With the 1974 disintegration of the original
Alice Cooper
group,
Alice
was free to launch a solo career. He wisely decided to re-enlist the services of
Bob Ezrin
for his solo debut,
Welcome to My Nightmare
, which was a concept album tied into the story line of the highly theatrical concert tour he launched soon after the album's release. While the music lost most of the gritty edge of the original
AC
lineup,
remains
's best solo effort -- while some tracks stray from his expected
hard rock
direction, there's plenty of fist-pumping
rock
to go around. The
disco
-flavored, album-opening title track would be reworked on the stage as more of a
tune, while
"Some Folks"
dips into
cabaret
territory, and
"Only Women Bleed"
is a sensitive
ballad
that became a Top Ten hit. But the rockers serve as the album's foundation --
"Devil's Food,"
"The Black Widow,"
"Department of Youth,"
and
"Cold Ethyl"
are all standouts, as is the more tranquil yet eerie epic
"Steven."
Despite this promising start to
Cooper
's solo career, the majority of his subsequent releases were often not as focused and were of varying quality. ~ Greg Prato