Makeup, blood, leather--heck, even a man with a woman's first name--Marilyn Manson clearly wasn't all that revolutionary. Alice Cooper [ tickets ] beat him by decades to the style, and on "Dirty Diamonds," Cooper pulls no punches in paying tribute to his own influences.

Cooper's band--guitarists Ryan Roxie and Damon Johnson (Brother Cane), bassist Chuck Garric, and drummer Tommy Clufetos--channels pure Rolling Stones on "Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)" and "Woman of Mass Distraction," four-on-the floor punk on "Steal That Car," and even Johnny Cash on "The Saga of Jessie Jane," a song about a cross-dresser messing with Texas.

Per usual, Cooper has the tongue firmly in cheek for much of the proceedings. On "Perfect," he jokingly rambles, "She can shake it just like J-Lo when the bedroom lights go down, but when she hits the dance floor she's a hip-hop hippo clown."

"Dirty Diamonds" allowed for a more studio-friendly recording than the 2003 no-overdubs-as-a-rule "The Eyes of Alice Cooper." Even with the overdubs, "Diamonds" was cranked out in a mere 13 days.

"I don't want a Queen album or a Def Leppard album that's perfectly recorded," Cooper explains in a statement. "They're terrific, you can't knock those albums, but that's not the sound I'm looking for. I'd much rather have the sound of an early Stones album." Mission accomplished.