Alice Cooper - Muscle of Love

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Free Music Notes for Muscle of Love

Free Music Review: The demise of a great band
Hit: 5 Stars

That said this is still one of my personal favourites. The Alice Cooper band had just come off a huge commercial success with Billion Dollar Babies, both the album and the mamooth tour, but the band was having many internal problems. This album lacks the hits that made School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies so successful. The singles from this album, Teenage Lament 74 and Muscle of Love failed to crack the Top 40 in the US even though the former peaked at number 12 in the UK.

This album is similar in style to Love it to Death and School's Out (excluding the pop-rock title track). There are many strong songs on this one. A real good opener, Big Apple Dreaming with a cool guitar riff followed by a prostitutes's lament against her pimp in Never Been Sold Before, featuring classic tongue in cheek Alice lyrics.

Then come two ballads, Hard Hearted Alice and Crazy Little Child. The album slows down a great deal with these two songs but they are quite fun to listen to. Hard Heared Alice sees Alice telling the fans about the fatigues involved in being a rock star. Crazy Little Child is a jaz influenced song, though it is still not ala par with Blue Turk (from School's Out).

The album picks up pace again with Workin Up a Sweat, a personal favourite which was also B-Side to Teenage Lament '74 and also features backing vocals by the Pointer Sisters and Liza Minelli. Catchy song about sex. Same applies for Muscle of Love, which Alice describes as one of their most Yardbird-influenced efforts. The song was originally demod with totally different lyrics and titled "Respect for the Sleepers" (available on the box-set) but then it turned into Muscle of Love. It sounds better this way. Great drumming by Neal Smith.

Then comes Man With the Golden Gun, which Alice intended to be a soundtrack for the James Bond movie with the same name. The producers turned it down because they feared that Alice's reputation might harm the movie. