School’s out… and look who’s here to lead us astray: ADRIAN THRILLS reviews Road by Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper: Road (earMUSIC)
Verdict: Ol’ Black Eyes is back
Rating:
Hozier: Unreal Unearth (Island)
Verdict: Skilful but sprawling
Rating:
As the godfather of shock-rock, Alice Cooper is proof of the old adage about the devil having all the best tunes.
And at 75, this old devil is showing no sign of slowing down. The past six years have seen him produce two studio LPs, one live album and an EP. He’s also completed three major tours and hosts his own radio show on the digital channel Planet Rock five nights a week.
We can now add his 22nd solo album, Road, to that tally. It’s a record that chronicles the experiences of a hard-living rock and roll band… and it sounds exactly as you might expect. As with his shock-filled live show – his concerts have involved guillotines, snakes, an electric chair and lashings of black eyeliner – it’s all underpinned with humour and a knowing wink.
As the godfather of shock-rock, Alice Cooper is proof of the old adage about the devil having all the best tunes
And at 75, old devil Cooper is showing no sign of slowing down. The past six years have seen him produce two studio LPs, one live album and an EP
‘The shameless pretenders have come and they’ve gone, but I stand here before you and the legend lives on,’ he growls on I’m Alice, his bravado backed by a drummer, bassist and three guitarists. It’s punchy, old-school fare, tightly framed by veteran producer Bob Ezrin, the man who helped Cooper forge his signature sound on the 1970s classics Schoolo’s Out and No More Mr. Nice Guy.
The theatricality doesn’t let up. ‘If I wasn’t in a band, I’d probably be a criminal, I estimate my options as absolutely minimal,’ he sings on Dead Don’t Dance. The frenetic Welcome To The Show is clearly intended as the opening salvo of a live gig.
His meditations on touring life carry a whiff of gimmickry. Road doesn’t have quite the same visceral power as its 2021 predecessor, Detroit Stories, a celebration of Cooper’s Motor City roots that featured a cast of fellow Michigan-born musicians, including MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer and members of Grand Funk Railroad.
When he gets it right, though, there’s nobody quite like Alice. On the tongue-in-cheek Rules Of The Road, he delivers a hilariously unhelpful survival guide for aspiring young musicians.
One of his tips involves trying to acquire all the trappings of fame – mansions, flash cars, private jets and ‘a girl from East LA’ – before having the cash to maintain such a lifestyle.
Beneath his alter-ego, Alice (real name Vincent Furnier) is a golf-playing, teetotal father of three who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife of 47 years, Sheryl Goddard, and he offers a glimpse of the home-loving man behind the horror mask on Baby Please Don’t Go, a strummed ballad that sees him leaving the house , with mixed feelings, at the start of another world tour.
As he showed on 1975’s Only Women Bleed, a song about domestic violence, Cooper is a capable balladeer, and Road could have done with a few more slow numbers. His songwriting has won plaudits from Bob Dylan, and Baby Please Don’t Go shows why.
Alice Cooper of Hollywood Vampires performs at Utilita Arena Birmingham on July 11, 2023
Beneath his alter-ego, Alice (real name Vincent Furnier) is a golf-playing, teetotal father of three who lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife of 47 years, Sheryl Goddard
He finishes with a cover, a version of The Who’s 1968 single Magic Bus, complete with thunderous drum solo.
When I interviewed him ahead of 2008’s Along Came A Spider, Cooper said he used to listen to The Who whenever his parents talked about politics. He would retreat to his bedroom and play their records as loud as possible… which is the best way to listen to Road.
Slow and steady is the approach of Irish singer Andrew Hozier-Byrne.
Having come close to topping the U.S. charts with his 2013 debut single Take Me To Church – only Taylor Swift prevented him from reaching No. 1 – he’s recorded just two albums. He’s a gifted vocalist and stirring songwriter, but you wouldn’t call him prolific.
His painstaking methods are again evident on his awkwardly titled third album, Unreal Unearth.
With its 16 tracks taking the overall running time to over an hour, there’s a lot to digest. When his songs hit the sweet spot, they do so superbly. Damage Gets Done, a duet with folk-rock singer Brandi Carlile, pines for the innocence of youthful romance: ‘We’d sleep on somebody’s floor, wake up feeling like a millionaire,’ they sing, their voices dovetailing brilliantly.
Slow and steady is the approach of Irish singer Andrew Hozier-Byrne. Having come close to topping the U.S. charts with his 2013 debut single Take Me To Church — only Taylor Swift prevented him from reaching No. 1 — he’s recorded just two albums
Eat Your Young is equally impressive. Sung in a falsetto and accompanied by orchestral flourishes, it sees Hozier railing against greed and the global arms race.
There’s variety too, with gospel-soul ballad All Things End channelling Stevie Wonder, and Anything But revisiting the African high-life guitars Hozier used on his 2019 single Almost (Sweet Music). There are some clever … possibly too clever … nods to Greek mythology.
