I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by patrick » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:45 pm

after reading this thread, I gave ACAS and RYFAY another spin this afternoon One of the differences imo is that Alice seems to enjoy him much more on RYFAY than it is the case with ACAS
and I have the same idea about Paranormal:the whole album is running smoothly, kind of spontaneous .
To me it is a (very) good album. I wouldn't mind Alice bringing out another one like this one :alice:
you really wouldn't understand..

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by guttertrash » Thu Apr 26, 2018 7:14 pm

You And All Your Friends, The Sound Of A, and Fireball are all great compositions (Dennis creates some great blueprints to build a song on). Tommy also brought a classic Alice vibe with Rats. Glad that it features the guys. Sadly I don't care to listen to any of them due to way too much low-end and compression causing a muddy mess. The Sound Of A is the most listenable track, and I feel like Rats suffers worst of all from Ezrin's keyboards and Tommy's sound effects killing what could have been a rocking song. You And All Your Friends is a cool musical trach, but then vocals come in and loses any edge that the song could have had with it's modern pop/rock, layered, smoothed out production, and the vocal effect on Fireball just sounds like a cheap, post-recording, digitally-processed protools afterthought. If time would have been put in to get a cool distorted vocal effect to record with, it would have given it a classic, organic vibe, and it wouldn't have taken hardly any time. The effect used is just lazy. But as I said earlier, any actual sonic texture and tone is just trapped in a black hole of low-end and compression which gives me no desire to listen to any of it. Even after I ran a wav of Fireball through my protools and took 25db of low-end out, it is still a booming mess that gives me ear fatigue and a headache pretty quickly.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by TodayMueller » Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:54 pm

I think Paranormal is a good mediocre rock album.
I like Fallan in Love, but then again I like ZZ Top.

Disappoited by the ACG songs. Nothing like I hoped they would be, just average pop rock stuff.
I just know that Neal and Dennis can do much better. And maybe they did and just didn't make it to the album for "commercial reasons".
I do recognize that Mike was the "hit man" of ACG, but I was never a great fan of the hits and don't care much for his solo stuff.

Sound of A and Fireball are the two best songs on the album IMO.
Fireball is my favourite, if I didn't know I would have thought this was one of the ACG songs.
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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by TodayMueller » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:11 pm

Oh yeah, and Dynamite Road is pretty fun :grin:
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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Maaki » Fri Apr 27, 2018 5:35 am

Si wrote:
Maaki wrote:I still like Paranormal quite a bit.

Who plays the guitar on Fireball? I think it was Denander but I am sure someone here knows.
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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by del » Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:10 am

Fireball plus four others makes this better than average for me. We all want something from Alice that resonates to the era/style/attitude we remember and love the most.

Can't please everyone but the story continues and I'm delighted with that!

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Si » Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:16 am

Maaki wrote:
Si wrote:
Maaki wrote:I still like Paranormal quite a bit.

Who plays the guitar on Fireball? I think it was Denander but I am sure someone here knows.
http://www.sickthingsuk.co.uk/content.p ... normal.php
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no problem. There's a lot more to this site then the news page and the forums.
Just check out the links in the menu at the to of the page ;)

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Devon » Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:45 am

I think the first half has some decent stuff, the second half sounds like it falls apart (Although I really like Private Public Breakdown.) I think a couple of issues here are that Alice doesn't seem to have a real song-writing partner anymore (I know you could argue Bob Ezrin is, but how much is Alice involved with that?) and Bob Ezrin isn't the same guy he was in the 1970s. Ezrin basically bought a bunch of riffs from a guy and produced something out of them and had Alice sing on them.

The entire album also sounds like it was copied and pasted in Protools. Not a lot of soul and mechanical in places (which I'll gladly admit is a little hypocrtical for me to say considering I love "Dada!")

The ACG bonus tracks weren't anything to write home about either.

As much as I greatly respect Ezrin, but perhaps however many albums we have left out of Alice might be best served with a different producer in my honest opinion.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by VinceLeeRose » Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:03 pm

Devon wrote:I think the first half has some decent stuff, the second half sounds like it falls apart (Although I really like Private Public Breakdown.) I think a couple of issues here are that Alice doesn't seem to have a real song-writing partner anymore (I know you could argue Bob Ezrin is, but how much is Alice involved with that?) and Bob Ezrin isn't the same guy he was in the 1970s. Ezrin basically bought a bunch of riffs from a guy and produced something out of them and had Alice sing on them.

The entire album also sounds like it was copied and pasted in Protools. Not a lot of soul and mechanical in places (which I'll gladly admit is a little hypocrtical for me to say considering I love "Dada!")

The ACG bonus tracks weren't anything to write home about either.

As much as I greatly respect Ezrin, but perhaps however many albums we have left out of Alice might be best served with a different producer in my honest opinion.


