951 Alice Cooper - Lace and Whiskey (1977)

 951 Alice Cooper - Lace and Whiskey (1977)

Studio album - Rock




About the Act:

So I guess pretty much everybody has heard of Alice Cooper. Did you know, though, that from 1968 to 1975, "Alice Cooper" was not the name used by the singer, who went by his birth name Vincent Furnier, but was the name of the band he was part of. When the band started to fall apart, he legally changed his name in order to avoid legal issues and to retain control of the name.

Very brief history then. The band started out as psychedelic rock, got signed by Frank Zappa, and kind of invented the genre of "Shock Rock" with a horror theme. This led to highly theatrical concerts and horror-inspired song themes, which got more and more elaborate. In 1975 Alice took the name, and the concept and kept pushing the shock and controversy aspects. The band had 7 albums, and Alice as a solo artist has had 21 so far. Not all have been horror-themed, for example in 1977 he released "Lace and Whiskey" which is based around the persona of a reprobate gumshoe private eye.

Alice had some pretty major substance abuse issues (mostly alcohol I believe) in the 80s, and came out of the other side. He is now a born-again Christian and somehow balances that with a better-living lifestyle but still doing horror-related shows and stuff. 


About the Album:

For this album, Alice steps out of the shock-rock horror thing and takes the persona of a heavy-drinking comic PI named Maurice Escargot.  It did not perform as well commercially as previous albums. 


My History with this Album:

None


Review:

I'm not sure there is a lot of depth I can go into.  This is a rock album, and a good rock album at that.  The music has a great rock edge to it, infectious and energetic.  Actually the sound is very varied, including more theatrical stuff, with strings. "King of the Silver Screen" undergoes a transition where he becomes "queen of the silver screen" "You and Me" is a soft rock number, reminiscent of Singer-Songwriters of the 70s like Engelbert Humperdink and Cat Stevens. It's varied, it's interesting, the songs are intelligently written and engaging. I guess the criticism I have is that it feels disjointed as an album, kind of random. It's not a big problem, and is mostly a result of it being so diverse. Enjoyable, not scary.


7.5/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0lAB4vs5qeYbHwpLR7Ptai?highlight=spotify:track:3ZKQPEjGmUAZJtCEeYYnPm

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBzBwYhHpqLK4JK-nO5EioC0SU508IX5r

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lace_and_Whiskey


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