<><> Japan (Papersleeve) Mini LP CDs <><>: Alice Cooper

tisdagen den 24:e januari 2012

Alice Cooper - Welcome to My Nightmare (US 1975)

330:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition.)

With the 1974 disintegration of the original Alice Cooper group, Alice was free to launch a solo career. He wisely decided to re-enlist the services of Bob Ezrin for his solo debut, Welcome to My Nightmare, which was a concept album tied into the story line of the highly theatrical concert tour he launched soon after the album's release. While the music lost most of the gritty edge of the original AC lineup, Welcome to My Nightmare remains Alice's best solo effort -- while some tracks stray from his expected hard rock direction, there's plenty of fist-pumping rock to go around.

The disco-flavored, album-opening title track would be reworked on the stage as more of a hard rock tune, while "Some Folks" dips into cabaret territory, and "Only Women Bleed" is a sensitive ballad that became a Top Ten hit. But the rockers serve as the album's foundation -- "Devil's Food," "The Black Widow," "Department of Youth," and "Cold Ethyl" are all standouts, as is the more tranquil yet eerie epic "Steven." Despite this promising start to Cooper's solo career, the majority of his subsequent releases were often not as focused and were of varying quality.

Welcome to My Nightmare is the eighth album by Alice Cooper, released in 1975. This was Alice Cooper's first solo album (all previous Alice Cooper releases were band efforts). The cover artwork was created by Drew Struzan for Pacific Eye & Ear. Rolling Stone would later rank it as one of the "Top 100 Album Covers Of All Time".

Welcome to My Nightmare is a concept album. The songs, heard in sequence, form a journey through the nightmares of a child named Steven.

Welcome to My Nightmare inspired the Alice Cooper: The Nightmare TV special and a worldwide concert tour in 1975, and the Welcome To My Nightmare concert film in 1976.

The song Welcome to my Nightmare is a parody of the 1968 novel "There's a Nightmare in My Closet" by Mercer Mayer.

Famed film actor of the Horror genre Vincent Price provided the introductory monologue in the song "The Black Widow".

The remastered CD version adds three alternate version bonus tracks.

In 2011, the sequel Welcome 2 My Nightmare was released.

01."Welcome to My Nightmare" (Alice Cooper, Dick Wagner) – 5:19
02."Devil's Food" (Cooper, Bob Ezrin, Kelley Jay) – 3:38
03."The Black Widow" (Cooper, Wagner, Ezrin) – 3:37
04."Some Folks" (Cooper, Ezrin, Alan Gordon) – 4:19
05."Only Women Bleed" (Cooper, Wagner) – 5:49
06."Department of Youth" (Cooper, Wagner, Ezrin) – 3:18
07."Cold Ethyl" (Cooper, Ezrin) – 2:51
08."Years Ago" (Cooper, Wagner) – 2:51
09."Steven" (Cooper, Ezrin) – 5:52
10."The Awakening" (Cooper, Wagner, Ezrin) – 2:25
11."Escape" (Cooper, Mark Anthony, Kim Fowley) – 3:20

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Om Mini LP CDs

Bra att veta om dessa CDs: Replica CDs are official audiophile releases manufactured in Japan with incredible attention to detail. CDs made in Japan are revered by collectors and specialists for their very clean sound, production quality, and they are superior in nearly every way to pressings from other countries.

The Japanese packaging of classic albums in cardboard sleeve miniature is a wonder to behold. Mini-LP CD albums are like precious stones or perfectly cut diamonds.

The superb mastering (often SHM-CD, 20 Bit, 24 Bit, K2, DSD, or HDCD) and resultant sound quality is superior to that of MFSL releases.

Replicas are often the nearly exact duplications of the first pressings of the 12" LPs and everything that was present in the original LP may be included such as gatefolds, booklets, lyric sheets, posters, printed CD sleeves, stickers, embosses, special paper or inks, and die cuts.

In nearly all replica releases a detail sheet is included, and although the text may be in Japanese, the insert will often include the lyrics in English, which is a big plus if the original LP did not include them. Japan promotional strips, also called OBI, are usually included with the package as a way of advertising the CD to the Japanese buying public.

On occasion a replica CD will have bonus tracks included that were part of a later CD release. However, the notes about the bonus tracks are never added to the album artwork, only the promotional strip or the detail sheet. Thus the integrity of the original LP artwork is maintained.

Replica CDs are not officially for sale outside Japan, but they are worth the trouble and cost to get them. Replica CDs are expensive in Japan. New releases of replica CDs cost anywhere from $30 to $60 a piece and Japanese law forbids putting "new" CDs on sale or selling at any price other than listed on the Obi (promotional strip).

Most replica CDs are manufactured in a limited quantity and sell out quite quickly after release. Because of this replica CDs are splendid keepsakes that hold their value and will likely continue to be items sought by collectors.