Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare (1975)

Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare (1975)

Alice's masterpiece began life as a concept album. It deviated somewhat from the original idea, but, personally, I still regard it as one due to how well its individual parts complement each other, despite their obvious compositional differences. It's like a painting in musical form, layered with vibrant textures and blurred lines that when followed lead back upon themselves.

Not all songs flow into each other effortlessly, but the order in which they're arranged is so deeply ingrained in my mind after decades of listening and re-examination that to remove or shuffle one would ruin the unifying essence that makes each one work alongside its neighbour.

A perfect example of that is track 02. Devil's Food and track 03. The Black Widow. The latter track would still be great in isolation, with a creeping, swaying vibe that suggests unease, but the dramatic leverage of Devil's Food leading into it, building drama in that uniquely Vincent Price way, makes it feel even more complete.

Elsewhere, there's Only Women Bleed, a ballad with a distinctly dark but sympathetic slant. It's followed by the anthemic Department of Youth, reminiscent of School's Out. Then there's Cold Ethyl, which I won't spoil for anyone yet to hear it. But the highlight, for me, at least, is the three tracks that follow Ethel, wherein Steven, the album's main character, takes centre stage.

Production and mixing is by co-writer Bob Ezrin, the man behind the best of what the Alice Cooper band had put out prior to Alice trying it solo with Welcome to My Nightmare, namely Love it to Death (1971), Killer (1971), School's Out (1972), and Billion Dollar Babies (1973).

If you listen to only one of Alice's solo albums in your lifetime, I'd put WtMN top of the list.