Bmiler This is quite a bit different from the Alice Cooper that made him/them famous (as the band before 1975 was called Alice Cooper, not just Vincent Furnier). What you get here is heavy psych. Pretties For You was released on Frank Zappa's Straight label, and thanks to Zappa, some humor and quirky elements can be found here, even if Zappa never produced the album, there's a slight Zappa influence amongst the heavy psych. The back cover shows the band looking like a glam rock band circa 1972 (Alice Cooper himself wearing a dress but the facepaint hadn't yet been established), so that's actually pretty ahead of its time there, although the music is pretty much of its time for 1969. "Apple Bush", for example shows the quirky side, while "Fields of Regret" is more serious heavy psych. Plus you get "Reflected" which was later rerecorded in 1972 and released as a single as "Elected" (and ended up on Billion Dollar Babies the next year). The album isn't looked too fondly of, which is too bad, given I happen to like psych music, and this album happens to deliver. While the regular fan starts with Love it to Death, for obvious reasons, it's the beginning of Alice Cooper the shock rock artist, here it's Alice Cooper still trying to get his/their feet wet, and actually it's better than many will let you believe. "Levity Ball" is a great song, although the sound quality is pretty awful (it was a live recording), actually the original LP isn't that great sounding (I own the original LP on the orange label that says "Straight" on top in a curved fashion), and sometime I think that's the reason for the low rating. So another one of those underrated albums that I actually quite enjoy!

The Truth An odd record, yeah, but it's fun to listen to when you think of what it eventually gave birth to.

Pretties For You, the Alice Cooper band's first record, is at times childish but it never fails to stun every once in awhile. Sure there are some really duds Living, but there are truly a bunch of psychedelic tunes that leave a nice impression on the listener. These include Levity Ball, Changing Arranging and (eventually re-recorded as Elected) Reflected. Heck, even the almost satirically dramatic intro the record Titanic Overture is a fun song.

There are some really great moments on Pretties For You and although better things are yet to come, it should not be ignored. It shows an Alice Cooper that was never fully seen again, only remnants of it.

Zappa's influence on their tripped-out noodling is apparent which makes it entertaining to say the least. The only thing that's really missing is a performance of Nobody Likes Me.