My Amazon Reviews: Gerard Way "Hesitant Alien"

Close Encounters of the Loud Kind
2 Out Of 5 Stars

In his first album since breaking up My Chemical Romance, front-man and comic book fanatic Gerard Way jettisons the rock opera confines of "The Black Parade" and "Danger Days" and floods "Hesitant Alien" with fuzzed out guitars, touches of glam rock and his considerable skill at big, meaty hooks. Problem is, things sound like maybe writing big songs with theater in mind might have been a bigger skill than he wanted to own up to. The songs on "Hesitant Alien" distort madly and bleed into each other with a sort of wall of noise monotony.

There are a couple of good songs here that cut through the mix. Both "No Shows" and "Action Cat" favor speed over noise, and comes close to Sweet in terms of Brit-Glam. "No Shows" has a pretty insistent hook. The only other song of note is the speed demon "Juarez," making Way sound like he had some old Pixies CD's mixed in with pop opera aspirations, but I get the feeling all across "Hesitant Alien" that Way is stretching himself too thin. The songs have plenty of sing-along moments when he stops screaming into a distortion pedal, and you keep waiting for that one big number to emerge, ala "Sing," "Helena" or "The Black Parade." Just never happens.

And I'll add one more thing: The album has a horrible mix. On some of the songs, things are so compressed that Way's voice is just another sound crammed in the mush. "Zero Zero" might even had been the big song that "Hesitant Alien" needed, but the production is so bricked out that there's no breathing room for any element of the song to stand out above the others. Same goes for better than half the album. Of all the CD's I've bought recently, the only album to come close to production this bad has been the flat-line of Imagine Dragons' debut. "Hesitant Alien" desperately needed some light between the cracks.

     

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My Amazon Book Reviews: Neil Gaiman & Alice Cooper: "The Last Temptation"

Temptation Kicks In
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Steven always seems to be a part of Alice Cooper's batch of alter-egos, and when the album "The Last Temptation" came out, Steven made it into the comic books. I actually had the first volume of the three books to come out when I bought the CD back in 1994. It was part of Marvel Comics' short lived Rock Star Comics, started when KISS hit it big with their series of books. On the other hand, Steven already had stories via Alice's albums "Welcome To My Nightmare," Goes To Hell" and a cameo on "Hey Stoopid." Given that the CD "The Last Temptation" may well be the best of his Epic label trilogy, the graphic novel seemed like an obvious move.

Neil Gaiman participated in shaping the concept of the album and book with Alice, and if you've heard the album, the resemblance to "Something Wicked This Way Comes" and "Faust" are obvious. The book, though, pushes Alice's bubblegum Grand Guignol into serious territory, with Cooper doppelganger "The Showman" luring Steven into a haunted theater where nightmares will keep you safe, if you're willing to trade The Showman fort something he wants. It's more creepy than scary, as the temptations include hot women, revenge on the bullies, and your parents becoming ghostly apparitions with Alice Eyes.

The art is nicely reproduced (nice job by Dark Horse Books) and I like the hardcover design. It's a lot of the parts it borrows from (they even drop a copy of "Something Wicked" on a book table without irony) and the odd drop of album lyrics. For Alice fans, it's definitely worth having, maybe 50/50 for graphic novel buffs.