 | |
List Price: $13.98 | | Label: Spitfire
Salesrank: 93074
Released: October 9, 2001 |
| Our Price: $8.00 |
| Used Price: $3.98 |
|
| Media: Audio CD |
|
Dragontown Track Listing:
1. Triggerman
2. Deeper
3. Dragontown
4. Sex, Death And Money
5. Fantasy Man
6. Somewhere In The Jungle
7. DisGraceland
8. Sister Sara
9. Every Woman Has A Name
10. I Just Wanna Be God
11. It's Much Too Late
12. The Sentinel
Editorial Review:
With well thought out songs paving the way, 'Dragontown' leads you down a nightmarish path into the mind of rock's original conceptual storyteller. Alice's deranged, tormented mind serves as your tour guide into a place that is bitter cold and conversely swimming in furnace blasting heat. A 2001 Spitfire Records release.
Description of Dragontown:
Marilyn Manson may have stolen some of Alice Cooper's thunder a few years back, but there is more to this old rock warrior than smeared mascara and ripped tights. The third and final chapter to his rock morality series finds Cooper unfurling more grim tales of life before the apocalypse, and with the same wit, ferocity, and genius that we first saw in his 1971 classic, Killer. On the Coop's 25th album, he's eschewed most of his comic shtick and self-parody of years past, employing a harder, guitar-saturated industrial sound that can compete with the best of agro rockers, such as Korn and Rob Zombie. And while there aren't any teen anthems like "Eighteen" or "Under My Wheels," lurking on the disc, "Mr. Fantasy," his paean to self acceptance, comes close, as Cooper's menacing cartoon voice thunders, "I don't read books / I don't French cook or stroll around in galleries / I hate opera / I hate Oprah / Don't fill my head with poetry." Listeners will be aghast when Cooper serves up sacred cow in "Disgraceland" as he croons in a flawless Elvis Presley imitation that the fallen king ". . . ate his weight in country ham / Killed on pills and broken dreams," and proves once again that this city ham still has what it takes both to shock and rock. --Jaan Uhelszki
Dragontown Reviews:
One of Alice's weakest. 
2009-05-14 - Alice's vocal performance on this album is great, as are the lyrics. But the music is very dull, incorporating way too much Industrial-style influences and simple mashing of one-note power chords. This is one of only 2 or 3 Cooper albums I don't like.
Better Than Ever -- YEAH ALICE!!! 
2008-08-21 - I've loved A.C. since I was 13 and first heard Billion Dollar Babies. Alice has this melodic twisted take on straight grungy chords in this album that has been with him since the beginning. His tunes just stick in your head (in a good way, not like the El Pollo Loco commercial). It doesn't get any better than this. Sister Sarah is a personal fav, but every song is a thriller. :)
Great unappreciated album from Alice 
2008-08-10 - Starting with Brutal Planet in 2000 the Coop went nu-metal with a message influenced by his Christianity. Alice continued and improved on that album with Dragontown. Except for the 2nd track, "Deeper" there aren't any bad tracks on this CD. Most of the lyrics are the best he has in written several years. The classic Cooper voice and the melodies combined with the heavy industrial sound make for great listening. Alice does a hard rock rap on "I Wanna Be God", rockabilly on "Disgraceland", a hard rock swagger on "Fantasyman". The ballad "Every Woman Has a Name" could've been a monster hit in another era. It could be his most beautiful ballad and one of the best rock ballads ever written. The CD ends on an creepy note with "The Sentinel", which is about a terrorist planning to blow something up because he "operates on hate". It was written before the 9/11 terrorist attacks but released one month after them.
If you thought Brutal Planet was too heavy and plodding, you'll like this more. Its basically a cross between Brutal Planet and his older more melodic albums. If you're checking out his back catalog of CDs, check this one out. Its worth it.
Brutal Planet Mk 2 - and sequels are rarely improvements 
2007-03-09 - This album blasts out of the blocks with Triggerman, a gret metal t une that has a catchy melody to the chorus and a typical schlock rock Alice personification of unpleasantness. It could quite easily have slotted onto the Brutal Planet album.
Where the problem lies isn't in terms of specific tracks. It's just the quality and feel of each and every track is somewhat diluted. Almost as if the tunes here were leftovers from the Brutal Planet writing sessions. Given that BP came out in 2000 and Dragontown has graced our ears in 2001 (with a tour in between) this feels like a real possibility.
But al is not lost. With modern production values and AC's still tasty and evocative vocals Dragontown serves a number of purposes. It continues AC's desire to stay a working concern rather than a heritage act (ie Aerosmiths three albums in what - 12 years?) and it also provides an excuse for the next tour, bombastic stage show 'n' all.
Three stars for this release that sort of just scurried past the buying public.
The Weakest Of The Trilogy 
2006-12-16 - "Dragontown" is the third and final album in Cooper's Christian morality play series. The three albums "Last Temptation", "Brutal Planet" and "Dragontown" all somewhat run together and deal with the human condition, temptation, and, redemption. "Dragontown" follows similar musical ground as its predecessor "Brutal Planet" although the overall feel of the album is not nearly as heavy. Cooper once again is commenting on the state of the world through Christian eyes and this one gets a bit preachier than the last two. Cooper gets a little high handed on the morality scale in songs like ""Sex, Death, And Money" and "Sister Sarah", both of which cry out at the lack of morals and the presence of sin in movies, media, business, and the clergy. I find this slightly ironic coming from the same guy who wrote "I Love The Dead". Cooper also takes a rather nasty swipe at Elvis Pressley in "Disgraceland". He sings it as an imitation of Elvis style and the conclusion of the song is basically that Elvis is currently residing in hell. It is pretty strong stuff and I would think offensive to fans of Elvis (whether it is true or not). The album also contains a ballad "Every Woman Has A Name" which is pretty much yet another take off on the "Only Women Bleed" concept. "I Just Want To Be God" finds the devil asking why he can't be the supreme ruler. In "It's Much Too Late" the main character is in hell questioning why he is there since he led a good life, and was a good person. Apparently he was not a Christian which is why he ended up in hell. Again, the song comes across as pretty heavy handed. I don't know.....the music and vocals on Dragontown are all good, but I just don't like the feel of a lot of this album. Cooper definitely has an agenda to get across on this disc and whether you agree with him or not it may influence how much you like this album Of the trilogy, for me at least, this is the weakest disc.