Warthur Offering a pulsing, synth-heavy take on his mid-1980s glam-tinged sound, Alice Cooper's contribution to the soundtrack for Friday the 13th Part VI is a cheesy as hell tribute to the series and to slasher films in general, as well as being one of the catchiest damn things Cooper would put out in the period. Constrictor, the album it comes from, otherwise isn't up to that much, but this one song suggested that Cooper was finally able to recapture a bit of the swagger that had eluded him since his stumbles of the early 1980s, and prefigured his later career revival driven by the Trash album.

vmagistr Lots of people, lots of tastes. Some people won´t hear a bad word against "their" single favourite genre, others are "omnivores" and like to switch between different styles. The second approach has, in my opinion, one big advantage - when I want to take a break from all that progression and fusion (which I'm in those days listening to and discovering something new in every attempt), I can go back to something easier to digest, but almost as fun for me - like good old hard rock, more specifically (for today) a certain Cooper's Witch.

I've neglected Alice Cooper's work in particular for quite a few years now, but with his work from the 70s I still remember what to look forward to most on which record. In the case of the Killer album, in which my ear found favour today, it's clearly the Halo of Flies suite - an eight+ minute near-instrumental (Alice's vocals are actually only heard in the middle section) with a cool hard rock drive and a plethora of musical motifs used. Another cool kick is offered at the very end of the album, when Alice comes out with the sepulchral melodica of Dead Babies and then throws in a bunch of rock riffs, called (eponymously) Killer. I'd definitely consider putting this three-piece on any Cooper best-of list, because I just love it.

But the Killer album doesn't consist just of these three tracks, so what's next? In short - although it's unfortunately not such a hit parade anymore, satisfaction remains on my side. Under My Wheels is a kind of slightly polished rock'n'roll, Be My Lover again equals the intersection of Alice's vocal narration shredded with some chopped guitar kilos, and the quite funny backing vocals in the chorus. Desperado stumbles somewhere between a melancholic guitar pick with string arrangements and a hard rock banger. Cool wailing guitars and venomous vocals bring together the shortest track on the record, the less than two and a half minute You Drive Me Nervous and the hilariously titled Yeah, Yeah, Yeah offers some space for bass and harmonica.

So how does Alice Cooper's Killer album actually affect me? Good rock with a few standout moments, the rest better average. Between three and four stars, the lesser five tracks pull it down more, so we'll stay at an odd number. The best of late 60s/early 70s hard rock must, be sought on the other side of the Atlantic, Alice Cooper remaining merely "good" on Killer.

sensedatum Barry Manilow. Thats what came to my mind when I first listened to the ballad "I never cry". I liked Barry Manilow when I was a child and kept listening to the Copacabana Lp. Well in this Alice Copper album there are quite a few songs that reminds me Barry Manilow. And yes, if you are into pop, some may be nice songs, others are much oversweetened. And you find strings arrangements everywhere. Cooper did indeed went to hell for making this record. A little odd that this album nowadays has almost the same rating as the first Alice Copper greatest hits album (!?)

lukretion The turn of the new millennium marked a stark change in sound for shock rock / hard rock maestro Alice Cooper. In 2000 he released a heavy, industrial metal/rock record, Brutal Planet, which received mixed responses from public and critics, and was even dubbed as a paradoxical and not-so-subtle attempt to follow the footsteps of his creative grandchild (at least as far as shocking image goes), Marilyn Manson. Released only one year later, Dragontown continues in a similar direction as it predecessor, albeit also looking back to a more classic Alice Cooper sound. The return of Alice’s veteran producer Bob Ezrin may or may not have had something to do with it. Regardless, Dragontown strikes a better balance than Brutal Planet between Alice’s newly-found modernist proclivity and the rest of his discography, and is as a consequence less of a disaster compared to his 2000’s album.

Having said that, Dragontown remains a flawed affair and ranks fairly low in Cooper’s discography. The best material is concentrated in the first half of the record. Songs like “Triggerman”, “Dragontown”, “Sex, Death & Money” and “Fantasy Man” lie at the crossroad between heavy, industrial metal and classic hard rock. Crunchy guitars and groovy drum patterns complement Alice’s raspy voice and characteristic phrasing. It’s an entertaining and mildly interesting hybrid that stretches the reaches of Alice’s music into the new millennium, without dispensing with its sonic heritage

The second half of the disc is remarkably worse. It is filled with cringeworthy ideas, such as the Elvis’ impersonation on “Disgraceland” or the rapped singing on “Sister Sara”. Meanwhile, “Every Woman Has a Name” is a 70s-infused ballad and the record’s last three songs go back to the mixture of industrial and classic hard rock, but in a very bland and unremarkable way. There is a palpable lack of cohesion among these songs, which inevitably reduces the listening value of the whole album.

Overall, although not totally unlistenable like Brutal Planet, Dragontown is hardly a return to form for Alice Cooper. The album’s material is slightly more interesting and finds a better footing between the “new” and “old” Alice Cooper sound. However, the fact that all of the songs included on this record will cease to appear in live sets shortly after the release of the album, says a lot about its quality and overall positioning within Alice Cooper’s sprawling discography.

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!