I discovered Alice Cooper in the mid 80’s I think. DaDa was the first album I ever got in my possession. I guess Constrictor was the next one after that and from that day I knew I needed to have every album made by this dude. It never occurred to me that Alice Cooper once wasn’t a guy but a whole band. There were five members of the group and they all contributed to the sound. Maybe some of them more than others but it’s hard to say, especially based on the Pretties For You album
I soon realized that DaDa wasn’t representative for Alice Coopers musical orientation. But once I got hold of the first album – Pretties For You – I realized that DaDa wasn’t that strange at all. Not compared to the first album of Alice Cooper. You have to remember that I didn’t have much to compare with at this time but I still think this is a pretty strange. There are odd arrangements but a bit too “out there” for my tastes.
There are couple that stands out from my perspective though. Most of all there is the song Reflected that would later find its way into the hit lists as the most famous Elected. But that was on another record an a couple of years later. You could see Reflected as a premonition of what was later to come.
Most of the songs are quite short. I think that’s basically a good thing since you’re quite tired after listening to Pretties for you for a few times. It’s not strange to have short song in an album that was made in the late sixties. If we see things from a longer perspective it isn’t until later years that songs in general has become longer. Records are longer and songs a longer. Maybe the technical advantage of CD instead of Vinyl has something to du with that also. You can fit more music without compromising quality. Simple as that!
I could go on forever but the bottom line is that Pretties for You isn’t a great album for me. I think all Alice Cooper fans should have it of course but the overall musicality of it isn’t what later albums will be. It’s more like curiosity than a quality experience.
