Alice Cooper - Special Forces
#400
By Jon Rosenberg
Alice Cooper
Special Forces
Genre: Hard Rock/Punk/New Wave
Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5
Jon’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Highlights:
Prettiest Cop on the Block
Seven & Seven Is
Skeletons in the Closet
You Look Good in Rags
As a horror movie freak since the days of my yoot, I always found Alice Cooper’s creepy stage persona and Halloweenie antics amusing. His music, not so much. I mean the hits, like “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out,” are great 70’s FM radio fodder, but I was never compelled to explore his oeuvre further. Special Forces might actually change that.
This is an album that Alice refers to as one of his “blackout albums.” Apparently, he was so fucked up on booze and coke and God knows what else that he can’t even remember recording it or touring behind it. Which makes it all the more impressive that it’s this good.*
Most of the sound here is hard rock, but there are hints of punk and even a little new wave vibe on a couple of songs. “Prettiest Cop on the Block” is some kind of new wave/punk hybrid with a great groove and freaky lyrics that I can’t quite figure out. The heavy cover of 60’s psychedelic band Love’s “Seven & Seven Is” works surprisingly well. “Skeletons in the Closet,” with its gothic keyboard intro, sounds like the end theme song for an 80’s Hammer horror flick. And “You Look Good in Rags” is a solid rocker with great guitars and more wacky lyrics.
If this is Alice Cooper’s low point, I feel like I owe it to myself to check out some of his earlier work. We should all be so lucky and/or talented to record and completely forget about an album this fun.
*There’s video out there of Alice playing some of these songs on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder in ’81 where he looks frighteningly gaunt and cadaverous, but the band sounds great!
https://open.spotify.com/album/7gTU2G8VgEWEADPONxO2yF?si=UlulVoObSmCUsQEW_cp2sw
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