Alice Cooper, Sheppard, Melvins: New album reviews

Pop sensations Sheppard have dropped their third album, globally streaming their performance from Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall. SEE IT NOW

Amy, George and Emma Sheppard at South Bank in their home town of Brisbane

This week’s album reviews from The Courier-Mail (ratings out of five stars):

POP

Sheppard, Kaleidoscope Eyes

(Empire of Song/Universal) ****

In the words of more than one fan, Sheppard have never done a bad song. They proved it again during last year’s lockdown, churning out one perfect pop tune after another on a monthly basis. Now the results are collected on this, their third album, with a few new tracks thrown in for good measure. The band have slimmed down to just the three Sheppard siblings, with brother George handling the lion’s share of the vocals. The frenetic Brand New channels the likes of Rick Springfield or Rob Thomas, then there are the jungle rhythms of Learning to Fly and Animals, the latter of which features that trademark harmonic Sheppard cry, as does uplifting affirmation Symphony. And there’s the recurring theme of appreciating life’s simple pleasures and deprioritising material gain. At a generous 16 tracks Kaleidoscope Eyes offers both quality and quantity, and cements Sheppard’s status as southeast Queensland’s premier pop export since Savage Garden.

ROCK

Alice Cooper, Detroit Stories

(earMUSIC/Sony) ***

After dropping Breadcrumbs with his EP 18 months ago, the artist formerly known as Vincent Furnier gives us the full loaf with this long-player tribute to the city that birthed him and the pioneering artists who moulded him. For the most part it’s pedal-to-the-metal retro shock rock in the finest Alice tradition, but he does veer into unfamiliar territory with the boppy, poppy Our Love Will Change the World and the Motown of $1000 High Heel Shoes. There are covers of Velvet Underground’s Rock & Roll, MC5’s Sister Anne and Bob Seger’s East Side Story, and Detroit City 2021 is the second remake of the 2003 song that pays homage to artist from Iggy and the Stooges to Suzi Quatro. Shut Up and Rock is a broadside at preaching pop stars, while Hanging on By a Thread (Don’t Give Up) gives hope to the suicidal (as well as a helpline number at the end).

ROCK

Melvins, Working With God

(Ipecac/Liberator) ***

If the Melvins think they can get us into their latest album with a gratuitously F-bomb-laden cover of The Beach Boys’ I Get Around… they’re absolutely right! I F— Around sets the tone for the set. Elsewhere, F--- You expresses similar sentiments. As with Cooper, this is the band’s 21st studio album, and it sees the reunion of their 1983 incarnation: Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover and original drummer Mike Dillard. There are the expected oddball moments, such as Brian the Horse-Faced Goon, but on the main it’s all heavy riffs and bad attitudes.