Si wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 11:33 pm
Okay, for what it's worth... I really like it.
For reference I thought Paranormal was distinctly average. Not bad or good, just meh...
And Detroit Stories was generally pretty poor, with maybe one or two decent tracks.
I like this one much more, and already played it more then the previous two! It's certainly not without it's faults but I think it's a big improvement over the last two. The songs are just better, and the playing is better and more interesting.
I generally don't really care that much about lyrics, it's the music that counts. That may sound odd, but as much as I love Alice's *voice* most of the time I don't really care what the actual words are, unless they are really appalling or particularly good, that is. It's the *sound* of them that matters to me, and if that sound hits the mark.
Maybe because of that things like 'Big Boots' - which so many seem to hate - I really like! It's a fun 70s glam song and done well.
I generally like all of it a lot. The only real down points being 'Baby Please Don't Go' as I'm not a fan of ballads to start with, and 'Magic Bus' that just seems a little pointless. If it was marked as a "bonus Track" I would have less of an issue with it, but as part of the album, especially after '100 More Miles' it seems a little redundant to me.
But the biggest problem I have is with '100 More Miles'... What a wasted opportunity!!! They finally had a song that could be a new AC classic in the mould of 'Inmates', 'My Stars' or even 'Cleansed By Fire' but what do they do? They cut it right down to just over 3 minutes!! It makes me so mad just thinking about how good this *could* have been if it was twice a long with the ending building and building and the band playing their hearts out. Such wasted potential. At 3 minutes it will likely be simply lost, never to be performed or played very much.
It's not the first time this has happened to a potentially great song either... a shame.
And I think that generally is the main issue I have with 'Road'. This was supposed to be the album to let the band stretch out and show what they could do [about time], but how can they really do that when any instrumental breaks are cut to the a bare minimum length, with only two tracks breaking the 4 minute mark. Musicians need space and a little time to show what they can do, if you are going to highlight their talents, and they don't seem to have been allowed to do that here. Such a shame, and on '100 More Miles' almost criminal! Come on Bob, not everything has to be a 3+ minute single. It's not like they are likely to be hits so why worry about that at all?
Anyway, that aside, I think it's a great album. Not a classic but perfectly respectable for Alice at this stage of the game. However things like '100 More Miles' show that they DO still have a real classic Alice Cooper album in them. We can only hope they will decide to finally give it to us before it's too late.