While the Hear No Evil / Cherry Red 20th Anniversary Edition remastered version of ALICE COOPER 1994’s ”The Last Temptation” (featured in exclusive at plotn08 some time ago) is really well done, you need to check out as well this Bad Reputation Records remaster, including 4 bonus tracks and housed into a digipak.
After the more hair metal, mainstream “Hey Stoopid” album in 1991, which followed the worldwide smash “Trash” in 1989, the conceptual nature of “The Last Temptation” was a major departure from the two more commercially orientated predecessors, whilst resurrecting some of the darker, macabre themes from earlier in Alice’s career.
The story of the album centers on a boy named Steven (also the name of the protagonist in Cooper’s earlier work, Welcome To My Nightmare), and a mysterious showman. The showman, with apparent supernatural abilities, attempted with the use of twisted versions of morality plays to persuade Steven to join his traveling show, “The Theater of the Real”, where he would “never grow up”.
Steven takes a ticket and watches the show on a dare, but getting out of the performance will be harder than he ever imagined. And then Steven learns what it is to be truly afraid…
The songs themselves were composed with the help of several key players, specifically awesome guitarist Dan Wexler (Icon) and Bud Saylor, who would contribute to the writing of four of the ten songs.
Other collaborators would inclue Jim Vallance, best known as the long-time writing partner of Bryan Adams, and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who would also lend his vocal talents to the tracks ‘Stolen Prayer’ and ‘Unholy War’.
Both ‘Trash’ and ‘Hey Stoopid’ had been dominated by a slew of guest musicians, which included members of Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe, along with Ozzy Osbourne and guitar legends Joe Satriani and Slash. But with “The Last Temptation”, Cooper decided to work with the same small group of musicians throughout the album.
Returning from his duties on Hey Stoopid was skilled guitarist Stef Burns (Y&T), while the bass was handled by Greg Smith, who had previously worked with Wendy O. Williams during the mid-Eighties.
Keyboards were performed by Derek Sherinian who, following completion of the album, would join Dream Theater for the remainder of the decade. The new member of Cooper’s band was David Uosikkinen, a founding member and drummer from The Hooters, who had enjoyed success a few years earlier.
Among my favorite tracks there’s ‘Sideshow’ whick makes you swing, and ‘Lost In America’ grabs you by the throat and demands to be considered a standout, while ‘Nothing’s Free’ rocks. The album feature slower tracks too like ‘Stolen Prayer’ (great one), the acoustically based and sinister ‘Lullaby’, or ‘It’s Me’, a protoypical Eighties ballad with a huge chorus.
But this is an ‘album’, and should be listened to from start to finish.
“The Last Temptation” remains one of the most overlooked and underrated albums of Alice Cooper’s long and prolific career. Following on from the phenomenal success of ‘Trash’ and the impressive performance of its successor, ‘Hey Stoopid’, “The Last Temptation” faced a near-impossible task of meeting the expectations of both fans and critics.
Intelligent, elaborated and refusing to repeat the formula that had served him well a few years earlier, the album is one of the bravest and most accomplished of his career.
In a true Cooper horror-fashion, “The Last Temptation” is one of Alice’s most captivating albums.
HIGHLY Recommended
01 Sideshow
02 Nothing's Free
03 Lost In America
04 Sad Place Alone
05 You're My Temptation
06 Stolen Prayer
07 Unholy War
08 Lullaby
09 It's Me
10 Cleansed By Fire
11 No More Mr Nice Guy
12 Ballad Of Dwight Fry
13 Welcome To My Nightmare
14 Cold Ethyl
Alice Cooper – The Last Temptation 2021 Remaster Bad Reputation , MP3+FLAC
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