My somewhat detailed analysis of the album
Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 1:14 pm
http://danlovetere.tumblr.com/post/8462 ... cism-alice
This is the first Alice Cooper album I ever bought on the street date. It was very much like what happens when you buy a new album from any artist you love. I listened to it about 95 times in the first month. The first time I listened to the album I didn’t love it. The song structures and lyrics are repetitive and the overly compressed dynamic range literally makes the album difficult to sit through. But at the same time, the album is highly enjoyable. It just wasn’t as good as I wanted to it be.
I stopped listening to it for several months and then rediscovered it. Now that my initial disappointment had worn off, I enjoyed the album more. Then I kept listening to it and my criticisms seemed harsher than ever. On many tracks, we hear instances of claps along with the chorus. It really hams up any attempt at credible music. The album would go up at least a half a point on a five-point scale if I could simply remove the clapping.
Also, every song repeats the chorus several times. 90% of the album’s tracks flow like this: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus. Some of those choruses are backed by music, some are acapella. In essence, every song is about 50% filler. The album is about 44 minutes long. I would have rather had a 34 minute album with the same number of tracks, with all of the filler chopped out of the middle of each track.
Part of this problem is also that Alice was trying to tell a story. Instead of writing eleven solid tracks, he broke up the story of Spider in eleven parts and wrote a song about each part. So, we are left with a song that tells a chunk of the story in two minutes, then has two minutes of filler. I firmly believe that if money wasn’t so tight and Alice’s touring schedule wasn’t so strenuous, he could have spent more time in the studio thinking this through and we would have been left with a much better album.
The other major issue with the album is the problem that plague’s all new hard rock records, including Metallica’s Death Magnetic or as I like to call it, “Sonic Terrible”. Every instrument is compressed to the same decibel level. There is no dynamic layering. This wouldn’t be a problem if this album had a simple sound - guitar, drums, bass, vocals. But Along Came A Spider has one of the most consistently cluttered mixes I’ve ever heard. We have cowbell, tambourine, clapping, guitar, drums, bass, synthesizers, and keyboard. All of these elements played back at exactly the same level leaves the album sounding flat and distorted. Like I said before, listening to this in headphones is literally painful by the end.
For me, guitar hooks make or break a song. Typically, a song has a great guitar hook and then lulls in favor of vocals. Then the vocals end and the guitar hook is reprised. All throughout this album, the guitars stick exactly to the rhythm of Alice’s voice. There are no hooks to be found. This is quite possibly the heaviest, hollowest pop album in recent history.
So I let several more months go by again since listening to it again. I have almost accepted the album for what it is… but not quite yet. There is still a few overwhelming problems. Before I get to them, I’d like to discuss each of the songs individually.
I Know Where You Live: This is a catchy song, overwhelmed by chorus, clapping, and compression. It is the perfect opening track, in terms of content. One of the oldest, non-explicit threats in the book is the basis here: “I know where you live!” The guitar riff is interesting, but it plays underneath Alice’s vocals. When he stops singing, the guitar stops. It is difficult to even hear the guitar for most of the song because you’re listening to Alice. Still, a likeable song and a funny/disturbing way to open the album.
Vengeance is Mine: This is a heavy, angry hard rock song. The riff is cool and Slash’s guitar solo makes the song a wild experience. The lyrics/chorus are repetitive, but it works for this song. Vengeance is all he wants and all he needs, plain and simple. To say more about Vengeance is Mine, when it was first released online, a month before the album, I thought it was cool, but I hoped the rest of the album would be better. I was wrong. Like the album, I listened to Vengeance is Mine about 100 times (not an exaggeration) and suddenly, I started loving it. This is a metaphor for the entire album, but I’m still slightly sad that this turned out to be the best track.
Wake the Dead: This song is light and catchy. It is a lot of fun. Lyrically, it is dark, yet tongue-in-cheek humorous like the opening track. It has a great guitar/harmonica riff and a simply wonderful little drum line. The chorus is a bit repetivite here as well. What a surprise. Ozzy Osbourne plays harmonica on this track. As it plays, the harmonica pans from left to right, back and forth like the intro in Crazy Train. This is such a headspinningly awesome feeling in headphones. The biggest issue here is that the guitar riff once again exists directly beneath Alice’s voice. There might as well not even be an electric guitar on this song. You’d barely notice the difference.
