The Double Doghouse

hey yall! our album this week is Pretties for You, the debut album from Alice Cooper, released in 1969.

whatever i was expecting from Alice Cooper, this record is not that. i think i mostly have a vague understanding of Vincent Furnier, the frontman of the band at the time this was written and the man who would take the name of the band, as a shock rocker, though i will admit i have only a cursory understanding there and havent listened to basically any of the band or the man’s work. i went in thinking this would be like, metal?

but man it’s not. the opening two tracks, Titanic Overture and 10 Minutes Before the Worm, are strange, and slightly dissonant, and very off-putting. Swing Low Sweet Cheerio takes some more traditional structure, but has plenty of its own oddities. it starts with that acoustic guitar and transitions to what id expect from a loud and kinda strange rock song from the time, but has some really neat moments with the harmonica as well. cool track. Today Meuller feels like a strange stage play song with a heavy dose of Beatles influence thrown in. Living is a much more straightforward track, and also has some fun moments to it. there’s psychadelic elements on the record as well, scattered through a lot of the tracks on both sides, like the back half of Levity Ball. Reflected was the only single released off this album, which makes a lot of sense, haha – few tangents, mostly conventional structure and few disruptive elements.

i think im less surprised finding out that this debut album is a result of the band landing a 3 album contract with Frank Zappa’s label, Straight Records, and they were pointed his way explicitly because of their strange approach. on the whole, i think its an odd record, but a pretty interesting one for sure.

faves – Swing Low Sweet Cheerio, Reflected
dislikes –

Pretties For You – 6/10

i’ll be back next week with a review of Catch-22’s Permanent Revolution – in the meantime, please let me know what album you’d like me to review below!