After releasing a couple of nu-metal albums at the start of this decade, Brutal Planet and Dragontown, 2003’s The Eyes of Alice Cooper was a return to Alice Cooper’s musical roots and the hard rock sound of his early 1970s records, and Dirty Diamonds is a continuation of this theme.  Recorded in just 13 days it represents a back to basics approach for Cooper, who claims he was eager to capture the raw, spontaneous feel of the early Rolling Stones and Yardbirds releases.

Woman of Mass Distraction kicks the album off in a no-thrills, head down way, with a drawn out intro and the vocals not kicking in until a quarter of the way through the song.  It starts well but is then let down by an awkward pre-chorus and chorus that doesn’t fit the flow of the verse. 

Second song, Perfect, has the classic blues/rock, almost glam sound that fans of his ‘70s albums, especially albums like Love It To Death or Billion Dollar Babies would be familiar with, Alice singing as he used to, the sneer in his voice sounding natural as opposed to put on for effect, like it can do in times when it seems like he has become a parody of himself, times when Alice the horror fixated stage persona edges Alice the singer out of the frame. 

You Make Me Wanna, has some nice touches, with a similar 1970s stomp to that of Perfect, complete with “woo hoo hoo” backing vocals, but it is mostly unremarkable, as is the title track, Dirty Diamonds, which almost sounds like it is trying too hard to sound 1970s, complete with brass section, flute, fuzz guitars and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid guitar riff. 

The Saga of Jesse Jane is one of those typical Alice songs about jailed murdering transvestite, but delivered in a country & western style, with Alice doing his best Johnny Cash impersonation.  Despite how it sounds on paper it does work in practice, although the monologue in the middle is a bit lumpy, and has a hook in the chorus that you’ll be humming for days.

Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies), in addition to being the song with the best title, is also probably the strongest song on the album, where the swagger and stomp all comes together with a killer chorus, background vocals and guitar solo that wouldn’t be out of place on 1973’s Billion Dollar Babies.

Pretty Ballerina is one of the more strange songs on the album, which sounds like something that belongs on Love’s Forever Changes, an album which is the definitive statement regarding late 1960s hippy folk psychedelia.  Interesting and different, showing the broad range of music styles that he is capable of producing.

Run Down The Devil is a disappointment after the album had seemed to have taken a turn for the better, sounding like the best forgotten mid-1980s bad heavy metal albums, as does Steal That Car, which wouldn’t have been good enough to even make it onto Zipper Catches Skin, one of his worst 1980s albums. 

The bluesy Six Hours isn’t much of an improvement, with the guitar riff bearing an eerie resemblance to Gary Moore’s Parisian Walkways.

Your Own Worst Enemy thankfully is am improvement, with a return to the 1970s glam of the early songs on the album, but clocking in at only 2:15, it’s the shortest song on the album. 

The proceeding Zombie Dance is again fairly unremarkable, and the least said about Stand, the bonus track, featuring rapper Xzibit, the better – if combining rock and rap was ever a good idea it was a long, long, long time ago.  It’s inclusion is mystifying as it doesn’t fit in at all with the rest of the album and what it seemingly set out to achieve.

It’s an album that you want to succeed, an album that has so much potential but falls short of what it set out to achieve.  Whilst there are some good songs, some typically Alice lyrics and some great vocal performances, with Alice sounding in better voice than ever, the overall feeling is one of disappointment. 

You have to admire and respect him for not resting on his laurels and always wanting to produce new music, some of which is more than worthy of his legacy.  He has always had much in common with David Bowie, changing bands and musical styles every few years, sometimes resulting in creative triumphs, sometimes not, but always pushing their own personal boundaries, and showing their passion for music.  There is no doubt that this album has been influenced by a new generation of music fans discovering the likes of The Stooges and MC5, contemporaries of his in his early years, and the success of bands like the White Stripes, who have brought blues-based rock back into fashion.  Although it may be a reactive move you have to admire him for using this new interest to produce new music and not just rely on his classic back catalogue.

No doubt there will be another album in a year or two, one that will hopefully continue in the same classic 1970s Alice Cooper style, but hopefully one that is more consistent than Dirty Diamonds.