Some things never change -- the sky is blue, two plus two equals four, the sun rises in the east, and
Alice Cooper will make albums where he sneers out spooky lyrics as long as he can draw breath.
Cooper hadn't had anything resembling a hit since the mid-'90s, but the man clearly had no desire to retire, and though he was 69 years old when he released
Paranormal in 2017, he still sounded admirably spry and hadn't lost his voice or his charisma.
Paranormal was released not long after
Cooper reunited with surviving members of the original
Alice Cooper band for some surprise shows, and the advance word on the album had it that
Cooper was going to write and record with them. While bassist
Dennis Dunaway and drummer
Neal Smith pop up on a few tracks of
Paranormal, the two songs they wrote with him, "Genuine American Girl" and "You and All of Your Friends," appear on
Paranormal as bonus tracks, and anyone hoping for a blast of sleazy glory in the manner of
School's Out or
Killer will be a bit disappointed. (Then again, when
the Coop brought a bunch of the original guys on board for 2011's
Welcome 2 My Nightmare, no one noticed, so maybe the fans have faulty expectations.) While it features
Dunaway,
Smith, and producer
Bob Ezrin (who was at the controls for
Cooper's best '70s work),
Paranormal more closely resembles
Cooper's hair metal-flavored work of the '90s, though
Ezrin has given this material a more up-to-date sheen. Thankfully,
Paranormal is a livelier and more entertaining listen than
Trash or
Hey Stoopid, and while he aims for high spookiness on "Dead Flies," "The Sound of A," and the title track, he seems to be having more fun with wittier numbers like "Dynamite Road," "Private Public Breakdown," and "Fallen in Love" ("and I can't get up!"). The band delivers the goods with admirable precision and some honest enthusiasm, while the guests include
Larry Mullen from
U2,
Billy Gibbons of
ZZ Top, and
Roger Glover from
Deep Purple (and who would've guessed that those guys would ever be on an album together, let alone with
Alice Cooper?).
Paranormal isn't the return to form one might have hoped for, but it's no embarrassment either, and
Cooper appears to be having a grand time while giving his fans a good show for their dollar.