Man, you should see the hype sheet on this
fucker. It claims that this back-to-his-roots album was inspired by
'garage rock revival' bands like the Vines and the Strokes.
Of course, it sounds nothing whatsoever like any of those bands.
How could it, really? I mean, the backbone of Alice's band is guitarist
Ryan Roxie, from the
Electric Angels, and Eric Singer, KISS's drummer
from their most puffball era. So, you know, it's creaky flash metal.
Still, Eyes has it's charms- opener "What Do You Want
From Me" sounds kinda like Buckcherry pretending to be the
Cooper band circa '74, and "I'm So Angry" is a dead ringer
for the (newer, cheesier) Backyard Babies. Right in the middle of
this schizophrenic humanary stew (there's ballads and pop songs amidst the
rockers) is "Detroit City", Alice's homage to his Motor City
Motherfucker past, which features a somewhat buried fuzzmetal guitar track
from none other then Brother Wayne Kramer. A nice nod to what
everybody's been thinking about all these years ("Me and Iggy, gigging
with Ziggy, and kicking with the MC5"), but Christ, the song sounds like
there should be a line of
Rockettes kicking away on it's chorus. Processed horns and
Broadway shmaltz don't exactly scream "Detroit" to me. But what the hell-
Eyes is still a million miles away from the Korn-fed
digital metal of Coop's last couple of clunkers, and is definitely
his most rocking record since Special Forces. As long as you're not
actually expecting an Alice Cooper Band record-like the record company,
insanely, wants you to- than you'll dig this one. Click to buy The Eyes of Alice Cooper from Amazon for $13.49!