Hollywood Vampires has been marketed as a band or group effort and I guess it is. But there is no doubt that this is Alice Cooper all the way. From his tour "Raise The Dead" there's a DVD from Wacken 2013 where The Coop played "Break On Through, My Generation, Revolution, Foxy Lady and the mix of School's Out / Another Brick In The Wall."
In the days of old there was a drinking club called the Hollywood Vampires. Most of it's members are dead now. They drank themselves to death. Alice tried really hard to join them. He failed. Now he salutes his old mates with this album. Names like: Keith Moon, John Lennon, George Harrison, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Noel Reding, Marc Bolan to name a few.
Is it any good? Yeah, it actually works very nicely. It's an Alice Cooper album of cover songs, and it feels tight and focused. It's well produced and it sounds like most of the newer Alice stuff. There's a lot of inserted Alice and Vampire moments and Alice and his band - including too many celebrities to mention - all nails it damn fine.
The best moments are "Raise The Dead" and "My Dead Drunk Friends", which both sound like fresh Alice Cooper songs - with a lot of edge and power to them. Alice sings with confidence and his 2000 years of Vampire experience and the knowledge that he was actually there. Drunk, but there. He does his best impersonations of Marc Bolan and Jim Morrison. For most of the songs it sounds and feels really cool.
Sir Paul McCartney pops in on "Come And Get It" and Johnny Depp and Joe Perry are busy on the guitars on a lot of songs. This is Alice Cooper doing other people's songs. Everybody else are there to join him in this celebration of his dead drunk friends.
I bought the enhanced sound CD from Japan (SHM-CD) with an extra track on it "I'm A Boy." The lyrics are funny (Alice), but don't buy it just for that, it's not worth the extra price for just one track.
To highlight one more song, I'd pick "School's Out / Another Brick In The Wall (part 2)." It's bloody brilliantly merged by Alice and Bob Ezrin. And it's hard to imagine it won't last for many more years on the Cooper shows.
What to do?
- Bring The Coop to Copenhell '16 Festival.
- You? Go buy the Vampire album and the Wacken DVD and then add the Wacken Vampire live tracks to the CD tracks, and then prepare to rock!!!
Rating: 
Band: Hollywood Vampires
Record Title: Hollywood Vampires
This Release: 2015
Record Format: CD
Record Label: UMe
Content Type: Record Review
Language: 
Updated: 2015-10-03 02:48
Created: 2015-10-03 01:48
