Yesterday, I not only touched on the 1980's Alice Cooper album, Flush The Fashion, but also the history of the original iteration of the band, featuring the lineup of Vincent Furnier, Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith, who stayed together until 1974. Today, I continue my journey with 1981's Special Forces, and will also deep dive into the solo years of Alice Cooper.
When the band broke up, Furnier was interested in continuing a solo career. As of 1968, people had begun to refer to him directly as Alice Cooper, and wanting to continue using the name without any legality issues, would choose to change his name to that in 1975. Building off the momentum of the band's success between 1971 and 1974 with hits such as I'm Eighteen, School's Out, Billion Dollar Babies, and No More Mr. Nice Guy, Cooper returned to the studio to release the 1975 classic, Welcome To My Nightmare.
This was followed by 1976's Alice Cooper Goes To Hell, and 1977's Lace And Whisky. However, a steady decline, fueled mostly by drug and alcohol abuse, would begin with 1979's From The Inside, and continue throughout the 80's. Cooper himself would state that he was so heavily using cocaine during this time that he doesn't even remember recording albums between 1981 and 1983.
1981's Special Forces would be his last album to peak on the Billboard 200 (at 125), until 1986's Constrictor. It would also be his last album that he would tour for until the aforementioned '86 release. Forces would also continue the trend of changing musical styles, with the sleek hard rock sound being pushed aside for synth pop. It went as far as to reimagine one of his own previous tracks in this new style, Generation Landslide '81, and as a whole confused long time fans.
Though I'm no Alice Cooper aficionado, I do hear the very different musical style from what once was he shock rocker of the 70's. It's as if he's trying to keep up with he likes of the Cars, which is unfortunate. Alice Cooper was a persona who built himself from the ground up, so to hear him trying to be like other bands of the time is a bit disappointing.
While certainly a misstep, I won't say it's a total failure. There are standout tracks here, such as Who Do You Think We Are, Seven And Seven Is, Skeletons In The Closet, and You're A Movie. But as a whole, this doesn't sound like an Alice Cooper album, and that's ultimately not what you want when you put on one of his albums.
Cooper would release the pop-punk oriented, Zipper Catches Skin, in 1982. Critics would describe it as a mixture of the Knack and Cars, which sounds great on paper. However, as I said above, one doesn't pick up an Alice Cooper album with the intensions of not hearing an Alice Cooper album. Who knows, maybe it will turn out o be a hidden gem. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.
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