My Amazon Reviews: Alice Cooper "Welcome 2 My Nightmare "

Alice and Vince Gill are buddies?
4 Out Of 5 Stars


Maybe the strangest aspect of "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" is Alice Cooper's guest list. Kei$sha makes a convincing auto-tuned devil on "What Baby Wants," and his old buddies from the classic days, Micheal Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith rejoin Alice for the first time since "Muscle of Love." Bob Ezrin gets back into the producer's chair. Steve Hunter (guitars on the first "Nightmare") is back in the fold, along with Dick Wagner. Rob Zombie drops in. But weirder than anything else is that Vince Gill plays lead guitar. Not just once as a novelty, but twice. And fer cryin' out loud, on "Runaway Train," he freaking shreds.

Yep. Alice Cooper and Vince Gill are pals, golfing buddies, even. It's just one of the pieces that makes "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" work better than you'd ever expect. Alice has never really retired the "Nightmare" concept, as little Steven has popped up on plenty of albums since 1975. "Goes To Hell," "The Last Temptation" and 2008's "Along Came a Spider" were all extensions of Steven's sleepy-time. However, Alice has never explicitly labeled them as sequels to the original "Nightmare," so when the familiar piano tinkle leads off "I Am Made of You" (despite the Linkin Park styled Auto-Tune) he makes the connection as obvious as he can.

Before you know it, Steven is running out of ways to stay awake ("Caffeine, Caffeine") and is on-board the nightmare express. The aforementioned Vince Gill exits Nashville pickin' for a ripping solo on Alice's Hellbound "Runaway Train" (his other solo is the more subdued "I Gotta Get Out of Here," the obligatory 'Steven wakes up' number). Alice's playful nature stays up on tracks like "Ghouls Gone Wild" and the first single "I'll Bite Your Face Off." Nor does the sinister Alice stay away, as "When Hell Comes Home" goes serious on a very dark topic. More obvious than anything is that Alice is clearly enjoying himself and resurgent popularity ("Along Came a Spider" was his first Top 100 entry in over a decade), and despite the obvious attempt to attach this album to a past highlight via title, "Welcome 2" is a darn fine rock album.