{"id":14639,"date":"2021-02-25T05:00:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T05:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=14639"},"modified":"2021-02-24T11:33:05","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T11:33:05","slug":"alice-cooper-detroit-stories-earmusic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=14639","title":{"rendered":"Alice Cooper \u2013 \u2018Detroit Stories\u2019 (earMUSIC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Alice Cooper must be one of a very rare breed in rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. Having now written and released music across seven different decades, I bet if you polled his fanbase for their favourite era or albums, the results would probably encompass most, if not all, of his many different career phases.<\/p>\n

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Me personally, I love the original Alice Cooper band albums (along with some of his mid and later era albums like \u2018Special Forces\u2019 and \u2018Dirty Diamonds\u2019) and of those records, it\u2019s \u2018Killer\u2019 and \u2018School\u2019s Out\u2019 that are my own go-to’s whenever I truly need to rekindle my love of Alice\u2019s extensive back catalogue.<\/p>\n

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This rather conveniently brings me to \u2018Detroit Stories\u2019, an album that not only sees Alice return to his hometown and Alice Cooper band era roots, but also sees him fully reunited with producer Bob Ezrin, the man behind the desk for both of those old Alice Cooper band records I love so much.<\/p>\n

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Written and recorded using only Detroit based musicians (albeit with the exception of guest guitarists Joe Bonamassa and current AC band mainstay Tommy Henriksen) the fifteen songs that make up \u2018Detroit Stories\u2019 are what Alice himself refers to as being \u2018Pure Detroit\u2019. With the crack team of musicians assembled around him boasting the likes of Wayne Kramer (guitarist with the MC5), Johnny \u2018Bee\u2019 Badanjek (drummer with the legendary Detroit Wheels), Paul Randolph (legendary Detroit jazz and R&B bassist) as well as the Motor City Horns, they all help to build on the formula that Alice first tested out with his 2019 \u2018Breadcrumbs EP, and in turn are all helping him create perhaps his most diverse set of (luney) tunes in quite some time.<\/p>\n

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As with \u2018Breadcrumbs\u2019 a few of these songs turn out to cover versions, like the excellent album opener – Alice\u2019s version of Velvet Undergrounds\u2019 \u2018Rock And Roll\u2019. However, what Alice does here (unlike with the covers that he does with Hollywood Vampires) is he really makes this song sound like one of his own. I mean you could be forgiven for thinking that \u2018Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll\u2019 is actually an Alice song, or that it was at perhaps written just for him.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Go Man Go\u2019 is the album\u2019s first Cooper co-write and having been originally included on the aforementioned \u2018Breadcrumbs\u2019 EP the almost punk-like swagger of this tune might actually come as something of a surprise to some of Alice\u2019s more hard rock biased fans who are yet to hear that EP, however knowing just how many punk rockers were originally influenced by Da Coop it’s great to hear him re-engaging with that rougher 70s spirit once again.<\/p>\n

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Likewise, \u2018Our Love Will Change The World\u2019 is also something of a surprise – not least because it\u2019s a pretty faithful retelling of a 2008 penned Outrageous Cherry tune – and as such it sounds not much like Alice and much more like a latter day John Lennon song, one that bounces around on an optimistically youthful refrain. Some AC fans have already voiced their dislike of this song since it was first aired back in late 2020, but I like it as it fits perfectly within the jigsaw puzzle of songs that make up the complete \u2018Detroit Stories\u2019 picture.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Social Debris\u2019 is up next and that finds us very much back on more familiar Alice Cooper band territory (featuring as it does Messrs Dunaway, Smith, and Bruce), albeit I just can\u2019t get out of my head how much this could be a song written for an in his prime Ace Frehley. And talking of KISS on \u2018$1000 High Heel Shoes\u2019 AC once again proves that anything Starchild can do he can do better, as this delicious funky soul jam has seemingly already earned the moniker of one of the oddest songs Alice has ever recorded\u2026well it is I suppose if all you have ever heard by AC is \u2018Poison\u2019 or \u2018Trash\u2019.<\/p>\n