REVIEW: Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider

Originally posted on the old site, July 2008.



Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider (Steamhammer/SPV)

1. "Prologue / I Know Where You Live" - 4:21


2. "Vengeance Is Mine" (Featuring Slash) - 4:26


3. "Wake The Dead" (Featuring Ozzy Osbourne) - 3:53


4. "Catch Me If You Can" - 3:15


5. "(In Touch With) Your Feminine Side" - 3:16


6. "Wrapped In Silk" - 4:17


7. "Killed By Love" - 3:34


8. "I'm Hungry" - 3:58


9. "The One That Got Away" - 3:21


10. "Salvation" - 4:36


11. "I Am The Spider / Epilogue" - 5:21

After a couple of forays back into the garage rock genre that he and the original AC band helped pioneer in the early seventies, Alice Cooper strides purposefully back into the heavy-rock, concept album format that he experimented with to critical acclaim but commercial indifference with 2000's 'Brutal Planet'. With 'Along Came A Spider', his 25th studio album, the inimitable Coop brings us the twisted tale of Spider, a serial-killer with the strange quirk of removing a limb from each of his victims to construct a replica arachnid of his very own.

As Alice himself has pointed out, each of the album's 12 songs plays like a taunting, mocking letter to the police, and the lyrics are appropriately delivered with that trademark sneer that his loyal audience know and love. While fans of the original Alice Cooper group may be disappointed to find that, musically the album is in fact quite upbeat (particularly on the rock-stomp 'I'm Hungry' and the opening 'I Know Where You Live') and lacking in the skin-crawling creep factor of Cooper classicks like 'Ballad Of Dwight Fry' and 'I Love The Dead', this is made up for in part by anthemic choruses and impressive musicianship. Frequent collaborator Slash lends his considerable chops to the album's first single, 'Vengeance is Mine'.

Highlights include the greasy, harmonica punctuated 'Wake The Dead', the now obligatory album ballad 'Killed By Love' and the gleefully perverse 'Wrapped In Silk'. The album's greatest moment, however, comes at the very end with a spoken outro delivering an excellent twist-ending that would be sure to surprise and delight long-term fans. Or at least it would, if the album's inner packaging didn't irritatingly give the game away.

Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable album full of spirited performances, great rock music, and a typically sick Cooper storyline. It may not rank amongst his very best, but it's certainly his best in years. Recommended.

Along Came A Spider is in stores and online now. The iTunes version includes 3 bonus tracks.

www.alicecooper.com