Catch Me If You Can: This is a heavy, angry track like Vengeance is Mine, but here is the song where the overcompression is the most painful to listen to. It is so loud that my ear feels pain. I usually have to turn it down when I get to this point on the disc. What is really odd is the transition from Wake the Dead to this. The two songs have the same time signature, and even though they sound so different, the songs almost blur together. It is a truly jarring transition. This is something I notice every time I listen to the album, from the first time to the last. The song also features the dreadful clapping and repetitive/acapella chorus.
(In Touch With) Your Feminine Side: I like this song a lot. It is light, like Wake the Dead. It is also one of the most pure rock songs on the album. The mix is not as cluttered and there is very little clapping. The biggest problem here is that the verses are so short and trite: “You’ve got some rock in your walk. You’ve got some hips in your slips.” Wow. However, the song is so catchy, that you can’t help but bump along to it. What also helps is that the chorus is twice as long as each verse and is one of the best choruses on the album.
Wrapped in Silk: This song, sonically is more in line with I Know Where You Live. I quite like the lyrics here as well as the chorus. It is driven by one of the heaviest and catchiest riffs on the album and for once, it doesn’t play underneath Alice. His vocals alternate the foreground with the guitar. The chorus is repetitive as usual, but this is one of the longer choruses, so the repetition is fewer and far between. This is one of the better songs on the album.
Killed By Love: This is the first ballad. Sonically, it couldn’t have come a moment too soon. The compression is so strong throughout the album that our heads might have exploded if we didn’t get a break. If I could describe this song in one word, it would be simplicity. The guitar riff is so basic and minimal, that the song breathes well and sinks in very deeply. The lyrics and Alice’s vocal performance are unlike anything else on the album. This song would have been right at home on one of Alice’s softer albums, like “From the Inside”. Alice does is best Beatlesque voice here as well. Fans of early Alice know that the Beatles were one of his greatest inspirations. In fact, many of the band’s early cuts sound like the Beatles on Acid. This is one of the few songs that I often desire to listen to, outside of the album. Most often I only listen to albums. Very rarely do I skip tracks, but for this I make an expection. For me, this is one of the best tracks on the album.
I’m Hungry: Unfortunately, when this song begins we dread having to go back to the sonically overwhelming sound of the first part of the album. This song had potential to be good. It’s lyrics have that tongue in cheek sting, but when the chorus hits, it all goes downhill. Not only does this have the most choral repetitions, it also has the shortest chorus, which means more time for brainless repetition. Let me just give you an example of what the last minutes of the song consist of: “I’M HUNGRY! YEAH, I’M HUNGRY! OH, I’M HUNGRY! I’M HUNGRY! YEAH, I’M HUNGRY! OH, I’M HUNGRY!” My God, I want to cut my own head off and eat it by the time this song ends. This track really sours my mood. It makes me want to stop listening and takes a LOT away from the remaining three tracks, which are all great.
The One that Got Away: This, like Feminine Side, it an old fashioned rock song. It is the most classic “Alice” sounding song, like Feminine Side and it doesn’t suffer from the cluttered mix / compression problems. It also has a dialogue breakdown in the middle that is hysterical. I laughed loudly the first time I ever listened. Despite being one of the album’s better tracks, the lyrics are rather weak here. They don’t pack much punch. Like Feminine Side, the major focus seems to be the chorus. That doesn’t stop you (or me) from enjoying it though. Just skip “I’m Hungry” and you can enjoy this without suicidal tendencies.
Salvation: This is the second and inferior ballad. It is certainly more epic, but the chorus isn’t great and it is repetitive. The lyrics play an important role in the story, but don’t have the impact of Killed by Love. Longtime Alice fans know that often times the ballads are highlights. I don’t feel that way about Salvation. The chorus is too verbose and cramped. And its constant repetition gets the song nowhere fast. It does, however have a wonderfully abrupt ending that transitions beautifully into the final track
I Am The Spider: This is possibly the heaviest, darkest, scariest track on the album. The guitar riff is as frightening and gritty as anything Alice has ever done. This is one of the few exceptions on the album, where the riff is the driving force of the song. I Am The Spider serves as a summation of the album, as well as Alice’s final admission and concession that he is in fact the spider and there will be no salvation. The only downfall is that, like Catch Me, it is one of the most compressed songs on the album, but that doesn’t stop the song from standing out as one of the better tracks. It is also one of the most popular tracks. Fan reaction to the song has been overwhelmingly positive, because fans had hoped this song would encapsulate the sound of the entire album, but it does not. Much of the album is pop oriented and very little of it actually rocks as hard as this track.
