"Road" - Reviews

[cooperrocks]

Shep, Alice and Ezrin finance everything from the tours to the albums. They invest where they will get the best return which is the live shows.

You can produce an album for next to nothing these days. I'd bet most if the recording for this album and likely the last few was done remotely with Erin compiling it together

Alice has his own studio in his house where I believe most of his vocal parts are recorded. I'd bet that Alice was never once in the same room with the band for the recording of this album.

Ezrin picks the songs...Alice adds lyrics or adds to or changed existing lyrics and that's about it on Alice's part.

These album are done in the cheap. All you gave to do is look at the album covers. I bet they spent about ten dollars each on the last three. Just awful.

However, all involved understand they are selling to a very small market, namely Alice's base and the ever aging classic rock fan.

Their budget for the albums is likely based on past sales and are even budgeted at a break even or small profit basis. The money is in merchandise and touring. Not just for Alice but nearly all of music unless your name is Taylor swift.

The charts today are a joke...they are meaningless. They can be more easily manipulated today than in the glory days of payoffs.

I'd bet that streams of "schools out" and "poison" are Alice's best in thar platform. Also I bet streams and downloads of those two songs have outperformed the sales of his last three album releases combined.

At any rate we must all accept that Alice is an elderly entertainer who plays to a loyal yet dwindling fan base.

He is to our generation what Perry Como was to our parents. The old guy they go see once a year at the casino showroom.

Some excellent points here but you have to always compare to what is considered "successful" in today's market. And Alice's chart and initial sales numbers dropped significantly from just a few years ago so it does have to be examined why that much of a drop so quickly? I wasn't surprised there was a decline based on what happened in other countries but here in North America, the numbers dropped a lot here in the United States and Canada. The remaining fans largely supported Detroit Stories and two years later some jumped off the bandwagon for Road which is actually a better album. Why is that? And he has gotten on some good tours this year like the Zombie tour and Def Leppard/Motley playing in front of large crowds.

[mr.barlow]

Shep, Alice and Ezrin finance everything from the tours to the albums. They invest where they will get the best return which is the live shows.

You can produce an album for next to nothing these days. I'd bet most if the recording for this album and likely the last few was done remotely with Erin compiling it together

Alice has his own studio in his house where I believe most of his vocal parts are recorded. I'd bet that Alice was never once in the same room with the band for the recording of this album.

Ezrin picks the songs...Alice adds lyrics or adds to or changed existing lyrics and that's about it on Alice's part.

These album are done in the cheap. All you gave to do is look at the album covers. I bet they spent about ten dollars each on the last three. Just awful.

However, all involved understand they are selling to a very small market, namely Alice's base and the ever aging classic rock fan.

Their budget for the albums is likely based on past sales and are even budgeted at a break even or small profit basis. The money is in merchandise and touring. Not just for Alice but nearly all of music unless your name is Taylor swift.

The charts today are a joke...they are meaningless. They can be more easily manipulated today than in the glory days of payoffs.

I'd bet that streams of "schools out" and "poison" are Alice's best in thar platform. Also I bet streams and downloads of those two songs have outperformed the sales of his last three album releases combined.

At any rate we must all accept that Alice is an elderly entertainer who plays to a loyal yet dwindling fan base.

He is to our generation what Perry Como was to our parents. The old guy they go see once a year at the casino showroom.

Do you think Alice & Co are past ever lavishing time and money on (possibly) one last great album? Could the original band's effort be the one?
Unless they've badly mishandled their finances over the last half century (not remembered to GET THE MONEY?) I'm sure they are perfectly capable of spending to Nightmare/ From The Inside levels if THEY think there will be a reward other than monetary that's worth having. Or maybe W2MN was the last throw of that dice?

I don't think there will ever be another "great" album. Alice is approaching 76 years old and riding it out. The original band album has not even been but the output they have done in the recent past is passable but not anywhere near "great".

Dennis' "Fireball" is the best song Alice has done since Brutal Planet so perhaps Dennis can give us another one but I think that song was an older song he submitted.

It all comes down to age and health. Alice is in top form for someone his age yet 75 is still 75 years old.

Financially, no one, especially financially smart people are going to spend money to lose money. Alice's fan base is a very small one and shrinking ...his fans are literally dying off. He's likely to outlive most of the fans that were there in the heyday. Alice has always been clear it's about making money. I don't think that has changed.

All involved with Alice Cooper thrived in a music industry and music buying public that basically no longer exists. The world passes each of us by at some point in our lives.

Popular culture and namely pop music be it rock, dance , rap etc has always and still is a young man's game.

