After DaDa, I believe I bought this album a year or two later, which made me completely hooked on Alice Cooper. In a way, that is rather strange, because this album sounds nothing like the earlier ones and is a collaboration with the guitarist (and muscle-bound giant) Kane Roberts who, if one reads the album sleeve carefully, also plays bass, keyboards, and drums on the record. And of course he shouts a bit in the background as well.
The style is far more hard rock than anything before it, which was probably exactly what suited me at that particular point in my life. It felt tough and bold, and the lyrics dealt with roughly the same subjects as the films I enjoyed watching at the time (and still do, actually). There is plenty of violence and aggressive themes, though that does not prevent the opening rocker Teenage Frankenstein from touching on alienation of some sort.
“I’m a kid on the block, with my head made of rock and I ain’t got nobody,” followed by the continuation in classic Alice fashion: “I’m a state of the art, got a brain à la carte, I make the babies cry.”
It is an excellent opening to the album and one of the very best songs as well. The riff sticks immediately, and it was also one of the three tracks from the album that were performed live during the tour — The Nightmare Returns Tour.
Even though only three songs from the album were played on that initial tour, there is considerably more to discover here. Thrill My Gorilla and Life and Death of the Party feel somewhat closer to straightforward rock — particularly the latter — and the same can probably be said of Crawlin’, which belongs among the weaker tracks on the album together with Give It Up and Trick Bag.
For those interested, Trick Bag sounds suspiciously similar to an early version of He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask), which can be found in the compilation box The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper.
The album version of He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask) — which became the theme song for the slasher film Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives — was actually a major hit in Sweden and topped the charts. I am not entirely certain, but it seems that Sweden may have been the only country where it achieved that level of success. In any case, I like it, even if it carries a bit of disco influence.
My absolute favorite, however, is probably The World Needs Guts, which is delightfully defiant in a way that makes it impossible not to appreciate when you are a rebellious teenager. Nowadays I suppose I have to attribute some of that enthusiasm to nostalgia.
Taken as a whole, the album works very well. It does not scatter itself in too many directions; the material feels deliberate, almost designed, moving between fairly typical hard rock of its era and more radio-friendly rock. It is definitely an album that defines Alice Cooper’s return to the music business — and a genuinely good one at that.
