Fans of an artist have a love/hate relationship with tribute albums for one major reason: interpretation. The performers on the tribute album can either redo a classic track exactly as the original was done, or remak the song in their own image. Either course is dangerous because of what fans' reactions will be to what is finally released: If you change the song at all, fans will come down on you because you're not being "reverent" to the original; if you don't change it, fans will either feel that it wasn't as good as the original or wonder why someone bothered to remake a classic if they had nothing of their own to contribute to the song.

This came to mind while listening to the latest Alice Cooper tribute album, THINKING OF ALICE, released through Scatboy Records. While some of the other tribute albums had tried to stay close to the original productions (some have complained that they were TOO close), THINKING OF ALICE veers the other way with only a few exceptions. In some cases, such productions - typically with a punk or thrash-like edge - work, but there are just as many cases where the bands involved just can't quite reach the level of the material performed on this CD.

Not surprisingly, the songs that work best sped up or punked-out are those from the early days of the Alice Cooper Group. Considering the band really was one step away from being an experimental punk band in their early days (before they became focused under producer Bob Ezrin), one can see little was needed to go that extra step. Songs such as "Caught in a Dream" by The Nerds, "Under My Wheels" by Orange Juice From The Crypt and even "Levity Ball" by The Frankenstein Drag Queens work well this way. Latter songs from the Group or from Alice as a solo artist, however, are the worse for wear following this direction. Alice and the Group had begun concentrating more on the orchestration and lyrics of the material after '70/'71 and to strip the songs down does nothing to make them better than they were before.

In general, however, the music and production is excellent on the album, with only some of the singers involved really demonstrating that they lack the theatrical range of Alice's voice. Alice was always able to pull the songs out of being "shock" material and into a more demented, dreamlike, tongue-in-cheek world that some of the singers presented on the CD just cannot do. A shame, as mentioned above, the instrumental work on this album can be rightly recommended (even if you don't agree with the direction the artists are taking the songs).

Overall, I'll give this one an eight for enthusiasm and having the guts to try something different with the material. Fans may also be wanting to pick this up for the participation of a couple of former members of the Alice Cooper Group - with Neal Smith writing a brief introduction and Michael Bruce performing on one track (with co-writer of Bruce's biography, Billy James). The tribute to Glen Buxton in the packages is nice as well. I certainly would recommend it to fans that are more adventurous when it comes to the tribute albums than those who want just straight remakes.

Then again, if that's really what you're after, there are plenty of "greatest hits" packages to spend the money on instead.

Note: This CD is limited to 1000 copies. Each CD is 12$ US (postage included) , 16$ overseas, email coopertributecd@aol.com for address and any other info on the cd.

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