ALICE COOPER - KILLER @ 50

 

November 27th marks the half century anniversary for the fourth album by the Alice Cooper band, Killer, which was released 50 years ago on this day in 1971. Produced by Bob Ezrin, the album would succeed in solidifying Alice Cooper as one of the premier hard rock bands of the era.

After spending the latter half of the 1960s floundering around, mostly in LA, confusing the hell out of the hippies and generally being misunderstood and ignored, the group relocated back to the mid-west, near Detroit, where they found themselves with a much more sympathetic audience. While they faltered on their first two albums, by the time they came out with their surprise hit single, I’m Eighteen, and its accompanying album, Love it To Death, they’d secured a solid relationship with young-gun producer Ezrin and the financial support of Warner Bros. Records. Ezrin weened them off their meandering psychedelic tendencies and pushed them into a much more concise, sharper hard rock sound and worked their asses off until their songwriting was tightened up enough to make them reliable chart contenders.

Killer is a fully realized representation of Alice Cooper as a band and features some of their most memorable songs. Both the album and its two singles charted respectfully, though not quite as high as I’m Eighteen or the hits that would come after like School’s Out from their follow-up album, but that doesn’t take away from the vitality of Killer nor its ability to deliver a blistering, catchy riff. In the arena of ’70s hard rock and proto-metal, it sits in the top range of classic albums. It certainly belongs on the list of “must have” records by the band or even Alice Cooper as a solo artist after their 1975 breakup. It even has one of the band’s more controversial songs in Dead Babies, though that controversy is entirely misplaced as any cursory examination of the lyrics will show it’s clearly AGAINST child abuse, but that didn’t stop desperate fretting parents from wringing their hands in dismay!

The album would garner predominantly strong critical reactions and many of its songs became live concert staples for both the band and throughout Alice’s solo career and also feature heavily in many of the his/their career retrospective compilations that have been released over the years. It’s classic rock in all the best ways. Even Johnny Rotten considered it one of the best rock albums ever released!