Following the success of his first solo album,
Welcome to My Nightmare,
Alice Cooper followed it up with another concept album,
Goes to Hell, similar in style to its predecessor. Again, longtime
Alice producer
Bob Ezrin was on board, and while there are a few highlights,
Goes to Hell signaled an
Alice era where he pretty much forsook the raw garage rock of his early days (
Killer,
School's Out) in favor of polished studio glitz. That said, the title track is worthy of any headbanger's time (and remains one of
Cooper's most overlooked rock tunes), while "I Never Cry" was another
Alice ballad that found a place near the top of the charts. Other highlights include such tracks as the disco-rock-boogie of "You Gotta Dance" and the laid-back yet sinister funk groove of "I'm the Coolest." Elsewhere, the musical experiments aren't as successful -- the old-time sounds of "Give the Kid a Break," "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," and the album-closing "Going Home" are about as far removed from the expected hard-rocking
AC direction as you can get. And while the rocker "Wish You Were Here" would become a late-'70s concert standard for the Coop, the original studio version lacks the firepower the song achieved on the stage.
Alice was supposed to follow up the album's release with another highly theatrical stage show (following the cue of his first solo tour in 1975), but an illness squashed the tour altogether. Despite its missteps, the gold-certified
Goes to Hell would prove to be
Alice's most commercially successful solo album for quite some time. ~ Greg Prato