Alice Cooper returns to his roots and takes us to Motor City with his new studio album, Detroit Stories. There is no doubt that this is an aggressive, piston-pumping, motor rock album, but it also features a wide range of styles. From Motown to the blues, Alice covers it all yet still maintains his signature metal sound.
The album opens with a Velvet Underground cover, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’, a song that was first released in the early 70s and is based on New York City. Alice “puts a V8 engine in it”, brings in Joe Bonamassa on guitar, and gives the song a whole new life. This was the perfect way to set the Detroit rock scene for the rest of the album.
A few songs in, we quickly transition from the fast paced, speed racer rock song, ‘Go Man Go’, to something completely different. Next is more of a “bubblegum” style song called, ‘Our Love Will Change the World’, but of course, it has an Alice Cooper twist to it. It’s almost like a group of Detroit villagers singing about how they don’t have respect for anything, they have no future, but their love for their strange little city will change the world. It’s ironic and it’s perfect.
Detroit is also the birthplace of Motown music, and Alice pays tribute to that with ‘$1000 High Heel Shoes’. The background “shoo doowops”, the trumpet, trombone, and organ all contribute to that classic Motown sound.
The real tribute on the album though, is ‘Detroit City 2021’ which touches upon everything Detroit has to offer. Motown, hockey town, down town, freak town, it’s all in there. The song flat out mentions Detroit artists like Iggy Pop, MC5, and Bob Seger, but then says, “The kid was in his crib, Shady wore a bib” referring to Kid Rock and Slim Shady, aka Eminem. If you don’t know anything about Detroit, you sure will after listening to this song.
Towards the end of the album is a song that is worth mentioning, and that song is ‘Hanging on by a Thread (Don’t Give up)’. Alice takes a moment and steps out of Detroit to unify the entire world by addressing how all seven billion of us are struggling through this pandemic. We are not alone because we are all struggling through it together, and we will get through it, together. He takes this a step further with the music video by having fans take pictures of themselves holding a sign with one of the lyrics on it. At the very end of the song, Alice delivers a very powerful message, and includes the suicide prevetion hotline number. Thank you, Alice.
I think my favorite part of the album is the aggression of ‘I Hate You’ and ‘Shut Up and Rock’. You can’t get much more aggressive than those two phrases. My favorite song though, would have to be ‘Independence Dave’, it’s just such a fun, upbeat song.
Overall, Alice Cooper can do no wrong in my eyes, and this is just another flawless album start to finish. Alice is a storyteller, and what is so great about this album is that it’s not just a bunch of songs thrown together, each song has its own unique story and they all coexist together in this world that he created. This might not be his best album, but it certainly is a perfect tribute to his hometown, Detroit.
Click here to stream Detroit Stories or listen below.