I think Ezrin brings out the best in Alice when it comes to the vocals. The vocals on Nightmare 2, Paranormal and HV were fantastic, while they could have been better on Eyes, Diamonds and Spider. I feel Bob pushes Alice more than some of these younger, inexperienced producers. I'm sure he's not afraid to tell Alice, "you know what, you can do better, let's do it again", and Alice will trust his instinct. They work good together. I'm just happy we are still getting new records out of Alice, and I hope the next one doesn't take as long as this one did.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by guttertrash » Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:46 pm

VinceLeeRose wrote:
Devon wrote:I think the first half has some decent stuff, the second half sounds like it falls apart (Although I really like Private Public Breakdown.) I think a couple of issues here are that Alice doesn't seem to have a real song-writing partner anymore (I know you could argue Bob Ezrin is, but how much is Alice involved with that?) and Bob Ezrin isn't the same guy he was in the 1970s. Ezrin basically bought a bunch of riffs from a guy and produced something out of them and had Alice sing on them.

The entire album also sounds like it was copied and pasted in Protools. Not a lot of soul and mechanical in places (which I'll gladly admit is a little hypocrtical for me to say considering I love "Dada!")

The ACG bonus tracks weren't anything to write home about either.

As much as I greatly respect Ezrin, but perhaps however many albums we have left out of Alice might be best served with a different producer in my honest opinion.


I think Ezrin brings out the best in Alice when it comes to the vocals. The vocals on Nightmare 2, Paranormal and HV were fantastic, while they could have been better on Eyes, Diamonds and Spider. I feel Bob pushes Alice more than some of these younger, inexperienced producers. I'm sure he's not afraid to tell Alice, "you know what, you can do better, let's do it again", and Alice will trust his instinct. They work good together. I'm just happy we are still getting new records out of Alice, and I hope the next one doesn't take as long as this one did.
I think it is hard to say that Ezrin brings a better performance out of Alice based on this comparison. You have to look at Eyes, DD, and ACAS and realize that those albums were made completely different than W2MN, HV, and Paranormal. Eyes and DD were both recorded very quickly (going to assume ACAS was also, but it was also just made by extremely incompetent producers), and I would assume for two reasons. The reason spoken of especially with Eyes being tracked in like a week and having very few overdubs was to return to a garage band feel since it was during the neo-garage boom. Another reason that I guarantee it was done quickly was for cost purposes considering the more independent nature of that period. Either way though, you have less time which creates less takes to choose from. Whereas with these new Ezrin productions, there was much more time for Ezrin to get the take he wanted or marry together a lot of different snippets from many different takes to get exactly what he wanted. Also, for the amount of time that was taken to record and produce Eyes (it was released one year after Dragontown), it is an extremely stellar sounding album by a rather accomplished producer (even though, I'm not a fan of pretty much anything he has ever worked on). I again wish that he wouldn't have used some of the modern vocal production ideas on that album just as I have complained about with Ezrin.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Swinger » Fri Apr 27, 2018 8:40 pm

Devon wrote:I think the first half has some decent stuff, the second half sounds like it falls apart (Although I really like Private Public Breakdown.) I think a couple of issues here are that Alice doesn't seem to have a real song-writing partner anymore (I know you could argue Bob Ezrin is, but how much is Alice involved with that?) and Bob Ezrin isn't the same guy he was in the 1970s. Ezrin basically bought a bunch of riffs from a guy and produced something out of them and had Alice sing on them.

The entire album also sounds like it was copied and pasted in Protools. Not a lot of soul and mechanical in places (which I'll gladly admit is a little hypocrtical for me to say considering I love "Dada!")

The ACG bonus tracks weren't anything to write home about either.

As much as I greatly respect Ezrin, but perhaps however many albums we have left out of Alice might be best served with a different producer in my honest opinion.
I find it interesting that with Deep Purples latest two albums, which Ezrin also produced, someone in the band (I think probably Roger Glover) talked about how Ezrin truly wanted them to work and play together as a band in the studio. That Ezrin wanted what he heard when he saw them live to be there on the record as well. I wish Ezrin would take that attitude when it comes to Alice as well, either with the current live band or the original band, and not make such a deal out of guest players or outside songwriters.
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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Saint&Sinner » Sat Apr 28, 2018 2:59 am

Paranormal is just above average.
I think the production is great, fresh and powerful. I'm not sure why the backlash over bob ezrin i.e. a well produced energetic record but I think this is unfair.
I think alice and ezrin work well and alice tends to up his game around him (W2MN is the best thing by a country mile since 2000 (the last time bob ezrin showed up!)

But its all in the tunes and on this I largely like it. I think most of us can agree holy water is a crap fest. Private public breakdown is also not that strong.

