The Last Temptation
| The Last Temptation | ||||
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| Alice Cooper studio album | ||||
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Publication |
July 12, 1994 |
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admission |
1994 |
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| Label (s) | Sony Music | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
50:53 |
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Andy Wallace , Don Fleming, Duane Baron, John Purdell |
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Studio (s) |
Music Grinder Studios, Sony Recording Studio, Record One Studio, Devonshire Studios |
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The Last Temptation is the first published on July 12, 1994 twentieth studio album by the American rock musician Alice Cooper . The concept for the album was developed by Cooper together with the well-known author Neil Gaiman , who also designed a comic of the same name together with Michael Zulli ( The Sandman ), which was published by Marvel . The first edition of the album contained the 32-page first part of the comic, which was published in a total of three issues by 1995 and was only available as an anthology in 1996. It was last published on September 13, 2005 as a graphic novel by Dark Horse Comics . The album was created with the collaboration of numerous well-known musicians, including Chris Cornell ( Soundgarden ), Jack Blades ( Night Ranger , Damn Yankees ) and Tommy Shaw ( Styx , Damn Yankees) wrote songs for The Last Temptation .
concept
The Last Temptation is a concept album whose songs create a self-contained story about the two main characters, the showman and a boy named Steven. Steven is a character introduced by Cooper since the 1975 album Welcome to My Nightmare .
The story takes place in a small American town in the Midwest, where the "showman" has opened an art variety theater. He tries to get as many young people as possible into his show, but it doesn't keep what it promises. It's about pulling the youngsters under the spell of the show in a certain way and manipulating them. The showman shows them real life in a very theatrical form, with all the misery, misfortunes and catastrophes. One of the youngsters is Steven. He sits in this theater, watches the first scenes and realizes relatively late that all the actors in the play are really dead. Nevertheless, he is fascinated by the way the whole thing is portrayed and in the end is faced with the decision whether to join this "club of living corpses" or not. He doesn't end up doing it, but struggles long and hard with himself. The showman does not understand how someone at Steven's age can be so wise not to want to “live” in this illusory world of the dead. In the end, Steven burns the whole theater down, goes home, and as he brushes his teeth, the showman suddenly grins from the mirror and explains that humanity has tried to get rid of him for the past 6,000 years, but never has did it.
background
Cooper was introduced to Gaiman through A&R manager Bob Pfeifer. Pfeifer was a fan of the Sandman comic series and thought Gaiman was the right partner to take on the visual design of the story. Cooper included Gaiman in the creation of the album from the start. He wanted Gaiman to have more insight into how the songs were made and not have to use the finished product as a template for his story.
For the songwriting, Cooper won, among others, Chris Cornell, who brought the two titles Stolen Prayer and Unholy War . According to Cooper, the songs fit "perfectly into the concept", but the lyrics were slightly changed with Cornell's consent. Cornell also assisted Cooper in singing the songs. For the songs Temptation and It's Me , Cooper won the songwriting duo Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw, but he made it a condition that their contributions should not sound like their joint band Damn Yankees.
The album was recorded with the musicians Stef Burns, who had also played guitar on the Hey Stoopid album , Derek Sherinian ( keyboards ), Greg Smith ( bass ) and David Uosikkinen (drummer for the band The Hooters ). The background singers were Chris Cornell, Mark and Brett Hudson, Louis Merlino and Craig Copeland.
The production was split between several producers : Andy Wallace , who also did the sound mixing for the entire album, took over the songs Sideshow , Stolen Prayer , Unholy War and Cleansed By Fire, Don Fleming produced the single Lost in America , Nothing's Free and Bad Place Alone , Duane Baron and John Purdell shared the production of the songs Temptation , It's Me and Lullabye.
The Last Temptation was first released on July 12, 1994. The cover design was done by Dave McKean , who had also become famous for the Sandman comic series . A deluxe edition of the album with an identical selection of songs and an extensive booklet was released on February 28, 2014.
Track list
| The Last Temptation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | title | Songwriter | length |
| 1. | Sideshow | Alice Cooper / Norwood / B. Smith / Dan Wexler | 6:39 |
| 2. | Nothing's Free | Cooper / Wexler | 5:01 |
| 3. | Lost in America | Cooper / Wexler | 3:54 |
| 4th | Bad place alone | Cooper / Wexler | 5:04 |
| 5. | You're My Temptation | Jack Blades / Tommy Shaw | 5:09 |
| 6th | Stolen Prayer | Chris Cornell / Cooper | 5:37 |
| 7th | Unholy War | Cornell / Cooper | 4:10 |
| 8th. | Lullaby | Cooper / Jim Vallance | 4:28 |
| 9. | It's me | Blades / Cooper / Shaw | 4:39 |
| 10. | Cleansed by Fire | Cooper / Mark Hudson | 6:12 |
| Overall length: | 50:53 | ||
reception
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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The Last Temptation reached number 13 in the charts in Germany and lasted for 12 weeks, in the USA it only reached number 68, while the album achieved the greatest success in Great Britain : it reached number 6 in the charts. The decoupled singles, Lost in America and It's Me, were only able to achieve chart successes in Great Britain and reached number 22 and 34 respectively in the local singles charts
Metal Hammer wrote that Alice Cooper was back with a (concept) album, "the likes of which have not been heard since Welcome to My Nightmare ". All ten songs are "Cooper classics, more earthy than the previous CDs and still exciting even after several weeks of listening pleasure." The "quality parallels to Aerosmith" are clear: "the older, the more amazing." Melody -Freaks would be satisfied on all levels, Stolen Prayer / Unholy War ( Cornell ) stood out. Also Bad Place Alone (nice swing) and the Damn Yankees number Temptation with the typical “big chorus”. Cooper and band (guitarist Stef Burns, bassist Greg Smith, keyboardist Derek Sherinian and Hooters drummer David Uosikkinen) would have "produced a flawless classic"! The Last Temptation is "the album of the last few months".
Musikexpress said that “the born showman's latest LP coup” offered well-tried: “solid rock numbers, some of which even had what it takes to become classics”. In addition to Cooper, “Megaseller Meat Loaf is like a better operetta buffo”. With "a socially critical song like" Lost in America, Cooper also proves that he feels "as a new comic hero not only committed to fiction, but also to reality".
On the occasion of the new edition in 2014, Rocks wrote that after Hey Stoopid, his "by far the best record in his temporary function as MTV rocker, and the rise of grunge ," Cooper had to " re-orientate himself" and "felt his way back into the seventies." For The Last Temptation he found “an approach that unites Love It to Death (1971) and Billion Dollar Babies (1973) in a contemporary and fresh way”. The Last Temptation is "a greatly underrated album, which also includes all kinds of Cooper classics beyond the heavenly, jolly sideshow ", and is also "a tough record".
Web links
- Official Alice Cooper site (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b booklet of the album
- ^ The Compleat Alice Cooper. Incorporating the Three Acts of Alice Cooper: The Last Temptation , Marvel Editions, April 1996, ISBN 978-0785101192
- ^ The Last Temptation, Dark Horse Comics; Edition: 1st Hardcover Edition, ISBN 978-1593074142
- ↑ a b c Interview The Man Behind the Mask ; Metal Hammer, issue 05.1994
- ↑ a b c d Alice Cooper - No More Mr. Bad Guy? - Interview about the album in Metal Hammer , issue 06.1994
- ↑ Charts DE Charts UK Charts US
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US US 2
- ↑ Metal Hammer, No. 06.1994
- ↑ Musikexpress, issue 06.1994
- ↑ Rocks - The magazine for Classic Rock, issue 03/2014, page 108