These Infinite Spaces

In 1975, Alice Cooper released his first solo album, "Welcome to My Nightmare". Despite mixed reviews at the time, it is now recognised as a modern classic, and one of the greatest concept albums of all time. It describes a journey through the nightmares of a young child called Steven.

It was always risky for Cooper to release a sequel album, especially one with the B-Grade title of "Welcome 2 My Nightmare". After all, Cooper had already written a sequel album - the acclaimed "The Last Temptation", which told of how Steven grew up and overcame his demons. (It also, apparently, documents Cooper's embrace of evangelical Christianity).

Anyway, for better or worse, "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" was released last year. And it's actually mostly for the better. It is another concept album, with Steven once more plagued by nightmares and pursued by the Devil in the guise of a beautiful woman (sung by Ke$ha). It is a really eclectic mix of musical styles, but lots of fun and with some good songwriting too.

The opening track is a standout, an epic ballad called "I am made of you", a beautiful love song rich with biblical allusions -

In the beginning you were revelation
A river of salvation and now I believe

All I wanted, all I needed
Was someone to rescue me
I was drowning, I was dying
Now I'm free
Another strong track is "The Congregation", about a nice, middle-class man who wakes up and finds himself in hell, much to his surprise -

We understand what you had planned goes by another name
Where bluebirds sing and church bells ring, well isn't that a shame
Your application sadly was denied
But let's be clear, we love you here, you're on the other side
There is dark humour here as a radio announcer, Dante-like, goes through the punishments alloted to various sinners -

Ah, as you can see over here the broken glass chamber of the boys from Wall Street. Let's hear it for the boys! And here in the eternal Mariachi room for the defrocked priest and the telemarketers. And the totally fiery pit of boiling death - the lawyers, pimps and mimes...

The eternal Mariachi room! But in the end, the joking stops -

Welcome to the congregation
I hope we meet your expectation
So thanks for dropping by here
We're really gonna try here
But in the end you know you're gonna fry.... fry.... fry... here

Who else gets away with writing songs like this?? Another humorous song I must mention - "Ghouls Gone Wild". Lol - love it!

Long time fans will know that Cooper often writes about domestic violence, and he has included such a song here, called "When Hell Comes Home". I've heard that it is based on his own childhood, growing up with a violent and abusive father. It's a thumping, grooving beat with disturbing lyrics -

Mommy says that everything is fine
Mommy hides her bruises all the time
She always makes excuses, but I know that she is lyin'
Mommy says that everything is fine
That's just the way it, he's evil to the bone
Mommy says that everything is fine
Yeah, that's just the way it is when we're left alone
Cuz that's when hell comes home

Reminds me - White Ribbon day on the 25th November.

Back to the fun. Another great song is "What Baby Wants", featuring Ke$ha as the Devil in the guise of a beautiful woman trying to damn Steven. Ke$ha and Alice Cooper shouldn't work, but it actually works very well. Something about when Ke$ha says "Oh, really?"... Well, she's playing the Devil so we shouldn't get too excited. But it's a cracker of a song, and I'm surprised they didn't release it as a single.

The final track is "The Underture", a five minute instrumental featuring tunes from the prequel album. It made me want to listen to that album right away! It also made me realise that this sequel is full of fun and some great songs, but it probably won't become a classic.