#60: "In the Air Tonight" - Phil Collins Release Date: 1981 Director: Stuart Orme Fun Fact: The myth that this song is about a drowning incident that Phil Collins witnessed is all a complete and utter fabrication - don't believe it!!
This song and video is incredibly iconic. Similar to my entry for "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel though, this entry is because of how good the video is, rather than my love of the song. And the video, actually isn't a technical genius of a video. But it's simple and absorbs you in. Sometimes the simplest of ideas are the best ones, and this video is an example of that. The majority of the video is Phil Collins' face in black and white, but you can't help but look at it. It's just a great video, and it matches the song to perfection.
Here's the video for your enjoyment!
Click here to see #59 on the list or here for #61!
#62: "Sledgehammer" - Peter Gabriel Release Date: 1986 Director: Stephen R. Johnson Fun Fact: The video has won a whopping NINE MTV Music video awards, which is still a record to this day!
This video is also the most played video in MTV music channel history too. That's of course part to how old the video is but also to how damned good the video is also. Now, I'm going to level with you here. I'm not a massive fan of this song. It's okay; I can listen to it when it comes on the radio but it's not on my personal media player or anything like that. But this video is just amazing. It draws you in, you can't stop looking at it. The director and the team who took part in the creation of this video have done an insane job. It's just simply one of the best videos of all time, and in an unbiased list, this would be a certain Top 10, if not Top 5 entry.
Another fun fact - Aardman Animations, the guys who made Wallace and Gromit, as well as Shaun the Sheep, took part in the making of this video!
Here's the video for your enjoyment!
Click here to see #61 on the list or here for #63!
“Welcome 2 My Nightmare” surpasses the original album
released 26 years prior, and shows that music doesn’t have to be serious; it
can be pure entertainment and fun.
Alice Cooper released “Welcome 2 My Nightmare” three months
ago. It’s his 26th album and is the official sequel to “Welcome to My
Nightmare” which was released ironically, 26 years ago. Three years ago Alice
Cooper released “Along Came a Spider” and was considering doing a sequel to
that album, but when producer Bob Ezrin (who also sequenced The Fragile by Nine
Inch Nails and has worked with well respected artists like Pink Floyd, KISS and
Peter Gabriel) didn’t like the idea of a sequel to that album proposed they do
a sequel to “Welcome to My Nightmare” instead, Alice Cooper liked that idea
more. Alice Cooper was touring extensively while the album was being prepared
for release and expected it to be released next year, but released it in
September instead.
The album starts off with “I Am Made of You” which is a
great intro, showing the homage to the past while using modern influences too.
How? Well the tune in the beginning is from the track “Steven”, arguably the
best song on the original “Welcome to My Nightmare”, but you can clearly hear
Alice Cooper using modern auto-tune in this track, which divides me personally
as I hate auto-tune, but it doesn’t take too much away from the track. It’s a
great opener, and it does its job well, which is set you up for the rest of the
album.
After the intro track, we’re treated to “Caffeine”, which
shows pretty much all sides of Alice Cooper in one track. On one side you have
a decent hard rock/metal track, but you also see the silly side to the shock
rock legend, which is that he’s simply, singing a song about needing caffeine.
Yes, that’s what this song is about. And the chorus is “Caffeine! Caffeine!” in
a squeaky voice. It’s incredibly cheesy but there’s absolutely nothing wrong
with that at all. If you haven’t followed Cooper’s career much you need to
realise that this guy has never taken himself seriously. Ever. He’s an
entertainer and plays the part so well.
“The Nightmare Returns”, track three, basically sets up
track four, “A Runaway Train”, and is Alice Cooper describing his incapability
of sleeping. “A Runaway Train” which shows tribute to country music and has a
drum beat similar to a train on tracks. It’s a decent track, it shows another
side to Cooper that he doesn’t show too often but in all honesty Alice Cooper
plays what genres he feels he can pull off, and trust me, he can pull of loads,
and he proves he can do country well here.
But track five, “Last Man On Earth”, is my favourite song.
It’s so fricking cool, it shows so much swagger and glamour, and Alice Cooper’s
vocals are brilliant. The song follows Alice Cooper off the “Runaway Train”
from the earlier song, where the train crashed. If you think Alice Cooper is a
has-been, he’s lost it, he’s a relic and can’t go anymore, seriously, give this
a listen and it will prove you wrong. This song is easily as cool and smooth as
his seventies stuff. In fact, this song is proof that Alice Cooper’s “Welcome 2
My Nightmare” project is a success.
