Idolator

From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today's entry is the new album from churchgoer and radio DJ Alice Cooper, Along Came A Spider, which hits stores today.

• "Alice Cooper has done it again, delivering a strong album that should not be overlooked. He has crafted a loose tale of murder, dismemberment, and evil with a soundtrack that is deceptively upbeat. He even ties it in with an older release, mentioning Steven of Welcome to My Nightmare fame. Cooper obviously still has it, and I look forward to whatever he has to deliver in the future." [Blogcritics]

• "Musically, the disc harkens back to old-school Alice, closest to the "Love It To Death" era, with some modern touches thrown in. Time-share (with Kiss) drummer Eric Singer provides a solid underpinning to the mayhem." [AP via the San Francisco Chronicle]

• "Though every two-bit heavy-metal band may seem to have bled dry the vernacular of homicide, in songs like Wrapped in Silk Cooper uses a dark wit, which steers him well clear of cliché. Like his best stuff, it's funny, sickening and rocking all at once." [Telegraph]

• "At 60, Cooper's sneering delivery hasn't deteriorated. Guest guitarist Slash, a longtime Cooper compatriot, enlivens the catchy Vengeance is Mine to such a degree that the track sounds like an outtake from Appetite for Destruction." [The National Post]