I heard this comment once from a teenager. " my grandma and grandpa are going to see some old guy at the casino". The old guy that were referring to was: Alice Cooper.

[Mr. Misdemeanor]

I am also probably the only person on Earth that absolutely loves Who made Who - the song :D

It's a good tune. I may be wrong, but I think it's a pretty popular one, too. At least in the 80s. I remember a lot of people in school who had the Who Made Who album without owning any ACDC stuff post BiB. It always struck me as kind of odd. Maybe the Stephen KIng movie was more popular than I thought.

These album are done in the cheap. All you gave to do is look at the album covers. I bet they spent about ten dollars each on the last three. Just awful.

He's not alone in going cheap on covers; modern book covers are frequently done as quickly, cheaply, and uncreatively as possible these days. Hell, in the 70s and 80s it seemed like every cheap, trashy sword and sorcery book that got churned out featured kickass unique painted covers. These days it's a often just a stock photo with some minimal Photoshop work. It would kill me if I was a writer who had spent years working on a novel or a musician making an album only to have some crummy half-assed cover slapped on it. I was looking at some sci-fi books the other day, and I kid you not, there were covers there that i could have created in Photoshop in less than 30 minutes. And I really really suck at Photoshop.

Two last thoughts on this. One is that since the vinyl market has made a comeback with collectors it seems to me that it would be worth making an investment in a real cover artist. Even if you can't afford to hire a professional artist there are a million kids in America who could give you better results and would probably do it for next to nothing. Hell, crowdsource it hold an online contest or something.

his vocals were clearly recorded separately, at least.)

I've talked about this recently in another thread. It kind of takes me out of the song when it becomes too obvious. It feels like I'm listening to karaoke.

I don't think there will ever be another "great" album. Alice is approaching 76 years old and riding it out. The original band album has not even been but the output they have done in the recent past is passable but not anywhere near "great".


All involved with Alice Cooper thrived in a music industry and music buying public that basically no longer exists.

I agree, but we live in strange days. If the right "influencer" on TikTok happened to say "Alice Cooper rules!" he could have a #1 album the next day. The number of viewers these guys have and he power they have is incredible. I don't understand it, but it's true. How many of you know who Mr. Beast is? He's some dork on Youtube with a face that makes me want to hit him in the teeth with a ball-peen hammer. Somehow he is insanely popular. He has 183 million followers on Youtube. His most popular video has half a billion views.

If Meatloaf can make a comeback, anybody can.

As far as "great" albums albums go, it's all up to the listener. I think Paranormal is one of Alice's best releases.

[mr.barlow]

Shep, Alice and Ezrin finance everything from the tours to the albums. They invest where they will get the best return which is the live shows.

You can produce an album for next to nothing these days. I'd bet most if the recording for this album and likely the last few was done remotely with Erin compiling it together

Alice has his own studio in his house where I believe most of his vocal parts are recorded. I'd bet that Alice was never once in the same room with the band for the recording of this album.

Ezrin picks the songs...Alice adds lyrics or adds to or changed existing lyrics and that's about it on Alice's part.

These album are done in the cheap. All you gave to do is look at the album covers. I bet they spent about ten dollars each on the last three. Just awful.

However, all involved understand they are selling to a very small market, namely Alice's base and the ever aging classic rock fan.

Their budget for the albums is likely based on past sales and are even budgeted at a break even or small profit basis. The money is in merchandise and touring. Not just for Alice but nearly all of music unless your name is Taylor swift.

The charts today are a joke...they are meaningless. They can be more easily manipulated today than in the glory days of payoffs.

I'd bet that streams of "schools out" and "poison" are Alice's best in thar platform. Also I bet streams and downloads of those two songs have outperformed the sales of his last three album releases combined.

At any rate we must all accept that Alice is an elderly entertainer who plays to a loyal yet dwindling fan base.

He is to our generation what Perry Como was to our parents. The old guy they go see once a year at the casino showroom.

Some excellent points here but you have to always compare to what is considered "successful" in today's market. And Alice's chart and initial sales numbers dropped significantly from just a few years ago so it does have to be examined why that much of a drop so quickly? I wasn't surprised there was a decline based on what happened in other countries but here in North America, the numbers dropped a lot here in the United States and Canada. The remaining fans largely supported Detroit Stories and two years later some jumped off the bandwagon for Road which is actually a better album. Why is that? And he has gotten on some good tours this year like the Zombie tour and Def Leppard/Motley playing in front of large crowds.

It's likely a case of no one cares. Keep in mind the average age of the Alice fan too. A lot of fans that were with us a few years ago are now sitting in clouds strumming harps.

[Mr. Misdemeanor]

are now sitting in clouds strumming harps.

