In 1975 Alice sacked the rest of the band and went solo with Welcome To My Nightmare. This was a pretty bold move considering that the original band helped write many of Alice Cooper's classic songs. While this album did not chart as high as 1973's Billion Dollar Babies (#1) it did contain one of Alice's biggest hits, a ballad called Only Woman Bleed. WTMN does not have my all-time favorite AC songs but it's one of the few albums that I really enjoy from beginning to end. My favorite songs are Devils Food (with a classic narration by Vincent Price!), The Black Widow (covered well by Bruce Dickinson), Cold Ethyl (classic lyrics), Years Ago (haunting), and Steven. I also recommend The Best Of Alice Cooper which packs 22 songs on one cd!

Alice Cooper offers a mixed bag of tunes. There are a couple of catchy anthem-type rockers ("Department of Youth" and "Escape"), but most sound like numbers from a twisted musical about necrophilia and serial murder. The trilogy of "Years Ago/Steven/The Awakening" is too heavy-handed and obvious, but the rest of the album offers prime examples of why Cooper became rock's premiere showman during the 70s. Vincent Price's cameo at the beginning of "Black Widow" is fun.

First, I would like to make a statement...ALICE COOPER IS THE MAN!!! This is quite possibly the best album of all time (okay, so maybe that's a bit extreme, but not too extreme). I guess this is supposed to be a rock opera even though there is no plot, but I don't care - it's still a great conceptual work. You know what I like about Alice? I like the fact that even though his material is dark and macabre, it can still be hilarious! It takes talent to pull that off.
The album opens with the title track, which is too say, jus' plain chillin'. It has a jazzy/funky/rocking beat that makes you say, "Well, it sounds like this 'ill be a good one." At least that's what I said. Then we get a nice serving of DEVIL'S FOOD. The first half is a rocker while the latter half is a monologue by Ol' Man Price..."how cute". Oh, but it doesn't end there (obviously) - This track leads straight into THE BLACK WIDOW which is a wierd song that I don't really get, but like anyways. SOME FOLKS is like a broadway musical number. You just want to sing and dance. The next song is considered beautiful by many reviewers, but I have yet to hear a beautiful song. There are only two things that I find beautiful: God/Jesus/Holy Spirit & my fiance! But that is beside the point. Before I heard this song, I thought ONLY WOMEN BLEED was about females on their periods...I was wrong. Personally, I thought a song about the menstrual cycle would be more shocking than a song about beating wives. What makes the song great is that it's glorifying the act at all, but shedding light on it. Alice is a good guy. THE DEPARTMENT OF YOUTH and COLD ETHYL are my favorite songs on the album. YOUTH is about kids ruling the world or something and ETHYL makes me laugh out loud (no, I will not use 'lol') every time - "She's cool in bed. Well, she otta be, 'cause Ethyl's dead". You can't find that juxtaposition between sick and funny anywhere else but on an Alice Cooper album!
The next half is a bit on the darkside, and harder for me to figure out. YEARS AGO and STEPHEN are very ambiguous and creepy in nature, and that's what makes them great. THE AWAKENING is when the "hero" awakes from his nightmare and kills his wife or something. Kind of morbid. This is probably my least favorite song on here. It's just a little too dark and short and not that cool musically. And of course, like most Alice Cooper albums, there is a happy ending, ESCAPE.
Yes...
Everybody should buy this album. WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE is just brilliant. There is no other way to put it. The End.