Along Came a Spider marks a return to form for the original demonic shock-rocker
“To me this is really one of [my] best-written albums as far as melding together and making the story work” says original shock-rocker Alice Cooper of his latest effort Along Came a Spider . Cryptic and eerie his 24th studio album tells the tale of serial killer Spider and the strange methods behind his gore-iffic art.
“It’s an interesting story about a serial killer that definitely has flaws” he continues. “Even though he thinks he’s infallible he’s totally fallible. When you think of Hannibal Lecter he’s perfect. He’s a serial killer a psychologist [and a] meticulous planner. This guy thinks he’s that but the more the album goes on the more you find all these flaws in his personality. He has a romantic side that will get him in trouble. He also has a religious side. In the middle of the album he has an epiphany: ‘What if I’m wrong?’ That’s a great complex thing to have happen to a serial killer.”
Easily Cooper’s best work in almost two decades Along Came a Spider is engaging both in terms of plot and music. It pulls from the tragic conceptualism of 1975’s Welcome to my Nightmare yet boasts enough grit and balls to almost reach the metallic tinge of 1987’s Raise Your Fist and Yell .
Naturally when dealing with The Coop nothing is as it seems. While the 11-track opus lends itself to the belief that all is real the album’s unnerving epilogue forces listeners to rethink everything they’ve just heard. Did it happen? Is Spider simply crazy? Is this just another nightmare? Cooper wryly declines clarification.
“He’s got everybody on the run” Cooper says. “He’s created this spider and wraps his victims in silk — very clever. The police finally realize ‘eight legs and silk? This guy thinks he’s a spider or at least becoming that.’ But then you realize it’s written in a diary form. Just when you think you’ve got it all put away he says ‘Well we’ve been in this cell for 28 years. We couldn’t have done that.’ All of those murders only happened in his mind and showed up in the diary… or there could be another killer.”
An album as strong as Along Came a Spider takes a lot of work to put together. Searching for a vehicle to relate the tale Cooper toyed with a few notions before settling on the diary concept. Initially keen to create a radio serial the idea was nixed as he realized that not only was the model limiting but also few know what the hell a radio soap opera actually is in this day and age.
“It would have been great as a radio drama” he reflects. “When I first thought about it I thought it would be great to have Billy Bob Thornton and Michael Douglas — my friends — play the parts of the psychiatrist the cop or the insane asylum orderly. I think everybody would’ve loved to do that but I got to the point where I realized if I explain it too much or explain what’ll happen if I don’t give the audience a chance to use their imagination it won’t work.
“Great art forces the audience to use their imagination” he continues. “When I see a Salvador Dali painting I know what I see but you’d say ‘No he’s not saying that. He’s saying this.’ We all have our own values we place on a crutch or a tongue or a melting watch. It’s the same with my show or with the album. When you [experience] it there are so many images going on you create your own story. I think that’s why Dali liked our show so much. He saw all these images and created his own stories behind them. [I’m] a Rorschach test… it’s all up to you.”