There’s a touch of Paul Simon’s Graceland on I, Carrion (Icarian), which references the story of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun. Son Of Nyx (named after the ancient goddess of night) is a hazy interlude with indistinct vocal wails and strings from the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.
The album loses momentum as it progresses. Who We Are is fussy and bombastic, and First Light an overblown finale that begins optimistically before becoming gloomier. ‘Darkness always finds you,’ sings Hozier glumly.
With the Wembley Arena show already sold out, his UK winter tour should put a smile back on his face. Unreal Unearth is worth a listen, too, but it will take patience to pick out its best moments.
Hozier starts a UK tour on December 10 at the M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool (ticketmaster.co.uk).
LIVE
Even with all the fainting, boy, that was a genius show
Boygenius (Gunnersbury Park, London)
Verdict: Triumphant UK debut
Rating:
Playing the biggest headline concert of their career – and their first ever UK date – cult American trio Boygenius confirmed that the success of their debut album, The Record, which topped the UK charts in April, was no fluke. They drew 25,000 near-hysterical fans to a West London park for a triumphant open-air show.
Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker have promising solo careers, but it’s in this pooling of their talents they make waves. Before a sea of mobile phones, they played The Record in full, augmenting it with tracks from an earlier EP and one new song. They also sang one number apiece from their solo LPs.
The name Boygenius is a cheeky reference to the idea of the tortured male mastermind and there were other playful gestures, too. Before the trio’s opener, the house DJ warmed up the audience by playing Thin Lizzy’s The Boys Are Back In Town. In another nod to the classic rock era, the gothic script on their ‘world tour T-shirts mirrors the logos of heavy guitar bands.
Playing the biggest headline concert of their career – and their first ever UK date – cult American trio Boygenius confirmed that the success of their debut album, The Record, which topped the UK charts in April, was no fluke
Phoebe Bridgers (left), Lucy Dacus (centre) and Julien Baker (right) have promising solo careers, but it’s in this pooling of their talents they make waves
The name Boygenius is a cheeky reference to the idea of the tortured male mastermind and there were other playful gestures, too
Any doubts that their intricate harmonies and introspective songs would not work on a big stage were soon dispelled. With Bridgers singing lead, the piercing Emily I’m Sorry was an acoustic delight. Cool About It, with its echoes of Simon & Garfunkel, saw Baker and Dacus combine brilliantly.
Whether it was the effects of the sun, or due to England’s women losing the World Cup Final earlier, the gig was halted several times to enable medics to attend to fainting fans.
The show also lost a little urgency during a mid-set lull.
The evening climaxed with Not Strong Enough, a 2023 single that took on a euphoric quality live, its ‘always an angel, never a god’ refrain prompting a singalong.
If they decide to continue, arena status beckons.
Boygenius play Connect Festival, Edinburgh, on Sunday (ticketmaster.co.uk).
CLASSICAL
By Tully Potter
Ysaye: Solo Violin Sonatas
(DG 486 4176)
Rating:
Bach: Piano Partitas
(LAWO Classics LWC1249)
Rating:
I cannot speak with authority about Storm Hilary but American violinist Hilary Hahn plays up a real typhoon on this disc.
Realising late in 2022 that the six Solo Sonatas written by her great Belgian predecessor Eugene Ysaye would be 100 years old this year, she swung into astonishing action.
Across seven weeks, despite having a full schedule, she recorded the Sonatas one at a time in Boston, Massachusetts: she had not previously touched them for a decade.
I cannot speak with authority about Storm Hilary but American violinist Hilary Hahn plays up a real typhoon on this disc
If you turn your volume control down a little, as the recordings are very ‘present’, you will be treated to a whole panoply of violinistic effects in these marvellous works.
Ysaye dedicated each one to a fellow fiddler, such as Szigeti, Thibaud, Enescu or Kreisler, and of course he was thinking of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas as he composed.
Fifty years ago only one complete recording of the Sonatas was available but since then a raft of violinists have taken them up: Hilary Hahn ranks as one of the very finest.
This is lovely Bach playing on a modern piano from Nils Anders Mortensen, one of Norway’s best-loved musicians.
He offers three of Bach’s six Partitas, the First – which has been the most popular since Dinu Lipatti recorded it – along with the Fifth and Sixth; perhaps a Vol. 2 will appear.
This is lovely Bach playing on a modern piano from Nils Anders Mortensen, one of Norway’s best-loved musicians
Funnily enough, it is the Prelude of the First Partita that causes my only quibble: he is perhaps too concerned to put in expression, which rather goes against the music’s flow.
Otherwise Mortensen is a model of stylishness and sometimes quite skittish, as in the brief Minuet of the Fifth Suite, which I suspect many listeners will find memorable.
Once their opening movements are out of the way, these Partitas are suites of dances and Mortensen relishes their varied rhythms; the 2021 recordings are unobtrusively good.
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