You, my friend, are an optimist.

[mr.barlow]

No...I'm a realist.

[Dragontown]

I heard this comment once from a teenager. " my grandma and grandpa are going to see some old guy at the casino". The old guy that were referring to was: Alice Cooper.

Ahah...
Well this is so far from the reality here in Europe, where AC audience is much younger and there are no casinos with showrooms for this kind of gig. Alice headlined Wacken last time in 2017, summer 2022 was one of the headliners at Hellfest and also here in Italy with packed shows. In the USA was playing casinos as early as 2008 as I remember the odd and, for me, sooo unusual feeling of witnessing one of these shows in Las Vegas...nice views and nice audio but these are not rock concerts man!
And, at least here in Italy, White Line Frankestien got lots of airplay on tv and radio stations, not only the adult oriented ones

[dadascot]

Wow! So much negativity on here. "albums done on the cheap"'!! The last three albums have all been doubles. Gatefold sleeves, a multitude of coloured vinyl to choose from, added DVD and bluray options. Choice of added merchandise. Certainly not a cheap option. As to sales.. OK sales are down for rock across the board but Detroit stories was No. 1 in physical sales in the US and all three were top 10 in the UK. For those of us around in the blackout era that is nothing short of a miracle.
The two main requests from people on this site in the last few years have been for an album by the live band and/or one from the original group and it looks like we are getting both.
As to the albums that is down to taste. I personally think paranormal and Detroit stories are top drawer. While I find road a disappointment I never felt that Alice was just going through the motions.
There is obviously a lot less, if any, money in releasing albums and the fact that Alice keeps working and releasing them shows that he still cares.

[Daggers & Contracts]

Can I just spend a few lines to give my impression of "Road"?
It's great! Get's Rockin' right from the start, the sequencing has a good flow.
The Mix is Sharp & Hot! You can tell the Band was recording in the studio together.
Glen Sobel's drum solo on "Magic Bus" is Moonie influenced! ****1/2

[del]

Wow! So much negativity on here. "albums done on the cheap"'!! The last three albums have all been doubles. Gatefold sleeves, a multitude of coloured vinyl to choose from, added DVD and bluray options. Choice of added merchandise. Certainly not a cheap option. As to sales.. OK sales are down for rock across the board but Detroit stories was No. 1 in physical sales in the US and all three were top 10 in the UK. For those of us around in the blackout era that is nothing short of a miracle.
The two main requests from people on this site in the last few years have been for an album by the live band and/or one from the original group and it looks like we are getting both.
As to the albums that is down to taste. I personally think paranormal and Detroit stories are top drawer. While I find road a disappointment I never felt that Alice was just going through the motions.
There is obviously a lot less, if any, money in releasing albums and the fact that Alice keeps working and releasing them shows that he still cares.

Agree!

[mr.barlow]

Gatefold sleeves of awful artwork. Colored vinyl is a cheap gimmick to get fans to buy multiple copies of the same album. Added dvd/blu ray of cookie cutter shows that are can be found en masse on youtube.

Merchandise is a big money maker as you charge 30 dollars US or higher for a shirt that cost wholesale five bucks or less.

I'm glad Alice (and shep) has not lost his touch on making money. I'm happy to see him still thrive and fill his pockets.

I'm guessing the profits on the touring and merchandise are still really strong as that's why the show keeps going.

[mr.barlow]

Can I just spend a few lines to give my impression of "Road"?
It's great! Get's Rockin' right from the start, the sequencing has a good flow.
The Mix is Sharp & Hot! You can tell the Band was recording in the studio together.
Glen Sobel's drum solo on "Magic Bus" is Moonie influenced! ****1/2

Keith Moon is puking right now!

[pitkin88]

Can I just spend a few lines to give my impression of "Road"?
It's great! Get's Rockin' right from the start, the sequencing has a good flow.
The Mix is Sharp & Hot! You can tell the Band was recording in the studio together.
Glen Sobel's drum solo on "Magic Bus" is Moonie influenced! ****1/2

Keith Moon is puking right now!

He's fond of emoji's. Is there a puke one?

[del]

I heard this comment once from a teenager. " my grandma and grandpa are going to see some old guy at the casino". The old guy that were referring to was: Alice Cooper.

Ahah...
Well this is so far from the reality here in Europe, where AC audience is much younger and there are no casinos with showrooms for this kind of gig. Alice headlined Wacken last time in 2017, summer 2022 was one of the headliners at Hellfest and also here in Italy with packed shows. In the USA was playing casinos as early as 2008 as I remember the odd and, for me, sooo unusual feeling of witnessing one of these shows in Las Vegas...nice views and nice audio but these are not rock concerts man!
And, at least here in Italy, White Line Frankestien got lots of airplay on tv and radio stations, not only the adult oriented ones

You are so right here. I’ve seen Alice in Europe a few times and the audience is certainly younger and they have also been streaming stuff from the recent albums as well.

