Alice Cooper - Dragontown
Spitfire Records - 2001
4/10
After diving deep into the Rob Zombie influence on the prior record, Alice Cooper evidently decided to take another stab in that direction. While it worked decently enough the first time around, Dragontown admittedly looked to be a near copy for the second time around, except longer and less innovative. The same downtuned guitars dominate the entire palette, dystopia-obsessed lyrics cover most of the writing, and a somehow even worse ballad sneaks its way in. Considering that only a year passed, perhaps the shock rock king just wasn’t done here yet.
Looking across the board, there are some notable moments worth digging into. For these later records, there’s a pattern of the doomier songs seeming to hold the most weight. With that, the title track has plenty of solo wankery over thick rhythm passages, and the chorus is admittedly somewhat fun. Opener “Triggerman” also sets a pretty promising stage, riding on strong gallops and heavy metal strength. Unfortunately, not much else stands out, and a lot of this is just merely existing early 2000s rock.
The missing gap is the shit that’s awful. “Disgraceland” is one of the worst attempts at an Elvis impersonation, once again being way too on-the-nose with the lyrics; it’s far too corny even for Alice. The ballad “Every Woman Has A Name” managed to stand out even worse in the unflattering sense than the last record’s try for one. “Sex Death And Money” is a weird alternative take that also throws things off, and it’s so rough that I’m not even sure what the idea was here.
It would be wrong to say that Dragontown is the worst thing I’ve ever heard, but man is this ever chock full of generic writing and some serious doozies. The few strong parts are worth listening to, and I can appreciate the attempt at doubling down. But really, this is skippable as a whole.
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