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List Price: $18.98 | | Label: Spitfire
Salesrank: 185271
Released: September 24, 2002 |
| Our Price: $9.77 |
| Used Price: $9.77 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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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. This 2002 numbered special edition from Spitfire Records includes a bonus CD featuring previously unreleased material, 4 audio tracks 'Clowns Will Eat Me', 'Go To Hell' (live), 'Ballad Of Dwight Fry' (live) & 'Brutal Planet' (remix) plus 2 enhanced videos for 'Gimme' & 'It's The Little Things'. Slipcase.
Dragontown (Special Edition) Reviews:
Extra Cd 
2006-04-21 - I personally am a big fan of Alice and it was worth it to me to buy the Dragontown album again just to have these extra songs on the second disk. Having said that here's what I think. The Clowns Will Eat Me is awesome. I love it, never get bored of it and can now add it to my collection. I believe you can also get the clown song on the Japanese import of Brutal Planet. I guess it was made for that album and not Dragontown. Oh well that was there and this is here. The two live tracks are taken from Alice's, Brutally Live DVD concert. It sounds so good when turned up loud, good bass. The fourth song is a remix of the song Brutal Planet. Alot of people have said they don't care for it. I respect their opinions, and I myself actually like it. Not only is it not bad, but just the fact that it sounds like a techno dance song(which Alice has never done before) makes it very original in itself.
Cooper bounces back with another strong one. 
2005-08-07 - Brutal Planet should have been a great album, what with the presence of Ezrin. However, one of the busiest producers around, Bob Marlette, got his hands on it and made it sound far too generic. The riffs were dull and the album thudded boringly, with so little of that classic Alice personality.
Dragontown is like Alice waking up. It's a transition from Brutal Planet to Eyes Of, which celebrated a return to classic 70's Alice. It's not quite there yet, but it's getting there. Marlette is still producing, but this time he and Cooper have decided to brighten the whole affair.
There are a couple really outstanding songs here. "Every Woman Has A Name" sounds like something Alice would have done with Ezrin. It's a lush song with strings that recalls "Only Women Bleed" or "It's Only My Heart Talking". Also great is "It's Much Too Late", which reminds me of "Wind Up Toy" from 1991. It has a lot of the old Alice 70's vibe too, it's fantastic. Very pop. Modern production is left off this one, the instruments sound cleaner and bright.
"Triggerman", the opening track, is fast with an industrial sound, but with much more emphasis on melody than Brutal Planet. "Disgraceland" features Alice doing quite a great Elvis impersonation, and the band are kicking back in a rockabilly groove too. Some might consider this track fluff, and it's definitely different than any other on the album, but it's pretty fun.
Unfortunately "Deeper" is just basically a rewrite of Brutal Planet's title track, with some "Blessed By Fire" mixed in. Just a boring, uninteresting track, with terrible sounding cymbal samples and a muddy riff that is just horrifically generic.
The bonus disc here is totally worth owning, even for casual Alice fans. Actually, especially for them in a way, because it'll give them exposure to some other awesome Alice tracks they may have missed. "Go To Hell" and "Dwight Fry" are live. (I cannot tell you if they are same versions as on Brutally Live or not, but I suspect that they are.) "Clowns Will Eat Me" was previously only available on Japanese import, and it's a great party track that fits much better in Dragontown than Brutal Planet for which it was recorded. Finally there's the remix of "Brutal Planet" itself which gives it a Rob Zombie feel. It's not a superior mix, (I miss the female backing vocal) but I always dig robots talking.
Best since Welcome to My Nightmare
2004-06-05 - Dragontown is a great CD if you like the harder, darker Alice. His voice has never been better and the CD showcases why he is still the original shock rocker. Not so much shocking in mindless Goth Rock blood and guts kind of way. But in a way that is typical Alice --- Sarcastic and funny but still twisted and sick. Most all of the songs on this CD are well written and follow Alice in his decent into Dragontown. Dragontown, Sex Death and Money, Triggerman, Sister Sara are all standouts on this CD. The Song I Wanna Be God was very disturbing to me when I first heard it. Then I realized that that statement and the lyrics are so ridiculous that Alice is just trying to get a rise out of the listener. The extra's on the Special Edition are ok but the real winner on this album is the new material and you; if you buy this one for your collection. DARK !
Solid Follow-up
2003-02-18 - I got this and Brutal Planet recently. I'm not sure which I like better. Dragontown works far better as a whole and conceptually, but I think Brutal Planet has more standout songs. In any event, this is a real solid album, worth picking up if you liked Brutal Planet at all.
The style is not that completely similar. I want to say it's a bit less commercial and accessible, still hooky, but not as obvious. It's darker, feels a bit like a horror movie. Good solos too.
The production is a bit better then brutal planet. Not as sterile sounding, and the drums fit in better, but could still be improved.
The only reason I'd say you'd like it if you like BP is because it's a heavier, less commercial Alice. I really don't have a lot else to say about it, just that you shouldn't expect a masterpiece, but a solid effort.
Best since The Last Temptation 
2002-10-17 - "Dragontown" is Alice's best album since 1994's "The Last Temptation". This edition comes with (Can't Sleep) "Clowns Will Eat Me" which was only previously available on the Japanese import of the "Brutal Planet" album. The song "Brutal Planet" is remixed on the bonus CD and it is not all that interesting of a remix and probably should not haven been done. It also features two live tracks "Got to Hell" and "Ballad of Dwight Fry" which isn't all that thrilling either since live versions of these tracks were previously available on various imports. A common complaint about Alice Cooper concerts is that you know what songs you are going to hear because he adds very little recent material in his set lists (material from "Constrictor" to "Dragontown"). If he added a couple live tracks of recent material that haven't been available before, I would've given it five stars "Dragontown" rocks, but the bonus CD is only worth buying for "Clowns" and if you have the Japanese import of "Brutal Planet", don't bother picking this CD up. My four star rating is based on the "Dragontown" album itself, not this bonus CD.
