Holy crapola! My god, it’s not hard to find the words to
\ndescribe this, the 1969 debut album by Alice Cooper. It is
\nsickeningly inadequate, virtually unlistenable in many places. The
\nonly characteristic that this album has in common with the later
\nclassic material is that it’s completely bizarre, just not in a
\ngood way…what were they thinking???<\/p>\n
There is almost nothing on here that follows normal song
\nstructure. Now, I’ll be the last person to say that that is a bad
\nthing, seeing how some of the most innovative music in rock history
\nwas created that way if you look at bands like Black Sabbath, Led
\nZeppelin, etc., but in the case of this album, that approach led to
\na complete mess.<\/p>\n
It really sounds like the band members just went into the studio
\none day completely fucked out of their minds on drugs or booze and
\njust let the tape roll while they jammed…There is no cohesiveness
\nto anything here. It sounds like the soundtrack for a typical late
\n60’s low grade sci-fi B flick, and ironically, the photo of the
\nband on the back looks like it was taken from the cutting room
\nfloor off the set of
\nBarbarella<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Completely out of whack arrangements, constant tempo shifts,
\nridiculously bad nonsensical lyrics, pathetic attempts at vocal
\nharmonies, and bizarre out of tune dissonant guitar sounds and
\nother unidentifiable sound effects…and don’t even dream of
\nfinding a groove anywhere! I have the impression that all the band
\nmembers just played whatever they felt like with no regard to any
\nsort of unifying theme. I also have the feeling that they didn’t
\ntake it too seriously…yeah well all I can tell ya is that the
\njoke is on them!<\/p>\n
One thing’s for sure; it’s pretty obvious why Frank Zappa loved
\nthese guys and instantly signed them to his label Straight Records
\nin 1968…this sort of uncontrolled, insane psychedelic mayhem is
\njust the sort of eccentric approach to music that he excelled
\nat…pity he didn’t help to make this record much better than it
\nturned out.<\/p>\n
It’s unbelievable when you take into consideration that this is
\nthe identical classic Alice Cooper band lineup that would go on to
\nmake some of the most groundbreaking rock albums in history…yup,
\nthat’s Glen Buxton on lead guitar, Michael Bruce on guitar and
\norgan, Dennis Dunaway on bass, and Neal Smith on drums in addition
\nto Alice (then still Vincent Furnier) on vocals of course.<\/p>\n
I had really high expectations when I miraculously purchased
\nthis album, and I really tried to like it, but, oh, how shall I put
\nit…listening to this abomination roughly triggers a similar
\nreaction as the one people get when ten long fingernails screech
\nacross a chalkboard at an ungodly morning hour during a colossal
\nhangover. The only reason
\nPretties For You<\/i> doesn’t get a failing grade is because
\nthere is the occasional fragment of a decent melody amid the muck,
\nalthough these are too few and far in between to salvage the album
\non a whole. “Levity Ball” would be an ok song, but on this album
\nit’s horribly recorded live, sounding like somebody stood in the
\naudience with a tape recorder.<\/p>\n
Maybe I’m being a bit too harsh here…I almost get the hunch
\nthat this is one of those albums that the listener might start to
\nappreciate after maybe a hundred listens, just for its sheer
\nwackiness. One interesting little ditty that I noticed was that the
\nvocal melody in the song “Reflected” was “borrowed” several albums
\nlater for the huge 1973 hit “Elected”! Also, “Changing Arraging” is
\na more tolerable track on here…it’s got some nifty guitar
\ndistortion and a somewhat sad sounding pop melody, even if it still
\nsounds like it’s from outer space.<\/p>\n
So, I think that should be enough on the world’s (suitably short
\nlived) introduction to Alice Cooper. Just don’t expect to hear the
\ncreepy, dark humoured, satirical, controversial, hard rocking, and
\nshocking Alice Cooper that everybody knows. If you like pointless,
\nendless psychedelic noise, then this thing is probably right up yer
\nalley! If not, then stay far, far away, that is, if you can even
\nfind it…for glaringly obvious reasons, and deservedly so I must
\nsay, this album has been out of print for a long time. I delve
\nthrough dozens of new and used cd shops all the time, and my copy
\nis only the second one I’ve ever seen. Actually, I think that’s the
\nonly other positive aspect of
\nPretties For You<\/i>…for the hardcore Alice fan like myself it
\nserves as a rare opportunity to look into the early history and
\ndevelopment of one of rock’s most influential bands of all time…a
\nmere novelty item, because pretty it ain’t.<\/p>\n
It’s certainly not a great album, or even a good one, but it’s a
\ndefinite novelty record. I can’t think of any other major artist or
\nband who’s debut record was so completely different from anything
\nelse they ever put out (except perhaps Ministry, whose debut was
\ngiddy dance pop!), and that makes
\nPretties For You<\/i> stand out more than it normally would. At
\nleast it’s sort of interesting, and tries to go in places that rock
\nis rarely taken to…one of the weirdest albums you’ll ever
\nfind…expect the unexpected! And right from the start it’s obvious
\nthat these guys were out to shake the music industry in the late
\n60’s. I give it high marks for originality, but real low ones for
\nexecution. The playing is real sloppy, the melodies often bland,
\nand the production is crap.<\/p>\n
However, it’s an album that’s practically dying to be
\nre-discovered and given that revered “drug album” stamp of approval
\nfrom the same reefer heads who worship
\nTheir Satanic Majesty’s Request<\/i>, early Pink Floyd, and other
\nsuch whacked out stuff! I could totally see this being the only
\nAlice Cooper album that would be the perfect companion soundtrack
\nto a basement full of druggies gettin’ fucked up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":25984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5676],"rating":[11203],"class_list":["post-37190","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-alice-cooper","rating-rating-d-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37190"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37190"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}