There are also bonus tracks that I won’t say too much about. I’ll Still Be There is very good, but sonically, too much like the rest of the album. It does, however, have some of the best lyrics to be found on the entire album.
Shadow of Yourself is the most sonically different from anything on the album. One of the things I didn’t mention above is that there is very little variety in Alice’s vocals, which is another element that makes the album difficult. However, on Shadow of Yourself, from verses to chorus, from beginning to end, it sounds nothing like any of the album’s tracks. It almost sounds like it is from a different recording session with a different producer. I wish, for this reason alone that the song remained on the album.
So, to sum up, the biggest problems with the album are the overcompression and lack of variety. I have some solutions, but these may come down to personal preference. Reversing the playback order of Feminine Side and Catch Me greatly changes the impact of the album. Feminine Side is one of the lighter songs, so it transitions wonderfully from Wake the Dead. The two songs create a sense of light cohesion. Then we have Catch Me, which fades out, giving us an aural break before Wrapped in Silk. Feminine Side has a very cold ending, which previously went right into Wrapped, making the two songs blur together the way that Wake the Dead and Catch Me blur together. Switching the order alleviates both of those glaring issues. Catch Me is also a hands-down better song to end the first side. We have eight or so minutes of light, playful music, when suddenly Alice gets angry and ups the ante.
Also, if the albums worst track, I’m Hungry is replaced with the bonus track, Shadow of Yourself, the album goes up yet another notch on the enjoyability scale. It keeps us in the album and makes us want to listen to the rest without slicing your ears off. Why I’m Hungry was chosen over either of the bonus tracks I will never understand.
I’ve been listening to the album with these changes implemented for the last month. It really is the best way to listen that I have found. I feel slightly like I have betrayed the artist, but it really is better this way. If I knew Alice, I would urge him to make these changes and reissue the album. Or at least listen to it this way to see how he felt for himself. When I find out this answer, you will be the first to know!
This is the first Alice Cooper album I ever bought on the street date. It was very much like what happens when you buy a new album from any artist you love. I listened to it about 95 times in the first month. The first time I listened to the album I didn’t love it. The song structures and lyrics are repetitive and the overly compressed dynamic range literally makes the album difficult to sit through. But at the same time, the album is highly enjoyable. It just wasn’t as good as I wanted to it be.
I stopped listening to it for several months and then rediscovered it. Now that my initial disappointment had worn off, I enjoyed the album more. Then I kept listening to it and my criticisms seemed harsher than ever. On many tracks, we hear instances of claps along with the chorus. It really hams up any attempt at credible music. The album would go up at least a half a point on a five-point scale if I could simply remove the clapping.
Also, every song repeats the chorus several times. 90% of the album’s tracks flow like this: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus, chorus. Some of those choruses are backed by music, some are acapella. In essence, every song is about 50% filler. The album is about 44 minutes long. I would have rather had a 34 minute album with the same number of tracks, with all of the filler chopped out of the middle of each track.
Part of this problem is also that Alice was trying to tell a story. Instead of writing eleven solid tracks, he broke up the story of Spider in eleven parts and wrote a song about each part. So, we are left with a song that tells a chunk of the story in two minutes, then has two minutes of filler. I firmly believe that if money wasn’t so tight and Alice’s touring schedule wasn’t so strenuous, he could have spent more time in the studio thinking this through and we would have been left with a much better album.
The other major issue with the album is the problem that plague’s all new hard rock records, including Metallica’s Death Magnetic or as I like to call it, “Sonic Terrible”. Every instrument is compressed to the same decibel level. There is no dynamic layering. This wouldn’t be a problem if this album had a simple sound - guitar, drums, bass, vocals. But Along Came A Spider has one of the most consistently cluttered mixes I’ve ever heard. We have cowbell, tambourine, clapping, guitar, drums, bass, synthesizers, and keyboard. All of these elements played back at exactly the same level leaves the album sounding flat and distorted. Like I said before, listening to this in headphones is literally painful by the end.
