Alice Cooper’s 1994 album was another new direction from the great man. After the Pop Metal of “Trash” and “Hey Stoopid”, Temptation offered a new sound that Alice had never ventured into before. Personally I, like many Cooper fans, love this album, it has no stand out weaknesses, and it’s suprising it wasn’t more successful on the charts. Very much a concept album, “The Last Temptation” is about a ring master style character at an old style carnival trying to tempt a young boy (referred to in the albums small comic book series as “Steven”) with the pleasures of life. It’s a bit of a “Satan tempts the world” kind of thing.
SONG BY SONG RUN DOWN
1. Sideshow - An upbeat and catchy song that doesn’t really fit with the rest of the album’s more dark feel. Don’t get me wrong, this is a top rocker. I love the “I’m bored right out of my skull, I’d have to get high just to be dull” line. Good song - just not a perfect fit, actually kind of reminds me having Department of Youth on Nightmare, but maybe not that much of stick out.
2. Nothing’s Free - Real top song, very strong lyrically and musically. The “drop of yours, drop of mine” line is great stuff. A really evil kind of song - and you got to love that!
3. Lost In America - Another great track that doesn’t fit completely. Alice has called this his tribute to Beavis and Butthead - which I can see here. Great how it goes around in circles, and I bet I’m not the only teenager who can relate to this cut.
4. Bad Place Alone - A fan favourite here with good reason. Very rocking song I think, I love nodding my head along to this one. Great guitar on this track by Stef Burns.
5. You’re my Temptation - Probably the most pop metal like cut on the album, though it definitely fits in well at the same time. When I first heard this album, I was nuts about this song, now it’s around the middle; there are better tracks here - but cool guitar all the same.
6. Stolen Prayer - Wow, now this is damn near the best song on the album. I like it more every time I hear it. Great sound to it all the way through, great lyrics. I think Alice really shines vocally here and the co-writer Chris Cornell (of Soundgarden) is also very good backing up Cooper - they work well together. The “I take your words and try them on - it’s a perfect fit boy..” part of the chorus really screams Guns N’ Roses to me, not sure why, it just does. Like something from the Illusion albums really. This is top stuff, a very worthy inclusion on the box set also.
7. Unholy War - A straight-ahead great little rocker. Reeks of Ozzy Osbourne (not a bad thing). Very Ozzy, I’d love to hear him do vocals on this one. Chris Cornell’s second piece on the album, he gets full credit for this one. I wouldn’t call this a filler, more of a bridge if you know what I mean; it bridges a space (very well), rather than just fills a gap.
8. Lullaby - Possibly the weirdest song on the album. Lyrically, I think it lacks a little (“Smell your sulfurous smell” ?). Still, a good song though. A good return to the little kid voice for Alice (as seen in the “Steven” trilogy from Nightmare). Here we have a kid telling the demon in his closet to go back to hell. Nice “Pea soup spewin'” Exorcist reference
9. It’s Me - The ballad. There is at least 1 on all of Alice’s solo albums outside of the lost albums. I’m not mad about this one. Some think it’s a song about God and how he forgives all (“I know you’ve sinned every sin - but I’ll still take you in”), which I can see. Personally, I’m not religious, so that side of the song doesn’t directly appeal to me. It’s alright, lacks that Cooper bite that I love though.
10. Cleansed By Fire - Up there with Stolen Prayer for the album’s finest cut. A very good song top to bottom and a fan favourite. A “Enter Sandman” little guitar part at the start - got to love it. Great Chorus, that has you singing along on the first listen. I love the “What about Dark-What about Light” part, I know that sort of thing has been done before, buts it’s very well executed here. Should have been on the boxset, but you can’t have everything in life I guess. Great ending.
"The Last Temptation" Prime Cuts - Like I stated, I think Stolen Prayer and Cleansed by Fire are the best cuts here. I’d check out those - and also Unholy War, nice little rocker.
Overall - Overall - “Last Temptation” is definitely my favourite of the more recent albums from Alice. Although I love both “Brutal Planet” and “Dragontown”, I think this one is just slightly better. I have recommended this one to friends who are dead on Metallica nuts and people who just like good 1990’s rock. This is a good album for someone into that kind of thing to start at looking into Alice beyond “Poison” and “School’s Out” in my opinion. Because once you’ve heard this, you’re going to want to hear more from this guy.
