The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureMusicAlbum reviews

Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper

Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper | Album review
25 February 2021
Dan Meier
Avatar
Dan Meier
25 February 2021

Music review

Dan Meier
★★★★★

Release date

26th February 2021

Links

Twitter Facebook Instagram Website

If nothing else, 2021 promises comebacks for several legends of hard rock. Already, Kiss frontman Paul Stanley has threatened us with an album of soul covers, while Slash has teased new music from Guns N’ Roses this year, which based on their track record means we can expect to enjoy it in 2035. First though, we have the new LP from golf enthusiast, born-again Christian and Freddy Krueger’s foster dad: Alice Cooper.

This year also marks a half-century since Alice Cooper (back when he was a band) first found fame in Detroit, after moving from Los Angeles – where the hippie crowds “just didn’t get it” – and teaming up with producer Bob Ezrin for their breakthrough album Love It To Death. 50 years and countless collaborations later, Cooper and Ezrin pay homage to the city that first embraced the groups’s shock rock stage antics without freaking out over stories involving livestock and ouija boards.

Opening with the familiar strains of Rock and Roll by The Velvet Underground as covered by the band Detroit, Detroit Stories drives through some of the musical styles made famous by the Motor City. We get punk on Go Man Go, blues on Drunk And In Love (where Cooper plays the harmonica) and soul on $1000 High Heel Shoes, featuring the Motor City Horns and Sister Sledge on backing vocals.

The core ensemble is Detroit rock royalty, including MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer and The Detroit Wheels drummer Johnny “Bee” Badanjek, with guest appearances from U2’s Larry Mullen, Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner and vocal contributions from Cooper’s wife and daughter Sheryl and Calico. Having celebrated his 73rd birthday this month, Cooper’s raspy voice sounds so unchanged since the 70s that one half expects Gwyneth Paltrow to start extolling the virtues of chicken’s blood.

Cooper and co cover MC5 (Sister Anne), Bob Seger (East Side Story) and the man himself (Detroit City 2021), because he’s nothing if not self-referential. The original Alice Cooper group are reunited on a couple of self-deprecating numbers, Social Debris and I Hate You (“I hate you, your spider eyes / a guillotine, oh big surprise!”), reclaiming the criticism they faced before finding acceptance on the Michigan scene alongside The Stooges and MC5.

There are no surprises on Detroit Stories, unless you count the sincere suicide prevention hotline advert Don’t Give Up. The song Our Love Will Change The World is downright plain, but it delivers a merry, motoring tribute to the city where Alice Cooper (the man) was born and Alice Cooper (the band) was born again. Compared to his peak it’s inessential, but compared to Paul Stanley’s Soul Station it’s incredible.

★★★★★

Dan Meier

Photo: Phil King

is released on 26th February 2021. For further information or to order the album visit Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper’s website here.

Watch the video for the single here:

Related Itemsfeaturedreview

More in Album reviews

The Fratellis – Half Drunk Under a Full Moon

★★★★★
Georgia Howlett
Read More

Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

★★★★★
Mark Worgan
Read More

The Snuts – WL

★★★★★
Francis Nash
Read More

Mike Clerk – The Space Between My Ears

★★★★★
Georgia Howlett
Read More

Max Richter – Voices 2

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Evanescence – The Bitter Truth

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Ben Howard – Collections from the Whiteout

★★★★★
Mark Worgan
Read More

Justin Bieber – Justice

★★★★★
Bev Lung
Read More

Lana Del Rey – Chemtrails over the Country Club

★★★★★
Jonathan Marshall
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Music review

Dan Meier
★★★★★

Release date

26th February 2021

Links

Twitter Facebook Instagram Website

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Snabba Cash
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Shake Shack launches limited edition Vegan Crispy Shallot Burger in partnership with chef Neil Rankin
    Food & Drinks
  • Celebrate the EE BAFTAs this Sunday with Claude Bosi’s free virtual dining experience
    Food & Drinks
  • Bittersweet Symphony
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Barker-Turner Overdrive: An Evening of Duets at the Tunbridge Wells Forum Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Disenchanted Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Sensation
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Thick’n’Fast: General Secretary Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Beast Beast
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Henry Glassie: Field Work
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Playfight at Finborough Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Power
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Godzilla vs Kong: A colossal brawl that magnificently delivers what we tuned in to see
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Wellington Paranormal
    ★★★★★
    vod
  • Worn Stories
    ★★★★★
    netflix
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Grimm Tales for Fragile Times and Broken People | Theatre review
Judas and the Black Messiah | Movie review