Bobaflex, Sophie Lloyd, Steel Woods, Doro and Rob Halford also find a home on Fred Phillips’ list of best 2023 songs.

I wanted to offer up some quick thoughts on my favorite records of the first half of 2023 because it has been a strong year.

Alice Cooper’s ‘Brutal Planet” arrived 20 years ago this month like a gut punch, setting up as a kind of morality play set to metal.

It’s not until you actually start combing through the hundreds of records you’ve listened to over a decade that you realize how daunting the task really is.

Here’s a Best of 2019 list featuring favorites from this year’s new releases – along with some albums that were just new to me.

It was, honestly, a pretty lousy year for music. This list of Best Metal, Country and Hard Rock of 2017 highlights five exceptions, and some key honorable mentions.

When rockers begin to get older, you expect to see it in their performance. Not Alice Cooper.

Alice Cooper once said he enjoyed “playing the heavy – a bizarre vaudevillian character.” The same remains true today.

By accident or design, ‘The Eyes of Alice Cooper’ is as close as it comes to the classics from Alice Cooper’s glory days.

No “best of” list here. Just a year-end housecleaning of random Odd Couples jabs, hooks and uppercuts – and not always above the belt.