They are coming to watch a person who has achieved classic/legend status and who represents a style of music which still pulls big audiences and relatively younger audiences than even in the UK too. The last time I saw him in Paris I was delighted to see how young the average person was. Seen him in Italy as well and it was exactly the same.

There has also been a lift in attendances over the last 15 to 20 years in Europe overall. He couldn’t even sell out Glasgow Barrowlands (2000 capacity) for the Brutal Planet tour and is now a regular Glasgow Hydro performer with at least 8,000 every time.

His first ever chart scoring albums in Italy and France, plus several other European countries, came in the 2000s. Absolutely nothing before that, even with ACG.

Of course it’s about the money. Did the whole group not want fame, fortune and girls from the off? It’s the music that gets you the money though and for the last thirty years it’s been the shows that make the cash.

Of course the fans get older and ultimately die. Point is though, not everyone is in the same age bracket and for the live music at any rate, there is plenty of mileage left in Europe at any rate.

Of course you’ll get the grandpa comments. You even get that for Nirvana or any act in its 40s nowadays here. You’re absolutely right though, that’s life.

As for the comments about coloured vinyl etc. absolutely no difference to LITD (surely not an expensive set of pictures there..) BDB or Schools Out. Just gimmicks to sell product. It has always been this way.

[AlongCameASpider27]

Wow I guess as a lifelong Cooper fan I've rarely been disappointed with his albums....im 43 and just got constrictor when I was 6 (my dad was awesome ) and became addicted from that point forward...I've always been a bigger fan of solo Alice even though the "Band" albums are classic I personally prefer RYFAY or Brutal Planet to Schools Out or Love It To Death (Killer being the exception...perfection there).

I personally love the blurays and dvds coming out as someone who loves to have a concert of ebrry major tour to always enjoy. The artwork is always nice to me...not epic or revolutionary...though Road is great in its simplicity with the Spider hanging down etc.

I am very grateful to have multiple opportunities to see Alice live on an annual basis and continue to support his great albums...thank you Alice

[patrick]

I quote from a french mag..
The times where you could make a fortune with your songs is far behind us. Lady Gaga, Drake and artists of that kind may still hope to get richer with new albums, but not guys from my age... I keep going for the beauty of the art and I find this enough and more satisfying. Honestly, I would'nt feel happy to complain, 'cause I made really big money in the 70ties and 80ties. It doesn't disturb me that I no longer depend on selling albums to make a living. What's more, I believe that my fans still expect something from me. ..
-------------
We know Alice can explain a lot of things, but I believe him : what else would make a man of his age to do all Alice does ?

[Nick]

I heard this comment once from a teenager. " my grandma and grandpa are going to see some old guy at the casino". The old guy that were referring to was: Alice Cooper.

Ahah...
Well this is so far from the reality here in Europe, where AC audience is much younger and there are no casinos with showrooms for this kind of gig. Alice headlined Wacken last time in 2017, summer 2022 was one of the headliners at Hellfest and also here in Italy with packed shows. In the USA was playing casinos as early as 2008 as I remember the odd and, for me, sooo unusual feeling of witnessing one of these shows in Las Vegas...nice views and nice audio but these are not rock concerts man!
And, at least here in Italy, White Line Frankestien got lots of airplay on tv and radio stations, not only the adult oriented ones

You are so right here. I’ve seen Alice in Europe a few times and the audience is certainly younger and they have also been streaming stuff from the recent albums as well.

They are coming to watch a person who has achieved classic/legend status and who represents a style of music which still pulls big audiences and relatively younger audiences than even in the UK too. The last time I saw him in Paris I was delighted to see how young the average person was. Seen him in Italy as well and it was exactly the same.

There has also been a lift in attendances over the last 15 to 20 years in Europe overall. He couldn’t even sell out Glasgow Barrowlands (2000 capacity) for the Brutal Planet tour and is now a regular Glasgow Hydro performer with at least 8,000 every time.

His first ever chart scoring albums in Italy and France, plus several other European countries, came in the 2000s. Absolutely nothing before that, even with ACG.

Of course it’s about the money. Did the whole group not want fame, fortune and girls from the off? It’s the music that gets you the money though and for the last thirty years it’s been the shows that make the cash.

Of course the fans get older and ultimately die. Point is though, not everyone is in the same age bracket and for the live music at any rate, there is plenty of mileage left in Europe at any rate.