For me, guitar hooks make or break a song. Typically, a song has a great guitar hook and then lulls in favor of vocals. Then the vocals end and the guitar hook is reprised. All throughout this album, the guitars stick exactly to the rhythm of Alice’s voice. There are no hooks to be found. This is quite possibly the heaviest, hollowest pop album in recent history.
So I let several more months go by again since listening to it again. I have almost accepted the album for what it is… but not quite yet. There is still a few overwhelming problems. Before I get to them, I’d like to discuss each of the songs individually.
I Know Where You Live: This is a catchy song, overwhelmed by chorus, clapping, and compression. It is the perfect opening track, in terms of content. One of the oldest, non-explicit threats in the book is the basis here: “I know where you live!” The guitar riff is interesting, but it plays underneath Alice’s vocals. When he stops singing, the guitar stops. It is difficult to even hear the guitar for most of the song because you’re listening to Alice. Still, a likeable song and a funny/disturbing way to open the album.
Vengeance is Mine: This is a heavy, angry hard rock song. The riff is cool and Slash’s guitar solo makes the song a wild experience. The lyrics/chorus are repetitive, but it works for this song. Vengeance is all he wants and all he needs, plain and simple. To say more about Vengeance is Mine, when it was first released online, a month before the album, I thought it was cool, but I hoped the rest of the album would be better. I was wrong. Like the album, I listened to Vengeance is Mine about 100 times (not an exaggeration) and suddenly, I started loving it. This is a metaphor for the entire album, but I’m still slightly sad that this turned out to be the best track.
Wake the Dead: This song is light and catchy. It is a lot of fun. Lyrically, it is dark, yet tongue-in-cheek humorous like the opening track. It has a great guitar/harmonica riff and a simply wonderful little drum line. The chorus is a bit repetivite here as well. What a surprise. Ozzy Osbourne plays harmonica on this track. As it plays, the harmonica pans from left to right, back and forth like the intro in Crazy Train. This is such a headspinningly awesome feeling in headphones. The biggest issue here is that the guitar riff once again exists directly beneath Alice’s voice. There might as well not even be an electric guitar on this song. You’d barely notice the difference.
Catch Me If You Can: This is a heavy, angry track like Vengeance is Mine, but here is the song where the overcompression is the most painful to listen to. It is so loud that my ear feels pain. I usually have to turn it down when I get to this point on the disc. What is really odd is the transition from Wake the Dead to this. The two songs have the same time signature, and even though they sound so different, the songs almost blur together. It is a truly jarring transition. This is something I notice every time I listen to the album, from the first time to the last. The song also features the dreadful clapping and repetitive/acapella chorus.
(In Touch With) Your Feminine Side: I like this song a lot. It is light, like Wake the Dead. It is also one of the most pure rock songs on the album. The mix is not as cluttered and there is very little clapping. The biggest problem here is that the verses are so short and trite: “You’ve got some rock in your walk. You’ve got some hips in your slips.” Wow. However, the song is so catchy, that you can’t help but bump along to it. What also helps is that the chorus is twice as long as each verse and is one of the best choruses on the album.
Wrapped in Silk: This song, sonically is more in line with I Know Where You Live. I quite like the lyrics here as well as the chorus. It is driven by one of the heaviest and catchiest riffs on the album and for once, it doesn’t play underneath Alice. His vocals alternate the foreground with the guitar. The chorus is repetitive as usual, but this is one of the longer choruses, so the repetition is fewer and far between. This is one of the better songs on the album.
Killed By Love: This is the first ballad. Sonically, it couldn’t have come a moment too soon. The compression is so strong throughout the album that our heads might have exploded if we didn’t get a break. If I could describe this song in one word, it would be simplicity. The guitar riff is so basic and minimal, that the song breathes well and sinks in very deeply. The lyrics and Alice’s vocal performance are unlike anything else on the album. This song would have been right at home on one of Alice’s softer albums, like “From the Inside”. Alice does is best Beatlesque voice here as well. Fans of early Alice know that the Beatles were one of his greatest inspirations. In fact, many of the band’s early cuts sound like the Beatles on Acid. This is one of the few songs that I often desire to listen to, outside of the album. Most often I only listen to albums. Very rarely do I skip tracks, but for this I make an expection. For me, this is one of the best tracks on the album.
