My New Year's Resolutions are: Read More, Write More and Listen More. We'll see how it goes.
As for now, it is my third Alice Cooper review in the last eleven albums. I said it was randomly determined - I didn't say it'd be even.
Disc 354 is...Special Forces
Artist: Alice Cooper
Year of Release: 1981
What’s Up With The Cover?: A couple of cheesy short swords are crossed over the picture of a very sick looking Alice Cooper. This album was at the height (depth?) of his battle with alcohol, and he looks every inch the addict in this picture.
How I Came To Know It: I never heard any of these songs until I bought the album, and I only did that to complete my Alice Cooper collection at the time.
How It Stacks Up: As noted many times before this, I have 26 Alice Cooper albums. I would put this one in the middle of the pack, around 18th.
Rating: 2 stars but almost 3
Worst Alice Cooper record ever.
That's what I fully expected to type as an intro for this review when I uploaded this album to my MP3 player Tuesday morning for the walk to work. However, five full listens later, both in the car and walking, I have to admit I was wrong to dismiss it so offhandedly. Much like the album that preceded it chronologically, 1980's "Flush The Fashion" (reviewed back at Disc 264), "Special Forces ended up pleasantly surprising me.
This is another record solidly in Alice Cooper's drunken phase, and one of a handful that he admits he does not remember writing or recording. He recently said in an interview with the avclub that he thinks the songs show promise and would like to go back and 'finish' them. I guess his drunkenness didn't affect his exceptional talent but likely impacted his attention to details.
Maybe it was my recent reading of that article, but I got the same impression listening to "Special Forces." You can see the artistry of the construction but the detail work isn't completely filled in. As a record, it is a bit of a mess, but I found it to be an enjoyable mess.
One consistency are Alice's vocals, which are excellent on this album, and some of his best later work. Admittedly these songs don't call for a lot of high notes, but they do require a serious flare for showmanship, and even blind-drunk Cooper can always deliver on that front. He absorbs the character of a cross-dressing undercover vice cop in "Prettiest Cop On The Block," evoking equal amounts of humour and discomfiture over traditional gender roles in his audience (even more so, given this was 1981).
"Skeletons In The Closet" is a hokey song that sounds like Alice's attempt to get invited back on the Muppet Show (I would've loved to see that in 1981, but no such luck). Yet it is enjoyable because his delivery walks the line of silly and creepy so effortlessly. He always knows he's sending himself up, but he delivers it with such a straight face he still manages to draw you in.
Musically, the album continues his exploration of early eighties New Wave sound, admittedly dressed up liberally with Cooper's hard rock sensibilities. He starts the record in rock mode with "Who Do You Think We Are," full of rock guitar but before you know it he has added a robotically repeated chorus, capturing both the macho and the dehumanizing aspect of a commando operation that has gone over to the dark side.
Later in the album, "You Look Good In Rags" descends into a strange combination of guitar riff, and what I think is the pumping of a shotgun used as percussion. Not content, Alice then adds a bunch of overdubbed voices coming out of alternating speakers chanting "rags RAGS rags RAGS!" over and over. It reminded me of those two alien creatures from Sesame Street that used to try to figure out what something was by repeating the sound it made. You know 'bring! bring! bring!...tel-e-phone..." and then excitedly going "yuuup, yupyupyupyup..." to confirm their answer. Again with the muppets, Alice.
On "You Want It You Got It" he abandons any suggestion of rock and roll and goes Full Monty on the New Wave sound, with drum machine, hand claps and early synthesizer. The title of the song felt ironic given how it would've enraged Cooper purists at the time. I liked it, but it was an acquired taste, certes.
"Special Forces" also includes a 1981 live version of "Generation Landslide." I don't usually like having live tracks on studio albums, but this version is passable, and even included new verses I hadn't heard before.
As you may have already gathered, this is a weird album. If you just want to hear traditional seventies Alice Cooper shock rock, or eighties metal Alice, then you will be disappointed. This record doesn't fit into any genre usually associated with him. At the same time - despite drunkenly wandering from idea to idea, and sounding like it was produced in an oil barrel - "Special Forces" has a strange beauty to it. I'm sorry I didn't give it a proper chance before, but I'm correcting the error now and declaring it gloriously and inspiringly average.
Best tracks: Who Do You Think We Are, Skeletons In the Closet, You Want It, You Got It
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