Tommy Snöberg Söderberg 
Once again, Special Forces is a natural development for Alice, where selected parts of the sound from the previous album Flush the Fashion are retained and enough is added and changed to once again make it interesting and feel new and fresh. And already the opening track Who Do You Think We Are? bears witness to catchy music that actually feels a little more hard rock than the previous albums. Unfortunately, I have to say that this is by far the strongest song on the album, and it is a little tragic that it comes first and thus somewhat kills what could have become a really good album. At the same time, this song couldn’t be anywhere else but as the opening track… I suppose you can’t have everything.
There are no real hits on the album, even though You Want It, You Got It and the cover Seven & Seven Is were both released as singles. I don’t think there is anything particularly remarkable about them, and they are actually fairly ordinary songs. However, I have to say that this album is a step in the right direction and clearly better than the previous one. In fact, when I started writing this discography, and didn’t have all the albums completely fresh in my memory, this one had completely slipped my mind. I really had no idea what it sounded like – apart from the opening track, that is!
There are, however, as usual, a couple of really good songs! This applies primarily to Skeletons in the Closet, which has that spooky musical feeling that only Alice can deliver. It feels a little like Welcome to My Nightmare, and I can’t see anything negative about that! There is also some musical experimentation in You Look Good in Rags, which I really appreciate. This is still a parenthesis in his career, but definitely better than what was produced on Flush the Fashion! By the way, there is an eleventh track listed on the album – Look at You Over There, Ripping the Sawdust from My TeddyBear, but it was removed before the release. It is available on the compilation box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper.
About the Author
