked about fall off the stage during a concert and his newest job as a judge on American Idol.

I was first introduced to Aerosmith in 1987 when they appeared on MTV and Muchmusic (in Canada) with RUN DMC singing their classic hit Walk This Way.  Soon after they released what I consider to be classics of that decade, Permanent Vacation and Pump.  Both were fixtures in my CD player for years.  I also went back and experienced older releases from the band including the classic 1975 release Toys in the Attic. 

Thankfully the boys got themselves together and I am looking forward to hearing what they have to offer up this time.  If you pay attention to some of their comments on the Internet and on Twitter things are apparently going well and they are having a great time making new music.  This is another band that I have not seen perform and are on my lists of concerts. 

What are the chances of me achieving a hat trick of the concerts above this year?  What a great 40th birthday gift it would be!  For now it’s back to listening to some older efforts of all three and enjoying the final full month of my 30s.