Si, I get what you say about Paranormal having various songs meshed together, you can practically see the pro tools cut and paste. But having said that I do still like the tune.

I love Rats, Dynamite road, You and All your friends & Paranoic personality and like all the remainder of the tracks
One thing I get confused with tho is fireball, everyone seems to love it but when I first heard the album I would have put money on it being a tommy, tommy tommy song. (yet its not) Why does everyone love that song SO much....?

I think its a modern flush the fashion, its short, punchy with allot of energy.
I think the drumming suits it and is a little different, wouldn't want it full time (man that would be dull) but I appreciate the change of pace. The whole guest musician thing is odd and I don't get his fascination unless the material the band give him is just not that good? or does he not even entertain the notion of input?

It will never muscle in on the best albums in his discography but equally it wont ever be in the worst. I enjoy it and I jump around and headbang accordingly.
Good fun and I think a 7/10 is fair enough.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Rhapsody of Fire » Sat Apr 28, 2018 6:19 pm

TodayMueller wrote:Oh yeah, and Dynamite Road is pretty fun :grin:
I would see this song more on a HV album, than a regular Alice Cooper album, same thing for Rats and Genuine American Girl. As for me, being more an Alice Cooper ''Horror'' fan, I like Paranormal, The Sound of A. I like Fireball for the sound effect.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Maaki » Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:41 pm

"Guest" musicians is something Ezrin has always done. It is very evident in Alice's career and even more so with bands like Kiss and Aerosmith where people that actually play on the records were never actually really talked about or mentioned - and while some people seem to think they know now, I don't think anyone really does.

It's just his thing. With Kiss I can understand it, because you know why, but with the others, meh.

The current live band is super talented and injected with original group or vice versa they would do a great job. Better than Denander and co. did on Paranormal - which I still like a damn lot. Alice IS a premiere talent.

re: Fireball, I think, is just a bit divisive. I love it. I don't love the effect on vocals, but the song just grooves so hard I can't not love it. Glenn on drums would have made it even better. Ryan on guitar would have given it much more rocking soul. Nita on guitar would have made it much sharper and meaner. I really hope we hear it live.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by revinkevin » Mon Apr 30, 2018 12:51 am

Yup, the constant flow of guest musicians is real old. The touring band is hard to beat. They bring it every time I have seen them. Neal Smith drumming on Paranormal blows the U2 guy away. Dennis and Mike still got it. These are the guys Alice should be writing and playing on record with. But I’m pretty sure the pre hype on any upcoming Alice album will be “it’s going to sound like Killer “.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by dadascot » Mon Apr 30, 2018 5:54 pm

I recently went back to the album after a bit of a hiatus! I like every song on it except PP which to me, needed a bit more quiet menace. I think dynamite road, and genuine American girl are superb! I'm one of the few on here who really likes holy water. When I go back to 'schools one's l.p. It is the quirky songs like blue Turk and alma mater that make it for me, the diversity and......weirdness. And yet, and yet i don't LOVE this album the way I do so many of his others. I just can't put my finger on it. It's certainly nothing to do with Ezrins production! Alice's voice is stronger than many recent efforts, there is just something missing to push it to the top echelons of Alice's canon.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by dadascot » Mon Apr 30, 2018 5:56 pm

I would loved to have heard the so g that MB submitted which he said AS like something off of killer.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Saint&Sinner » Tue May 01, 2018 12:47 am

I forgot about that, what happened to the whole killer vibe he was talking about in interviews, is there a whole raft of other songs sitting there to be finished?
not sure I have seen him mention it since

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by guttertrash » Tue May 01, 2018 5:53 pm

Saint&Sinner wrote:I forgot about that, what happened to the whole killer vibe he was talking about in interviews, is there a whole raft of other songs sitting there to be finished?
not sure I have seen him mention it since
Ezrin apparently thought it made more sense to ripoff the likes of Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top, and other classic rockers than create an album that actually sounds like Alice Cooper.

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Re: I still think Paranormal is mediocre........

Post by Saint&Sinner » Wed May 02, 2018 1:05 am

Ezrin apparently thought it made more sense to ripoff the likes of Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top, and other classic rockers than create an album that actually sounds like Alice Cooper.
I'm really not getting the bob ezrin hate here. He seems to pull the better stuff out of alice recently in my opinion. I know its all opinion but W2MN and Paranormal are the best things he has done since Brutal planet (which bob ezrin co-produced!)

I think we need a co production by desmond child and bob ezrin, man I would pay for that, given that the two of them co-wrote one of the best alice tunes ever in "I am made of you" (and yes I get that half of you have now just cursed me outloud for mentioning Mr. Child, I know you all love trash :) but he is an incredibly talented songwriter and producer and Mr. Ezrin is an unmistakable genius)

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