Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Alice Cooper, earMUSIC/Sony music 2021.
Who would have thought that Alice Cooper would have a number one album in 2021 but that’s exactly what he’s achieved with Detroit Stories.
It’s already racked up No One in Germany, No One in USA (Top Album Sales), No Three in Austria and Australia, and No Four in the UK, as well as charting in many other national charts worldwide.
It shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise because Alice has hit a rich vein of form.
His last album, Paranormal (2017), was also an outstanding success and definitely his best album for some time but Detroit Stories has already surpassed it.
Detroit Stories success has also surprised Alice who commented: “After doing 28 albums it’s really amazing to have an album that has charted so high.”
He’s put down a lot of the success to the fact that the world seems ready for a “fun rock ‘n’ roll album that gets everyone up and feeling good again” and that may be partly true but I think the main reason is that he’s really found his groove again and the fans have responded accordingly.
Paranormal set the tone and Detroit Stories has amplified that.
The list of countries where it has charted in the Top Ten includes: Germany (One), USA (One), Scotland (Two), Austria and Australia (Three), UK (Four), Finland (Six), Belgium and Sweden (Seven), and France (10).
The album is named after the city where Alice Cooper rose to fame.
It’s a hard, tough, industrial town that has been a hotbed of musical innovation and trend-setters from Alice’s Shock Rock to grunge and hip-hop and on to dub.
No matter what style came out of Detroit the music was mostly as gritty as the place that generated it.
Detroit is also part of the forgotten industrial heartland of the USA that turned to Trump to get answers to their problems.
They didn’t receive any. The factories remained closed and the unemployment rate high.
Detroit Stories pays homage to Alice’s hometown and follows on from the EP that he released last year, Breadcrumbs, with both albums speaking to his fellow Detroit(ens) expressing his (and their) anger and frustration, but also love and resilience.