I’m Hungry: Unfortunately, when this song begins we dread having to go back to the sonically overwhelming sound of the first part of the album. This song had potential to be good. It’s lyrics have that tongue in cheek sting, but when the chorus hits, it all goes downhill. Not only does this have the most choral repetitions, it also has the shortest chorus, which means more time for brainless repetition. Let me just give you an example of what the last minutes of the song consist of: “I’M HUNGRY! YEAH, I’M HUNGRY! OH, I’M HUNGRY! I’M HUNGRY! YEAH, I’M HUNGRY! OH, I’M HUNGRY!” My God, I want to cut my own head off and eat it by the time this song ends. This track really sours my mood. It makes me want to stop listening and takes a LOT away from the remaining three tracks, which are all great.
The One that Got Away: This, like Feminine Side, it an old fashioned rock song. It is the most classic “Alice” sounding song, like Feminine Side and it doesn’t suffer from the cluttered mix / compression problems. It also has a dialogue breakdown in the middle that is hysterical. I laughed loudly the first time I ever listened. Despite being one of the album’s better tracks, the lyrics are rather weak here. They don’t pack much punch. Like Feminine Side, the major focus seems to be the chorus. That doesn’t stop you (or me) from enjoying it though. Just skip “I’m Hungry” and you can enjoy this without suicidal tendencies.
Salvation: This is the second and inferior ballad. It is certainly more epic, but the chorus isn’t great and it is repetitive. The lyrics play an important role in the story, but don’t have the impact of Killed by Love. Longtime Alice fans know that often times the ballads are highlights. I don’t feel that way about Salvation. The chorus is too verbose and cramped. And its constant repetition gets the song nowhere fast. It does, however have a wonderfully abrupt ending that transitions beautifully into the final track
I Am The Spider: This is possibly the heaviest, darkest, scariest track on the album. The guitar riff is as frightening and gritty as anything Alice has ever done. This is one of the few exceptions on the album, where the riff is the driving force of the song. I Am The Spider serves as a summation of the album, as well as Alice’s final admission and concession that he is in fact the spider and there will be no salvation. The only downfall is that, like Catch Me, it is one of the most compressed songs on the album, but that doesn’t stop the song from standing out as one of the better tracks. It is also one of the most popular tracks. Fan reaction to the song has been overwhelmingly positive, because fans had hoped this song would encapsulate the sound of the entire album, but it does not. Much of the album is pop oriented and very little of it actually rocks as hard as this track.
There are also bonus tracks that I won’t say too much about. I’ll Still Be There is very good, but sonically, too much like the rest of the album. It does, however, have some of the best lyrics to be found on the entire album.
Shadow of Yourself is the most sonically different from anything on the album. One of the things I didn’t mention above is that there is very little variety in Alice’s vocals, which is another element that makes the album difficult. However, on Shadow of Yourself, from verses to chorus, from beginning to end, it sounds nothing like any of the album’s tracks. It almost sounds like it is from a different recording session with a different producer. I wish, for this reason alone that the song remained on the album.
So, to sum up, the biggest problems with the album are the overcompression and lack of variety. I have some solutions, but these may come down to personal preference. Reversing the playback order of Feminine Side and Catch Me greatly changes the impact of the album. Feminine Side is one of the lighter songs, so it transitions wonderfully from Wake the Dead. The two songs create a sense of light cohesion. Then we have Catch Me, which fades out, giving us an aural break before Wrapped in Silk. Feminine Side has a very cold ending, which previously went right into Wrapped, making the two songs blur together the way that Wake the Dead and Catch Me blur together. Switching the order alleviates both of those glaring issues. Catch Me is also a hands-down better song to end the first side. We have eight or so minutes of light, playful music, when suddenly Alice gets angry and ups the ante.
Also, if the albums worst track, I’m Hungry is replaced with the bonus track, Shadow of Yourself, the album goes up yet another notch on the enjoyability scale. It keeps us in the album and makes us want to listen to the rest without slicing your ears off. Why I’m Hungry was chosen over either of the bonus tracks I will never understand.
I’ve been listening to the album with these changes implemented for the last month. It really is the best way to listen that I have found. I feel slightly like I have betrayed the artist, but it really is better this way. If I knew Alice, I would urge him to make these changes and reissue the album. Or at least listen to it this way to see how he felt for himself. When I find out this answer, you will be the first to know!