Last Temptation

The most obvious influence is that Chris Cornell, ex-Soundgarden, wrote two songs and co-sings one. "Stolen Prayer", the best song on the album, is Cornell's, and his pipes have never sounded so good. Another thing that grunge did is that it forced a lot of hard rockers to drop the glossy production sheen of the 80's, get serious a little bit on the lyrics, and write harder songs. This is evident in the world of Alice. This album spends a lot of time on the temptation of drugs, and while many rock fans might cringe at the idea of Alice delivering a "message" to us, this really is nothing new for our favourite masked rock star. He's been serious before, on some of his finest moments in fact, but he always makes his messages fun to listen to and sing along with. West Side Story has always been a huge influence on Alice as most fans know, and The Last Temptation is another album that shows this.

Many Alice fans feel that Cooper bottomed out a bit on the Trash album from 1989, even though it was a top seller at the time. That record was basically one awesome single surrounded by nine filler tracks and a whole lot of guest appearances in order to hype the record. Hey Stoopid was a step in the right direction, heavy-ing up the music a tad, but Alice came roaring back with The Last Temptation. This is Alice's first true concept album since DaDa in 1983. In fact there was a three-part Neil Gaimon comic book available at the time to help flesh out the story.

Musically, Alice is on the very top of his game here. Gone is the gloss. In fact, the opening track "Sideshow" sounds so much like the 70's that you could swear it's from the Welcome To My Nightmare record! Awesome horn sections, great riff, killer lyrics, you'll be singing this one for days after hearing it. "Nothing's Free" rips off "Billion Dollar Babies" somewhat with the opening drum hook, but you won't be complaining when you hear it. Most likely you'll be pumping your fists to it. The first single "Lost In America" is a fast, tight rock song with insanely catchy lyrics, very different from a lot of stuff Alice had done recently.

The rest of the album is strong, with "It's Me" being the sole ballad. (I refuse to count "Stolen Prayer" as a ballad, it's a dramatic dark piece that is better than the word ballad implies.) For the most part the songs are dark, catchy, with great playing from the entire cast and Alice spitting out the words as only he can. The fact that most of these songs were played live on tour is a testament to the strength of the material and Alice's confidence that he had made yet another classic album.

The Last Temptation is an album that is sadly unknown to many casual Alice Cooper fans. However, anybody who loved Welcome To My Nightmare would be well advised to pick this up. They might find that Alice has built a musical time machine, an album that sounds timeless despite its 1994 release date. It may not be a grunge album, but I think we owe a thanks to the grunge movement for helping Alice make the strongest record he'd done since 1975.

What happens to Steven? You'll just have to listen and find out.