Alice Cooper & Pink Floyd
22/08/11 23:03 With Love from Ace
As a music lover mysfelf I always get excited when my friends plug their recent favourite albums to me. So I thought I will give it a go myself right here on the blog.
As a music lover mysfelf I always get excited when my friends plug their recent favourite albums to me. So I thought I will give it a go myself right here on the blog.
With love from Ace
Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare:
Before Alice Cooper enjoyed major mainstream success with his album ”Trash”, he was sort of a rock n' roll curiosity. With elaborate stage shows which was a mix of a b-horror movie and traditional cabaret theater, combined with rock n' roll music, Alice Cooper was an underground phenomenon.
By 1974 the original Alice Cooper lineup was slowly disbanding. Even though they've had minor success with a string of records such as ”Killer”, ”School’s Out” and ”Billion Dollar Babies”, he still needed to get up from the underground. With faithful producer and songwriting collaborator Bob Ezrin behind the buttons, and a handful of Lou Reed's session players, they began crafting ”Welcome To My Nightmare”. A loose concept album about a boy named Steven having a nightmare which becomes all to real.
There's plenty of hard rocking, fist in the air-type tunes on the album like ”The Black Widow”, ”Cold Ethyl”, ”Department Of Youth” and ”Escape”. But the crown jewel of the album is the epic ballad ”Only Women Bleed”, a song about domestic violence. Masterly arranged by Bob Ezrin, who's orchestral skills later would come to flourish on tracks like ”Beth” by Kiss and ”Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd.
I think this is Alice Coopers definitive masterpiece. The songs flow nicely together and the production sounds fresh and rich. Not sounding dated at all. Even though the concept is a little far fetched, and sometimes difficult to get emotionally involved in, you never want to skip a single track. And I’m most certainly sure that Alice didn't want this record to be taken too serious. He's got Vincent Price narrating on ”Devil’s Food” for Christ sake! It's a fun, camp and over the top record. And I love it.
Key Track: Only Women Bleed
Pink Floyd – Obscured By Clouds:
And speaking of Pink Floyd, this is in my opinion a truly lost gem. It was created as soundtrack to the film ”La Vallée” which was written and directed by french/swiss filmmaker Barbett Schroeder. Now, from what I can understand from Wikipedia, the film is about “a woman who goes on a strange and accidental voyage of self-discovery through the New Guinea bush”. Wow...Heavy.
Now, to tell you the truth, I have never seen the film and I have never seen it on the shelf of any video or record store. So I don't have the slightest idea if the movie is any good or not. You'll have to find out for yourself. I can tell you about the record though.
Obscured By Clouds is a strange blend of instrumental pieces and “regular” songs. The instrumental songs sounds rather nice and are well composed, but it's the “regular” songs that steals the show. Like the pastoral folk-like ”Wot’s...uh the Deal” which in my opinion is one the most beautiful songs Dave Gilmour has ever sung. Or the semi-satirical and partly autobiographical ”Free Four”, where Roger Waters sings about his dead father and describes the ups and downs and unpleasantness of the rock n' roll lifestyle.Themes later explored on their 1979 album ”The Wall”.
But the most unusual yet most enjoyable song on the album is the tune ”Stay”. A collaboration between Waters and keyboard player Rick Wright. Not that the song is unusual in itself, but the fact that it's one of very few collaborations between Waters and Wright. The song reminds of Elton John in his ”Honky Chateau”/”Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” period. A catchy pop song with a great chorus.
”Obscured By Clouds” is not a space rock album with a heavy concept like ”Dark Side of the Moon”, ”Animals” or ”The Wall”. It's simply an album with some great stand alone tunes. And that suites me just fine.
Key Track: Free Four, Stay and Absolute Curtains
With love from Ace
Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare:
By 1974 the original Alice Cooper lineup was slowly disbanding. Even though they've had minor success with a string of records such as ”Killer”, ”School’s Out” and ”Billion Dollar Babies”, he still needed to get up from the underground. With faithful producer and songwriting collaborator Bob Ezrin behind the buttons, and a handful of Lou Reed's session players, they began crafting ”Welcome To My Nightmare”. A loose concept album about a boy named Steven having a nightmare which becomes all to real.
There's plenty of hard rocking, fist in the air-type tunes on the album like ”The Black Widow”, ”Cold Ethyl”, ”Department Of Youth” and ”Escape”. But the crown jewel of the album is the epic ballad ”Only Women Bleed”, a song about domestic violence. Masterly arranged by Bob Ezrin, who's orchestral skills later would come to flourish on tracks like ”Beth” by Kiss and ”Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd.
I think this is Alice Coopers definitive masterpiece. The songs flow nicely together and the production sounds fresh and rich. Not sounding dated at all. Even though the concept is a little far fetched, and sometimes difficult to get emotionally involved in, you never want to skip a single track. And I’m most certainly sure that Alice didn't want this record to be taken too serious. He's got Vincent Price narrating on ”Devil’s Food” for Christ sake! It's a fun, camp and over the top record. And I love it.
Key Track: Only Women Bleed
Pink Floyd – Obscured By Clouds:
Now, to tell you the truth, I have never seen the film and I have never seen it on the shelf of any video or record store. So I don't have the slightest idea if the movie is any good or not. You'll have to find out for yourself. I can tell you about the record though.
Obscured By Clouds is a strange blend of instrumental pieces and “regular” songs. The instrumental songs sounds rather nice and are well composed, but it's the “regular” songs that steals the show. Like the pastoral folk-like ”Wot’s...uh the Deal” which in my opinion is one the most beautiful songs Dave Gilmour has ever sung. Or the semi-satirical and partly autobiographical ”Free Four”, where Roger Waters sings about his dead father and describes the ups and downs and unpleasantness of the rock n' roll lifestyle.Themes later explored on their 1979 album ”The Wall”.
But the most unusual yet most enjoyable song on the album is the tune ”Stay”. A collaboration between Waters and keyboard player Rick Wright. Not that the song is unusual in itself, but the fact that it's one of very few collaborations between Waters and Wright. The song reminds of Elton John in his ”Honky Chateau”/”Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” period. A catchy pop song with a great chorus.
”Obscured By Clouds” is not a space rock album with a heavy concept like ”Dark Side of the Moon”, ”Animals” or ”The Wall”. It's simply an album with some great stand alone tunes. And that suites me just fine.
Key Track: Free Four, Stay and Absolute Curtains