The next time your mother tells you to eat your green beans because people are starving in Africa, you might reference "Eat Some More," one of 11 ferocious tracks on Alice Cooper's appropriately titled Brutal Planet. Though the artist who's arguably the greatest influence on Marilyn Manson has been doing this for longer than most Manson fans have been alive, he's still getting a lot of mileage out of the Angry Young Man archetype. Forget most of what he did in the late 1970s and early '80s; most people probably have. But since 1989's Trash, Cooper's turned out fresher and better recordings than the vast majority of his musical descendants, and Brutal Planet is no exception. The fact that it's a concept album is neither here nor there. Sure, there's quite a bit of cerebral content, but Brutal Planet is not a lecture. It's a rant, as enraged as anything any artist half Cooper's age could come up with, but with the perspective of someone old enough to know better. Alice Cooper, environmental activist? Well, stranger things have happened. --Genevieve Williams