The Last Temptation

For his final Sony album, Alice Cooper opted for straight-up rock 'n' roll songwriting and wound up with his best album since 1975. Indeed, 1989’s Trash and 1991’s Hey Stoopid had made Cooper internationally famous again, but this 1994 album restored his cred in many ways. It still sold well around the world, going top 10 in the U.K. It’s the Coop of old, with clever carnival-barking themes of temptation and redemption and big-top metaphors. Classic riffs lure our hero Steven (last heard from on Welcome to My Nightmare) into a sticky moral abyss. The best songs here include the opener, “Sideshow” (“No More Mr. Nice Guy” meets The Replacements); the first single, “Lost in America” (a witty cop of Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up”); the ballad “It’s Me” (every bit as good as the Coop’s ’70s hit ballads); the minor-key battle tank “Unholy War” (a Chris Cornell ditty); and the closer, “Cleansed by Fire” (cowritten by Mark Hudson). There’s something here for any Cooper fan.