Welcome 2 My Nightmare.

Hello readers of blogs and other online literary content. Welcome 2 my blog. I promise you the two in the sentence was completely intentional. I will be reviewing Alice Cooper's new album called Welcome 2 My Nightmare. This is a kind of sequel to one of his previous albums, Welcome To My Nightmare. Now, I can't really call this a sequel because the last album was made thirty-five years ago and many have been produced since then. But Alice Cooper has never lost his musical magic (or maybe it's insanity.) I especially liked this album because it had a variety of different musical genres with his own personal touch added in. He has some disco, beach music, pop, rock, and even some good old I'll Bite Your Face Off! Perhaps that last one wasn't a genre but he has it so who knows? Then, he takes every genre and turns it into a dark and sinister plot throughout the album.

 The album is a story about a guy who goes to sleep and his dreams almost kill him. It starts with a song not related to the story but then goes to one called Caffeine. To be honest the beginning kind of scared me. It says how he tries to stay awake because he knows his dreams will kill him. It has a hyper kind of sound to it and is nice and fast. Then begins The Nightmare Returns. This song is clearly just a song about something terrifying. No hiding behind fancy rhythms just scary piano solos and his patented "scared child" voice. Then comes A Runaway Train. This is where he wakes up in  a train car chained to the floor headed straight for a wall. He then wakes up again explaining how he's in pain....Oh and he's buried in a graveyard. It has this cool train sounding guitar riff and it a nice fast beat to it. After this he realizes he is the Last Man On Earth. Now this is where you get that musical variety. I can't explain it exactly. It's like the song you see guys with canes and top hats dancing to. It's just Alice accompanied by a violin explaining how he can do whatever he wants because he's the only person left in the world. He doesn't even like anybody though, so he's OK with it. It sounds really old-timey I guess you'd say. Then he decides to join The Congregation. In this one I'm not quite sure what's happening. Alice and his good friend Rob Zombie give what I think are tours of the underworld. But, of course, Alice had to add a friendly little "Is there a bathroom here?" right at the end. This was one of his songs I was more accustomed to. A basic Alice Cooper Rock Song is all there is to say. Then comes that fun one I mentioned earlier. I'll Bite Your Face Off! is about a woman who threatens her boyfriends with "I'll bite your face off!" Now I don't know about you but if my girlfriend threatened me with that I think I'd stay pretty loyal. It's another classic Alice addition with the nice guitar rhythms and drum beats. After that one comes one of my favorites. Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever. This is a good one because he went  a little outside of his comfort zone and included some newer musical properties. I think I hear a little techno in it but, like I said, you can still tell it's his music. This one tells about how he goes to a club where it begins really fun and then the workers kill all of them and bury them in a hole. Yeah I know, it's terrible but very catchy. I can't get it out of my head. But the thing that makes it worse is that tomorrow all the people are alive again. So it's really just a vicious cycle of dying then being reanimated. After that he decides to go to the beach and finds everyone there is a ghoul. Ghouls Gone Wild is a fun little beach ditty about the ghosts who eat people and then dance all over the place. It sounds a lot like The Beach Boys to be honest, except for the part about eating people. Then comes a slow song that doesn't fit with the nightmare very well. Something to Remember Me By  is just a good little love song about how much he loves his girlfriend. I don't think it's really about Alice though because he's already pretty committed to death and terror. Then comes a very dark addition. When Hell Comes Home is about a boy who lives with his abusive father and his mother who just pretends it doesn't happen. Well, then the boy gets sick of it and shoots his dad in the face. Good ending huh? Now, a lot of people I know would hate it because of how brutal it is but I think it's a nice story of retribution and how you have to be brave a stand up for yourself. That doesn't mean you actually have to shoot anyone, but it's the thought that counts. Then comes one I thought he must have gone far out of his comfort zone to do. What Baby Wants is very interesting because who else would accompany the man of horror then the hard partyin' queen, Ke$ha. At first I thought this combination wouldn't work with their differences. But once I thought about how crazy they both are it was like a match made in heaven. I bet some long time Cooper fans wouldn't like this one but I like it a lot. Then to wrap up the story he starts I Gotta Get Outta HereThe Underture, Get it?  This song is like I Gotta Get Outta Here but instead of telling you about each song it plays a small piece of each.

I liked this album a lot because it seems like even though he's an older artist he can still try new things. Alice Cooper has always been one of my favorite musical artists and I'm glad he's still bringing out good new things.