Dirty Diamonds (Dig)

You’d think Alice Cooper’s demons would’ve been conquered by now—or maybe locked in a cage and fed undercooked meat. But the man who changed the course of rock music in the ‘70s with bloody guillotines, sparking electric chairs, slimy boa constrictors, and a little blood and eyeliner still has more to slay in 2005.

Although he never really left, it only felt that way because much of Alice Cooper’s 80s and 90s output has been, to be kind, forgettable. Hard rock fans were put off by the turn towards frigid techno and all but gone by Cooper’s slash and burn metal years.

2005’s return to the stinging hard rock that put him on the map is a welcome look back in anger. Kicking off with the gritty, driving guitars and snappy lyrical twists of "Woman of Mass Distraction," Cooper’s sleazy voice sounds as robust and distinctive as it did three decades ago. Riff happy nitroburners such as "Steal that Car," "Your Own Worst Enemy" and especially the "Under My Wheels" licks of "You Make Me Wanna" show that Cooper, now pushing 60, still has plenty of gas in the tank. A lovely, entirely non-ironic cover of The Left Banke’s "Pretty Ballerina," complete with harpsichord and string section, proves that Cooper hasn’t lost his touch with "Only Woman Bleed" style ballads either.

Dirty Diamonds, with it’s unnecessary nod to hip-hop ("Stand") and weak stab at country ("The Saga of Jesse Jane"), won’t knock classics such as School’s Out, Billion Dollar Babies and Love it to Death from their well-deserved perch as archetypal blueprints of Cooper’s Halloween-styled gutsy rocking. Yet, at its best, the raw guitars and tightly arranged songs refreshingly recapture the brash attack and dark humor of his glory years. --Hal Horowitz

Recommended Alice Cooper

Killers	Love it to Death	School's Out
Billion Dollar Babies	Welcome to My Nightmare	Flush the Fashion