Of course you’ll get the grandpa comments. You even get that for Nirvana or any act in its 40s nowadays here. You’re absolutely right though, that’s life.

As for the comments about coloured vinyl etc. absolutely no difference to LITD (surely not an expensive set of pictures there..) BDB or Schools Out. Just gimmicks to sell product. It has always been this way.

There's been a very noticeable lift in Australia too over the last 10-15 years. I remember venue sizes and crowd attendances dipped in the early to mid 2000's but he regularly plays fairly large venues here since then. And the crowd is very diverse, we get a solid mix of the younger crowd and the middle to older aged crowd. If theres a perception that he's some old guy that plays casinos to a bunch of pensioners in some parts of the world then so be it, but that's very far from the reality here.

[Miller]

Ahah...
Well this is so far from the reality here in Europe, where AC audience is much younger and there are no casinos with showrooms for this kind of gig. Alice headlined Wacken last time in 2017, summer 2022 was one of the headliners at Hellfest and also here in Italy with packed shows. In the USA was playing casinos as early as 2008 as I remember the odd and, for me, sooo unusual feeling of witnessing one of these shows in Las Vegas...nice views and nice audio but these are not rock concerts man!
And, at least here in Italy, White Line Frankestien got lots of airplay on tv and radio stations, not only the adult oriented ones

You are so right here. I’ve seen Alice in Europe a few times and the audience is certainly younger and they have also been streaming stuff from the recent albums as well.

They are coming to watch a person who has achieved classic/legend status and who represents a style of music which still pulls big audiences and relatively younger audiences than even in the UK too. The last time I saw him in Paris I was delighted to see how young the average person was. Seen him in Italy as well and it was exactly the same.

There has also been a lift in attendances over the last 15 to 20 years in Europe overall. He couldn’t even sell out Glasgow Barrowlands (2000 capacity) for the Brutal Planet tour and is now a regular Glasgow Hydro performer with at least 8,000 every time.

His first ever chart scoring albums in Italy and France, plus several other European countries, came in the 2000s. Absolutely nothing before that, even with ACG.

Of course it’s about the money. Did the whole group not want fame, fortune and girls from the off? It’s the music that gets you the money though and for the last thirty years it’s been the shows that make the cash.

Of course the fans get older and ultimately die. Point is though, not everyone is in the same age bracket and for the live music at any rate, there is plenty of mileage left in Europe at any rate.

Of course you’ll get the grandpa comments. You even get that for Nirvana or any act in its 40s nowadays here. You’re absolutely right though, that’s life.

As for the comments about coloured vinyl etc. absolutely no difference to LITD (surely not an expensive set of pictures there..) BDB or Schools Out. Just gimmicks to sell product. It has always been this way.

There's been a very noticeable lift in Australia too over the last 10-15 years. I remember venue sizes and crowd attendances dipped in the early to mid 2000's but he regularly plays fairly large venues here since then. And the crowd is very diverse, we get a solid mix of the younger crowd and the middle to older aged crowd. If theres a perception that he's some old guy that plays casinos to a bunch of pensioners in some parts of the world then so be it, but that's very far from the reality here.

Absolutely correct, the eavesdropping grandpa going to the casino to see some old guy comment is highly dismissable and probably heard out of context. People hear what they want to hear, there's no perception that he plays casinos to pensioners, it's just one persons disenchanted view. In Australia he has a great following playing larger venues.His popularity is not dwindling as some would have you to believe.

[Babysquid]

“The remaining fans largely supported Detroit Stories and two years later some jumped off the bandwagon for Road which is actually a better album. Why is that?“

I can’t speak for everyone but in my case it was that I thought Detroit Stories was a disappointment and that the snippets of songs made available pre-release actually put me off rather than whetting my appetite.

[Mr. Misdemeanor]

You can't hide a bad album these days. In the past an artist could have a terrible album and still sell millions of copies because of one great single. You cant do that now because the fans can listen to an album on Youtube or wherever before forking over their cash. So who is going to pre-order an album now? Mega fans who want to support an artist no matter what, or people who have a great enough faith in an artist that they feel almost certain that an album will be good. You are going to lose some of those folks in the second category if they feel burned by your previous release. We were talking about ACDC earlier and I think their follow-up to Back in Black is a good example of what I'm talking about. For Those About to Rock sold well, but it just isn't in the same league as Back in Black. I think this is one of the reasons Flick of the Switch did so poorly despite being a very good album.

So pre-order sales of Road may be a result of disappointment with Detroit Stories. Other people may have just listened to the album on Youtube and didn't care for it.