“The Congregation” is apparently inspired by The Beatles
according to Cooper himself but it reminds me more of the general glam-rock
sound of the seventies, a sound and era that Cooper was attached to quite
closely. If you listen properly you’ll hear a cameo by Rob Zombie, whose very
good friends with Cooper. It’s a good song, very catchy and it continues to use
modern and old influences in this hybrid album. “I’ll Bite Your Face Off” is
track seven and is so far the only single off the album. It’s an odd choice if
you ask me, but then again Alice Cooper doesn’t always choose his singles well
in my opinion. But it’s a decent traditional seventies rock song, a nod to The
Rolling Stones according to Cooper himself, it’s as decent as most of his
singles over the years have been. I don’t know if Alice Cooper will release any
more singles off this album, purely because he doesn’t chart anymore, he makes
music for fun and for his fans rather than to make money. That being said,
“Welcome 2 My Nightmare” is Alice Cooper’s highest charting album since 1994,
when he released “The Last Temptation”, and in the US since 1989 when he
released “Trash”, so that’s great news.
One of the best songs on the album for me is “Disco
Bloodbath Boogie Fever”, which mixes allsorts of different genres from glam
rock, goth rock, shock rock, disco, techno and dare I say it, rap. It’s odd to
describe, it just sound fantastic. It sounds complicated, what with all the
genres Cooper incorporates but it’s simply good sounding music, and John 5,
once of Marilyn Manson and currently of Rob Zombie, gives a helping hand with a
fantastic guitar solo at the end to top off what was already an awesome song.
I could talk about all the songs in honesty but the feeling
is very similar throughout the album, but there are three more songs I will
talk about. First is track eleven, “When Hell Comes Home”, which is arguably
the heaviest song on the album, what with it’s heavy bass and Alice Cooper’s
dark lyrics and sinister voice. It’s definitely one of the more serious songs
on the album.
However contrasting the sincerity of this track, track
twelve is “What Baby Wants”, which is a duet with, I can’t believe I’m about to
say this, Ke$ha, which is a lot better than it sounds trust me. I hate to say
it but you can trust me, it’s a good duet, the contrasting styles and music
backgrounds all count for nothing in this song because Alice Cooper is in a
silly mood again. And when I say silly, I mean that affectionately, because in
the end music is entertainment and there’s very few entertainers in the music
industry as good as Alice Cooper. The song is about Alice Cooper and his
encounter with the devil, although the devil is actually Ke$ha, and he must
sell his soul to her. It’s silly and fun and Ke$ha, kudos to her, she plays her
part very well and her vocals aren’t as bad as I feared when I heard about the
duet. One more thing though, there’s an auto-tune bridge towards the end of the
song and it’s cringe-worthy, but once again, in a good way. Kind of.
Lastly, the album ends with an awesome outro, called “The
Underture”. This song is basically a Broadway-esque exit to both “Nightmares”;
mixing the music of both albums into a quite simply beautifully crafted outro.
It mixes great songs from both albums, like “Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever” and
“I Am Made of You” from this album and songs from the original album like
“Steven”, and the title track, “Welcome to My Nightmare”. I can’t sum up how
great the outro is in words, if you’ve heard both albums by the time you reach
this point it’s a great way of wrapping everything up.
“Welcome 2 My
Nightmare” was a lot of fun to listen to. Is Alice Cooper the best hard rock
artist in the world? No, I don’t think so. But I never thought he was, I’ve always
seen Alice Cooper as an artist who consistently brings the goods at a good
level throughout his career. He did in the Seventies, he did in the Eighties,
and while the Nineties or Noughties weren’t too kind on the man, this could be
another surge of interest and popularity for the guy, who’s now in his sixties.
I wouldn’t rule it out. Alice Cooper still has it. Doing sequel albums are a
risky business; you’re paying homage to your former self, while trying to reach
a high level you may not be able to reach again, never mind excel. And that’s
what Alice Cooper does here. Yes I said it, “Welcome 2 My Nightmare” is better
than “Welcome to My Nightmare”. Is this album as good quality as other albums
being released at this time? No it’s not, but the nostalgia is there, the
purity is there, the beauty, is there. And most importantly, this album is so
much fun. It’s so much fun to listen to an album where you can hear the
entertainment value, where you can hear how much of a ball Alice Cooper had
going back into the studio with the same guys he released music with 26 years
ago, and with artists who he has met along the way. Alice Cooper as a person is
in a great place right now, and you know something? His music is too. “Welcome
2 My Nightmare” in a nutshell, surpasses the original album released 26 years
prior, and shows that music doesn’t have to be serious; it can be pure
entertainment and fun.
Rating: **** stars
Stand out tracks: "Last Man On Earth", "Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever", "The Underture"
Here's the music video for the only single released so far, "I'll Bite Your Face Off":
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