Flush the Fashion (1980) — it is not entirely clear how to describe the music on this album. In part, it feels like a return to the early, more garage rock–inspired sound. At the same time, it also feels modern—new wave—perhaps because it was, at the time, a completely new approach for Alice Cooper. I cannot say that I truly love this album; I mostly see it as another footnote in his career.
Tracks like the singles Clones (We’re All), Talk Talk, or my personal favorite on the album, Pain, do not manage to lift the record out of mediocrity, and I find it somewhat surprising that it achieved greater commercial success than the preceding albums. Pain was also featured in the film Roadie, released the same year.
I do, however, appreciate when a song adopts a specific perspective and is written in the first person in that way—somewhat in the spirit of Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones, or for that matter Djävulens sång by Lars Forssell, immortalized by Cornelis Vreeswijk.
Unfortunately, at least for me, there are no other real highlights on the album, and what remains is largely a uniform mass of sound. Leather Boots perhaps stands out slightly with its pop influences, or Aspirin Damage, with its more traditional dark humor that has characterized so many earlier songs: Aspirin Damage, Aspirin Damage / Kills the pain, destroys the brain.
One thing that does feel somewhat distinctive about this album is that many—if not all—of the songs flow directly into one another or are musically connected. It is an interesting approach and creates a sense of continuity in the performance. But it does not change my overall assessment; the comment about mediocrity still stands. In a broader retrospective sense, this is simply another footnote.
