Latest offering from Alice Cooper, the self-styled “Shock Rocker”. And in honesty, it’s a bit cheesy. I’m not a fan, but there’s more than a few out there that are. Musically there are some good, riffy, AC/DC styled tunes but the lyrical content, to be fair, is tacky. Opener, “Woman Of Mass Distraction” says it all with the first couple of lines, “I’m a shock rock romeo/ I like to leave ‘em shattered/ I can love ‘em, leave ‘em/ It doesn’t really matter”. I mean, come on, it’s hardly poetry is it?. Unfortunately the album carries on in the same vein, “Perfect” and “Sunshine Babies (All Got Rabies)” and as you may have guessed, I’m struggling to find positives and I genuinely hate being negative about the cd’s that I review. Equally I don’t subscribe to political correctness but there’s just too much, overly sexist, lyrical bullshit on “Dirty Diamonds” to make it palatable. If you’re going to try the non-PC route with music, I think you’ve got to be a whole lot more subtle, Alice would do well to dig back a few years and listen to someone like Bon Scott to see how it should be done. 

“The Saga Of Jesse Jane” is turgid, a country edged, cowboy tale that rambles mindlessly to the point of embarrassment. I’d be interested to hear what a true Alice Cooper fan thinks of the album ‘cos I hate it on many levels. The vocal performance on most of the songs is poor, but in honesty, Alice was never going to be compared to say, Sebastian Bach. Musically, it’s well played and I would even say that if you’re just learning an instrument (guitar, bass or drums) there’s riffs and rhythm patterns that are worth playing along to just because they’re simplistic and somewhat effective. But I wouldn’t recommend buying the album on that basis, try Powerage or anything by the Georgia Satellites. 

To my ear, there isn’t a song on the cd that will change music history, there’s no “Schools Out”, “Elected” or even the bloody awful “Poison”, it’s well produced, well played but equally, offensively sexist and there are a million better albums out there. I hate to say it , but with “Dirty Diamonds”, Alice has reached and probably stepped beyond the twilight of his career and could probably be better served by changing his name back to Vincent Furnier  and concentrating on his golf handicap.

Let us know your views on 'Dirty Diamonds'

Track List

Woman Of Mass Distraction
You Make Me Wanna
Perfect
Dirty Diamonds
Pretty Ballerina
Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)
Zombie Dance
The Saga Of Jesse Jane
Six Hours
Steal That Car
Run Down The Devil
Your Own Worst Enemy
The Sharpest Pain

Line Up

Alice Cooper - Vocals
Ryan Roxie - Guitars
Damon Johnson - Guitars
Chuck Garric - Bass
Tommy Cufetos - Drums