Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper Goes To Hell

THE REVIEW

After the enormous success of "Welcome To My Nightmare," followed by a triumphant tour, Vincent Furnier works on its sequel, which sees the light just a year later. "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell" is one of the most melodic albums in the endless career of the Detroit musician: having abandoned the clichés of the classic hard rock album, the artist brings to life a true musical, where the most disparate genres find space. We are faced with a very tight concept album, with the usual Alice as the protagonist, victim of his own nightmares: this time Cooper (as the release title suggests) finds himself facing a journey directly into the underworld.

Sinister guitar chords announce to us that he is already in the clutches of Lucifer, while a chorus of voices recites the charges against the accused, issuing the verdict "You Can Go To Hell!" Soon Alice discovers the tortures that will be reserved for him, "You Gotta Dance" with its disco rhythms reveals that prisoners are forced to dance whenever they hear the music play, while in the next episode the devil himself appears: pride, greed, and self-complacency emerge in "I'm The Coolest", a markedly jazz song with prominent bass in which Furnier perfectly plays the part of his enemy. Another song, another musical change, "Didn't We Meet" is a melodic song where Alice, terrified, realizes he has already met his executioner in a dream, while "Give The Kid A Break" (with rock'n'roll cadences from the 50's) contains a funny duet between Alice and Satan: the former tries to convince the latter that he does not deserve hell, but failing that, he gives up and in the subsequent "Guilty", he admits all his faults with amusement. The song is one of the hardest on the album, supported by Wagner and Hunter's guitars, and could have become a successful hit. Heavy riffs again lead us to "Wish You Were Here", featuring an exceptional final solo, while the concept comes to an end with the dreamy "Wake Me Gently", probably the best song of the lot, in which the protagonist begins to realize that perhaps it was just a nightmare. After the aforementioned "Wish You Were Here" Mr. Furnier presents "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows", a classic dating back to 1918 that fits perfectly with the themes proposed so far, and leads directly to the concluding "Going Home", a melancholy tune that celebrates the happy ending.

Special mention goes to "I Never Cry", the hit of the album that manages to repeat the success of "Only Women Bleed" which had propelled "WTMN" into the charts. It is a sad ballad, in which our artist admits his problems with alcohol, later confirmed by the tour supporting the album that would not see completion.

Written by three hands together with longtime producer Bob Ezrin and guitarist Dick Wagner, "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell" is a very varied product, and one of the brightest testimonies of the singer's creativity, which follows the path traced by the masterpiece "Welcome..." while maintaining its own autonomy and greater narrative coherence: a true fairy tale in music.

Now Lay Still Steven, And I'll Tell You A Bedtime Story...