Alice Cooper were a bunch of psyche, freak-rockers in the late 1960s, and quickly gained a reputation for their flamboyant, outrageous live antics. They were clearly interesting enough to get picked up by Frank Zappa, who signed the group and sold their first two albums - upon hearing their debut album Pretties for You, Zappa told the group "I don't get it." After two albums that leaned into their psychedelic direction, the group still failed to light the world on fire, so they moved to Detroit - vocalist Vincent Furnier was from Detroit, after all. While there, they quickly became influenced by the hard rock of MC5 and the Stooges, and began melding it with there theatrics (taking further inspiration from George Clinton's Funkadelic). The results, which can be heard on this album, are a tight, punchy rock group with glam elements and a hell of a stage presence - Furnier, no longer. This is Alice Cooper.
Simply put - the album knows how to rock. Clearly the visit to Detroit did what it needed to for the group, because if the fact that the album yielded their first hit in the soaring "I'm Eighteen," than the punching opening of the album, "Caught in a Dream," should be enough of a tip-off. While it may be semi-standard hard rock for the time, it's all in the presentation. Alice Cooper is a pretty eccentric guy, and his mystical nature and charisma can be heard in his gruff voice throughout - somewhere between Jim Morrison and Rod Stewart, and for my money he might be a better singer than Rod. His powerful presence is a perfect marriage with the more ambitious, theatric moments. "Ballad of Dwight Fry" is the best example of this, going through a story of a man in an insane asylum while also containing some of the hardest rocking on the entire album. It's an excellent showcase of Alice's incorporation of horror elements into rock, as well - the ideal microcosm of Alice Cooper.
Most of the album sticks to a central idea of rock, and despite what you may think, it doesn't get stale at all. Part of it lies in the band's ability to pound out a great rocker, while also keeping things varied enough - some tracks more foreboding, while some are like "Long Way to Go," which instantly galvanizes you with energy. One of the finer varied moments is "Black Juju," which I'd liken to a Doors song with its beat and groove during the verse, as well as the prominent organ towards the end of the song - Alice's calls of "Wake Up!" scream "Celebration of the Lizard." Of course, even without the wild presence of "Black Juju," moments like the dirty "Is It My Body" know how to soar and jam. "Second Coming" is perhaps the only song that really stumbles - mostly instrumental, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not nearly as attention-grabbing as either the preceding "Hallowed By My Name" or the excellent following track "Ballad of Dwight Fry."
A solid, hard-hitting rock album with dashes of glam eccentricities throughout. The band is incredibly tight, and knows how to make a punching number. Cooper is a fantastic singer, and his charismatic singing style and theatrics only help add to the excellent experience here on Love It to Death. Sometimes, a tight rock album is all you need. I may not love it to death exactly, but damn is it a lot of fun.
RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯
Listen to Love It to Death.
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