Posted by In celebration of The Revenge of Alice Cooper, the first new album by the Alice Cooper group since 1973s Muscle of Love, here is a list of his finest efforts in his 56 year career. I’m a big fan of Vincent so choosing between his records was like picking a favourite child. If you ask me again in a week, this list might change.
5. The Last Temptation
Starting my list is 1994’s The Last Temptation, a concept album about Steven (more from him later) who bumps into a travelling show. As shown in the 70s sounding foot tapper ‘Sideshow’, containing plenty of horns and juicy hooks; the showman attempts to persuade him to join the cast by saying he will never grow old and promising him the world and all it’s wealth. It even had a comic book tied into it, written by Neil Gaiman. It is a return to catchy classic rock after the glam metal exuberance of Trash and Hey Stoopid. ‘Nothings Free’ is a stomping number warning you to be careful what you wish for. ‘Lost In America’s is a punky, sneering take on America and the dirty groove of ‘You’re My Temptation’ tells of Steven being lured to the dark side by the temptress Mercy. The lush ‘Its Me’ is the album’s glossy ballads, one of my favourite of his. The other ballad is the soaring ‘Stolen Prayer’, one of two songs written and featuring guest vocals by Chris Cornell. The emphatic ‘Cleansed By Fire’ closes a cracking concept record done with just the right amount of melodrama.
4. Welcome To My Nightmare
After the break up of the band in ‘74, Alice decided to turn up the theatrics with his first solo album Welcome To My Nightmare in 1975. It had a massive live show, a TV special and even a hit single. It is a concept album about a little boy called Steven who is trapped in a nightmare he cannot seem to escape, done to the tune of rock, with soul, jazz and show tune elements. The funky rock title track introduces you to the show, Vincent Prince is in his element in the arachnid loving ‘Black Widow’ and personal favourite ‘Some Folks’ is a jaunty trip though addiction. ‘Cold Ethyl’ is perhaps the catchiest song about necrophilia (more on that later) you’ll come across, and the sublime ‘Only Women Bleed’ laments against domestic abuse – not about menstruation as some Americans once thought. The eerie trio ‘Years Ago’, ‘Steven’ and ‘The Awakening’ end the record and the concept on a sinister note.
3. Love It To Death
This was the record that broke them into the public eye. After two psychedelic and largely forgettable efforts, Pretties For You and Easy Action, on Frank Zappa‘s label they relocated to Chicago and turned up the amps. They had the vaudeville stage act full of monsters, guillotines, snakes, decapitated baby dolls and electric chairs but Bob Ezrin honed the band, tightened their song craft and created the blueprint for the shock rockers sound. He is Alice’s very own George Martin. Angsty anthem ‘Eighteen’, lively earworms ‘Caught in a Dream’ and ‘Long Way To Go’ and the haunting descent into lunacy that is ‘Second Coming’ and ‘Ballad of Dwight Fry’ are all timeless classics.
2. Killer
The Alice Cooper groups second album of 1971 and they built on their breakthrough third effort by making its follow up tauter, darker and more varied. The glammy stomp of first track ‘Under My Wheels’ and the riffed up search for a partner ‘Be My Lover’ were the radio friendly smash and grabs. Their love of eccentricity is still alive and well, in the King Crimson homage ‘Halo of Flies’ – which is an eight minute plus epic about the world of espionage. The enchantingly melancholic ‘Desperado’, with its gritty guitars and swirling strings, is about member of the 27 club Jim Morrison. “Little Betty popped a pound of aspirin” Vincent mournfully sings on ‘Dead Babies’ which, despite the controversy it garnered at the time, is a warning against parental abuse and child neglect. The title track, a proggy number about a killer facing the death penalty, ends a record without a duff track on it.
1. Billion Dollar Babies
It could only be this, their blockbuster hit which took the shock rock and roll essence of the band and made it bigger and better. It starts with a huge, arena sized welcome in ‘Hello Hooray’, one of the best covers ever, and continues from there. Including the anthemic political satire ‘Elected’, a favourite of John Lennon, the emphatic title track and the 70s rock classic ‘No More Mr. Nice Guy’ – used to great effect in 1993s Dazed and Confused. It courted plenty of controversy, with the raucous ‘Raped and Freezin’ about a woman commiting sexual assault and the curtain closing ‘I Love The Dead’ is another catchy love letter to necrophilia. The latter led to politicians and infamous moral crusader Mary Whitehouse to call for the Alice Cooper group to be banned from the UK. Well you cannot buy publicity like that, so they sent her flowers and wrote a sweet, left field piano ballad ‘Mary Ann’ as way of thanks.
The great albums that just missed out are: the classic Schools Out, the glam metal Hey Stoopid, the industrial metal of Brutal Planet and the new wave ‘blackout’ period albums Dada and Flush The Fashion.
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