I can't go to school cuz I ain't got a gun
I ain't got a gun cuz I ain't got a job
I ain't got a job cuz I can't go to school
So I'm looking for a girl with a gun and a job
Don't you know where you are
Lost in America

После этого Элис как-то подустал - клепал различного рода сборники, концертники, и продолжал так до самого линолеума... в смысле миллениума. Зато тут он оторвался по полной. Такое ощущение, что Элис решил провести нас сквозь ад, причём ад на Земле.“Brutal Planet” - "Жестокая планета", тексты которой просто-таки сочатся ядом, начиная с заглавной песни:
Here's where we keep the armies, here's where we write those names
Here's where the money god is, here's our famous hall of shame.
Here's where we starve the hungry, here's where we cheat the poor
Here's where we beat the children, here is where we pay the whore.
Right here we stoned the prophets built idols out of mud
Right here we fed the lions Christian flesh and Christian blood.
Down here is where we hung ya upon an ugly cross.
Over there we filled the ovens right here the holocaust.
"Wicked young man" (о нациках):
Cold blue swastika tattooed on my skin,
The ice in my veins the staples in my chin.
I've got it carved in my forehead "Slave To My Sin"
Too violent for the brotherhood to ever take me in.
I got every kind of chemical pumpin' through my head,
I read Mein Kampf daily just to keep my hatred fed.
I never ever sleep I just lay in my bed
Dreamin' of the day when everyone is dead...
"Eat some more" (о тонущей в горах пищевых отходах Америке):
Sixty million tons of meat spoiling in the stinking heat.
Train full loads of moldy bread, millions will still go unfed.
Acres full of dying wheat burning brightly at our feet.
A billion tons of roasted fish some with nothing on their dish.
We can't see we're going blind, we're just dying on the vine.
We're all sinking from the weight, open wide and salivate.
Do you like the taste? Stuff it in your face.
Its not nice to waste, we're not happy 'til we're choking.
So we eat some more, throw up on the floor, go back to the store -
We're so hungry, so pathetic...
Lots of melting cheddar cheese spreading instant meat disease.
Rotting veggies on the ground where hungry little kids are found.
Runs and free an ugly sight they're begging for a single bite.
Our garbage dumps are mountains high while other people sadly die.
"Pessimystic" (о том, что пессимизм - это и есть здравый взгляд на вещи):
Don't need a crystal ball for me to see clearly. No astrology or Tarot cards.
Watchin' CNN an holding my breath. To face the "Daily News" scares me to death...
I'm pessimystic, I'm so fatalistic. I'm pessimystic, I don't believe a thing.
I'm pessimystic, I'm so nihlistic. I'm pessimystic for what tomorrow brings.и до финальной "Cold machines" (о давно превратившихся в машин людях):
I see you working at your station, radiation burns my eyes.
Love's forbidden so is passion, this whole place is sterilized.
I just want to see tomorrow, day by day to just survive.
But this place is built to kill me, no one here gets out alive.
I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be just a memory.
I don't wanna be, I don't wanna be gone...
You don't know my name, you don't know my number.
You don't know my face at all.
We walk right past each other every single day.
Like cold machines we're marching on and on and on and on and on...

Вдобавок Купер от хэви-глэм рока перешёл к чему-то вроде агрессивно-тягучего хэви-индастриала. Наслушаешься такого и жить не хочется...
Так что рекомендуется фсем оптимистам :р.
В 2002-м году выходит такой же великолепный "DragonTown" - издевательств над обществом здесь поменьше, но тоже есть. Например, о том, как Элис сходил в кино:

When I go to the show all I see on the screen is a stream of pure vulgarity.
I wrote down a note, I complained for a day to the House of Representatives.
They laughed in my face, they said:
Son, you're a one-in-a-million minority.
The name of the game is to titillate the brain stimulate the immorality.

I was so offended as I sat for three hours.
It was mental cruelty, I was so shocked.
Just a little more flesh, just a little more blood,
Little closer to the edge, little deeper in the mud.
I'll never be the same...

Sex, death and money, sonny, makes this wicked world go round.
Sex, death and money it's the Gospel here in Dragontown.
Sex, death and money, honey, grease the wheels and make them fly.
Sex, death and money, sonny, that is why we all are gonna fry.

"The Eyes of Alice Cooper" (2003) стал возвращением к старому стилю - забойная мрачность уступила место почти рок-н-рольному весёлому звучанию начала 70-х. Правда, есть пара баллад и "This House Is Haunted", на которой можно просто обрыдаться:
I was sitting in my room, dark and gray and crying.
Someone in my life I fear was at the point of dying.
A cold wind blew right up my spine, it was the break of dawn.
A little voice way deep inside told me she was gone...

No more singing, no more laughing, no more sunny days.
She left and took the colours with her, buried in her grave.
This is where we climbed the tower, this is where she fell.
Then when her young heart stopped beating, I went to hell.

You float through the living room, I watch my TV.
I feel you sit down on the couch right here next to me.
Then I feel you lips touch mine just like we used to do.
I'm so happy all alone... being here with you...

Приблизительно в таком же стиле выдержан и "Dirty Diamonds" 2005-го. Такое ощущение, что песни пролежали лет 20 в сундуке, были вытащены и запущены в народ...
Честно говоря, не считая нескольких достойных вещей, последние два альбома меня разочаровали, но с другой стороны, одному Богу известно, как может переклинить Элиса в дальнейшем - возьмёт и запишет гатишный альбом...