Alice Cooper - The Best Of Alice Cooper (2007)
Genre: Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal | 15 tracks | Release: 2007 | MP3 320 kbps | 151.25 MB

Originally, there was a band called Alice Cooper led by a singer named Vincent Damon Furnier. Under his direction, Alice Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical and violent brand of heavy metal that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, heavy metal, and garage rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood, and huge boa constrictors, all coordinated by the heavily made-up Furnier. By that time, Furnier had adopted the name for his androgynous on-stage personality. While the visuals were extremely important to the group's impact, the band's music was nearly as distinctive. Driven by raw, simple riffs and melodies that derived from '60s guitar pop as well as show tunes, it was rock & roll at its most basic and catchy, even when the band ventured into psychedelia and art rock. After the original group broke up and Furnier began a solo career as Alice Cooper, his actual music lost most of its theatrical flourishes, becoming straightforward heavy metal, yet his stage show retained all of the trademark props that made him the king of shock rock.

The majority of Alice Cooper fans will most definitely point to Mr. Furnier's early-'70s period as his peak (when the original Alice Cooper Band shocked and rocked to the tune of countless classics -- "School's Out," "Eighteen," "Under My Wheels," etc.). So the 2007 comp, The Best of Alice Cooper, poses a bit of a problem, as the 15-track set is comprised solely of Alice recordings that were done for Epic, which reflects the late '80s/early '90s. And while this period did re-establish Alice (albeit briefly) as a chart force -- thanks to the hit "Poison" -- the material does not come close to matching the aforementioned earlier tracks. So if you're looking for a true career-spanning Cooper "best of," 2001's Mascara & Monsters: The Best of Alice Cooper is the way to go. But if you already own that set and are looking to sample what Cooper was up to later in his career, Best Of will suffice, as it contains the aforementioned "Poison," as well as tracks penned by Zodiac Mindwarp ("Feed My Frankenstein"), and Chris Cornell ("Stolen Prayer"), as well as latter day live renditions of such early classics as "Billion Dollar Babies," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," and "Under My Wheels."

Tracklist:

1. Poison
2. Bed Of Nails
3. House Of Fire
4. Love's A Loaded Gun
5. Feed My Frankenstein
6. Lost In America
7. It's Me
8. Billion Dollar Babies (Live)
9. No More Mr. Nice Guy (Live)
10.Stolen Prayer
11.Snakebite
12.This Maniac's In Love With You
13.Trash
14.Sideshow
15.Under My Wheels (Live)