Warthur
Compared to Alice Cooper's previous four albums, Muscle of Love was an outright disaster, and probably led directly to the breakup of the original Alice Cooper band. Aside from the title track, none of the material on display has the flair, bravado, lyrical incisiveness or backbone that people had come to expect from the group. The vague album concept about rent boys in New York should have been fertile ground for Alice's songs about trashy, messed-up, wasted youth, but the musical backing was unenthusiastic at best and Cooper doesn't seem to be feeling himself, abandoning his characteristic leering roar for most of the songs in favour of an unconvincing croon. "The Man With the Golden Gun", a shameless "pick me! pick me!" attempt to pre-empt the next James Bond title song in order to force the film producers to use the track (they didn't go for it) is perhaps not the most vapid of the throwaway filler songs cluttering up the album, but it's perhaps the least dignified of the band's many sleazy publicity stunts - at least tossing a chicken at an audience doesn't involve a tired-out brass section.
The fact is, this particular Muscle of Love is fat, flabby, and could do with going to the gym. Maybe if the band had taken a break and spent a little longer refining the album they could have produced a worthy followup to Billion Dollar Babies, but I guess we'll never know.