Alice Cooper - Detroit Stories

Detroit Stories is the twenty-first solo and twenty-eighth overall studio album by American singer-songwriter and musician Alice Cooper, released in February 2021 via earMusic.

“I was born here” said Alice Cooper, “and so was the sound and spirit of Alice Cooper.”

Alice Cooper roars back with a new album themed around the city of his birth Detroit, and follows on from his 2019 EP Breadcrumbs. Alice Cooper and Bob Ezrin gathered some legendary Detroit musicians in Detroit to record the album, including Wayne Kramer (MC5), Johnny “Bee” Badanjek and Paul Randolph.

The album kicks off with a high energy cover of the Lou Reed penned “Rock & Roll”, which sets the tone for the album; fun, high energy, tongue-in cheek, with a mix of covers and original material. The album features original Alice Cooper Band members Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith on the tracks “Social Debris” and “I Hate You”.

Album highlights include the MC5 cover of “Sister Anne” and the Bob Seger cover of “East Side Story”, and a sassy and sultry “$1000 High Heel Shoes” featuring backing vocals from Sister Sledge and a cool horn section by The Motor City Horns.

There is a nod to the blues with “Drunk And In Love’, featuring Joe Bonamassa on guitars and Alice on harmonica. The song “I Hate You”, featuring the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper band, all have a tongue in cheek crack at each other from their looks, to their dressing and the way they play their instruments, including the late Glen Buxton “But most of all we’re filled with rage / At the empty space you left on stage (what a sod)”.

The song “Hanging On By A Thread (Don’t Give Up)” was originally released as a single back in May 2020 to help his fan base through COVID-19 (titled simply “Don’t Give Up”), and is included here with updated lyrics to raise awareness about mental health, finishing with the lines “But we’re not gonna step off the ledge / No… / This is Alice Cooper in Detroit… Let’s keep fighting, don’t give up / Call the Suicide Prevention Hotline / 1-800-273-8255”.

“Shut Up And Rock” sounds like it might have been written for KISS, with Larry Mullen Jr (U2) on drums and the album closes out with the Bob Seger cover of “East Side Story”.

The album is produced by Bob Ezrin who features as co-writer on a number of tracks and continues their fruitful partnership, since his first involvement with Cooper on the band’s 1971 album Love It To Death.

Overall a fun and eclectic vibe, which only someone like Alice Cooper can pull off. Enjoyable from start to finish.

This double album 2LP record set is on 180 gram black vinyl at 45 RPM housed in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeves, pressed in Germany via earMusic.