Alice Cooper - Paranormal
Ear Music - 2017
6.5/10
Alice Cooper’s Paranormal has a trait that I think many a later Slayer album suffers from; title track supremacy. If it isn’t obvious, this is when a record’s title track holds an immense amount of weight, while everything else fails to come close to measuring up. This doesn’t always make for a bad album, but often one that’s a bit underwhelming compared to expectation. For how long a gap there was between albums, it is somewhat surprising.
Thus, expect “Paranormal” to be a banger. The progression of softer riffing, molding into faster paced verses and incredible percussion works wonders. Throw in a beefy solo that transitions the energy in a cool, clean way, and the stage is officially set high. Sure, there’s autotune now, Alice’s age shows, and nothing is really new, but this song has lost zero of its luster since it came out five years ago.
Such a shame that the rest couldn’t hold that presence. No track here strikes me as overtly bad, but there’s very little to dig up that doesn’t just reek of modern rock ‘n roll by-the-numbers. Little standouts like the pacing in “Paranoic Personality” are enjoyable enough, and the faster spoken-word over instruments energy on “Dynamite Road” hits nicely. Hell, I’ll even give some credit to the dance-worthy “Holy Water.” If you get the version with bonus tracks by the original Alice Cooper band, “Genuine American Girl” might be better than any other song on this disc outside of the title track. It certainly breathes the classic energy.
But ultimately, this is a just-above-average disc that may be worth hearing once, but nothing I’d go to great lengths to seek out. If the entire album held the impact of the first song, this would truly be an immaculate disc. For what it’s worth, it’s better than a good number of the post-’90s records. Tread lightly.
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