Alice Cooper – Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011)
Some things get better with age. With Vincent Furnier aka Alice Cooper (who turned 63 in February) this is truly the case. With Alice Cooper’s latest effort, Welcome 2 My Nightmare, Alice has turned in one of his most creative pieces of work yet.
Producer Bob Ezrin came up with the idea for Alice to do the sequel to Welcome to My Nightmare. I don’t know if anyone could have guessed what Alice would come up with after that. Alice Cooper brought in several of his old bandmates including Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith, Steve Hunter, and Dick Wagner, as well as a cast of many others to help create a brand new nightmare, which to my ears is one Alice Cooper’s finest works to date.
Welcome 2 My Nightmare somehow manages to recapture that classic 70’s sound of the original, without sounding dated. Welcome 2 My Nightmare incorporates the sounds of classic and hard rock, and little bit of disco. It is hard to compare it to the monsterous album Welcome to My Nightmare, which spawned such great songs like “Cold Ethyl”, “Only Women Bleed” and “Welcome to My Nightmare”. You won’t find Vincent Price (God rest his soul) narratives on Welcome 2 My Nightmare either, but you are going to find a whole bunch of new tunes that you will be sure to love.
There are several songs on Welcome 2 My Nightmare which could easily be worked in to Alice’s live set for years to come. This album is so strong that he could probably do a tour playing the entire album live. The album isn’t perfect, but it is pretty close to it. I could have lived without the auto tune effect on Alice’s vocals on the opening cut “I Am Made of You”. Luckily, this is the only song plagued by that ill-used effect. (Note: To all artists and producers of rock music, Auto Tune is NEVER ok to use in rock music; No one wants to hear that crap.) “I Am Made To You” is a pretty strong opener, and a really good song. Bob Ezrin should have known better than to use those effects in my opinion.
While Alice Cooper’s previous effort Along Came a Spider was an outstanding effort, it pales in comparison to the creative and enthusiastic offering Welcome 2 My Nightmare from the Alice Cooper and company. There are many classic moments, and too many cool tunes to mention on this CD. Some of my favorites are the catchy “Caffeine”, to the Vaudeville fun of “Last Man on Earth”, and the cool rocker “I’ll Bit Your Face Off”. I will be playing this one a ton for years to come.
Voting is now closed, throw away your unused ballots, Welcome 2 My Nightmare will be the easy choice for album of the year in 2011. Highly Recommended!
Rating: 
Out of 10
Track Listing:
1. I Am Made of You
2. Caffeine
3. The Nightmare Returns
4. A Runaway Train
5. Last Man on Earth
6. The Congregation
7. I’ll Bite Your Face Off
8. Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever
9. Ghouls Gone Wild
10. Something To Remember
11. When Hell Comes Home
12. What Baby Wants
13. I Gotta Get Outta Here
14. The Underture
Alice Cooper – Vocals, Harmonica
Michael Bruce – Guitars, keyboards, backing vocals on “A Runaway Train”, “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” and “When Hell Comes Home”
Dennis Dunaway – Bass, backing vocals on “A Runaway Train”, “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” and “When Hell Comes Home”
Neal Smith – Drums, percussion, backing vocals on “A Runaway Train”, “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” and “When Hell Comes Home”
Damon Johnson – guitar on “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”
Keri Kelli – guitar on “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”
Jimmy DeGrasso – drums on “We Gotta Get Out of This Place”
Steve Hunter – guitars on “Something To Remember Me By”, “When Hell Comes Home” and “What Baby Wants”
Keith Nelson – Guitars, backing vocals on “Caffeine”
Desmond Child – Co-songwriter
Dick Wagner – Co-songwriter / Lead guitar on “The Underture”
Rob Zombie – Backing vocals on “The Congregation”
John 5 – guitar on “Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever”
Tommy Denander – Guitars on “I Am Made of You”
Vince Gill – Lead guitar on “A Runaway Train” and “Gotta Get Outta Here”
Chuck Garric – Bass
Jeremy Rubolino – Co-songwriter
Ke$ha – Guest vocals on “What Baby Wants”
Piggy D – Co-songwriter, and bass on “Last Man On Earth”
David Spreng – Co-songwriter and drums on “Last Man On Earth”
Kip Winger – backing vocals on “Ghouls Gone Wild” & “The Congregation”
Patterson Hood – guitar on “Gotta Get Outta Here”
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im not impressed this isnt the alice cooper that i know and have come to love in my opinion he sold out and got with the new poppy aged music 1 star five thumbs down do not recomend for die hard alice cooper fans stick with the songs we all know and love now this new aged garbage nothing against the man himself but i feel he isnt with it like he used to be
excellent album,saw ALICE live last thursday too on his No More Mr Nice Guy tour,tho the set seemed shorter,only one song played off the new album and no welcome to my nightmare,steven or even dwight fry included in the set and not even a strait jacket or his daughter Calico as a nurse unlike previous times ive seen him,so quite a few major elements missing,dunno if its cuz hes getting older or venue time restrictions or the october/halloween shows just a taster for a more extensive live tour next year.i was expecting nightmare 1 & 2 to be heavily concentrated on in this tour,especially as there was so much publicity about the new cd in all the major rock mags and websites.Been a fan for over 20 years was expecting more,hes still great just wondered why last time he played 26 songs and this time only 20,just dissapointed by that,still i will still see him again,must be a good reason for it.
Great review for a great album, If Alice had a great marketing team pushing this album it would be all over the radio. There are at least 4 songs that are worthy of being over played on the radio.
I agree 100% Jonah. Sadly, this album probably won’t get a lot of FM radio play, but the internet radio stations and radio programs will play the hell out of this.
The Alice Cooper camp informed me that the effect used in “I Am Made of You” was a squarewave effect and NOT autotune. My apologies to anyone who I led to believe this was the case.
They can say what they want, but the effect is the same and almost EVERYONE who hears it will immediately think AT.
Kind of a shame that this was used in the first track as many I know hear it and have a negative reaction that they can’t fight through.
I, however, love the cd and don’t mind this song (and it’s ‘squareware effect) at all.
I agree Nick, but I did want to set the record straight.
The new album officially comes out tommorrow but I have heard the album and it is spectactular if you are open minded. There are a variety of sounds on the new one. This is his best since Brutal Planet without question.
I agree with what you said about being open minded Mark. Some hard rock fans may scoff at the different styles, but it was the variety and creativity that I found the most appealing. If they would have left the Autotune off of the first track, I may have given it a perfect score.
TOTALLY AWESOME VIDEO & LOVE ALICE COOPER’S NEW SONG…
Thank you kindly for sharing this video!! ROCK ON!!!
PEACE 🙂
ANGEL
Hmmmm? Nice review Rob. Was this waiting in the wings? I particularly liked the tribute to the classic original compositions in the last track “The Underture”
Thanks Barry! I thought the Underture was nicely done. A fitting conclusion to another masterpiece from Alice. Even though I have a digital copy, I will be out to pick this one up on Tuesday. The Best Buy version has a bonus track “Under the Bed”.