After recapturing his rock 'n' roll heritage with 2003's return-to-form album The Eyes Of Alice Cooper, the King Of Shock Rock is back already with another record, Dirty Diamonds, which is thankfully in a similar vein.

Alice Cooper is never less than entertaining, even if some of his diversions into cock rock and nu-metal had slightly mixed results.

Luckily, the rise of the White Stripes and the Strokes reminded him of his 70s heyday when garage rock was all the rage, and The Eyes... was very much a back to basics approach. It may not have had the themes of Brutal Planet or Dragontown, but was a lot better than either of them.

It also saw him getting his twisted sense of humour back, especially on Man of the Year, and that is again running through Dirty Diamonds, as you can tell from opening songtitle Woman of Mass Distraction. You Make Me Wanna is bubblegum pop Alice-style, while Perfect namechecks J-Lo in a tale of a wannabe who turns into a "hip-hop hippo clown" when she hits the dancefloor.

Aside from some movie-soundtrack horns, the title track is rather disappointing, but things take a turn for the disappointing with Pretty Ballerina, a cover of a 60s song by The Left Banke. It's a very delicate romantic song, but with Alice Cooper you are always wondering whether the Pretty Ballerina didn't end up in a bin bag in a ditch somewhere...

There's certainly nothing subtle about his attack on the dog-toting Paris Hiltons of the world on the hilarious Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies): "I'd buy her a diamond collar, if she'd only throw me a bone." It's probably the most anthemic track on the album and, aside from the subject matter, could easily have come from Killer or Love It To Death.

The most deceptive tune on Dirty Diamonds though is The Saga Of Jesse Jane, a country and western song about a cross-dressing truck driver that he sings in a Johnny Cash baritone. Alice has even joked about sending it to country radio stations in America without saying who it is, to see if they would play it. It's certainly worth a try...

Run Down The Devil is another classic Cooper rocker, with grimy guitars blasting out power chords while he croons about, well, running the devil down ("the ultimate road kill"). Alice Cooper has been welcoming us to his nightmares for well over 35 years now and shows no signs of slowing down, with this being his fourth album in six years. While he's in such a rich vein of form, we can only hope he doesn't take a break any time soon.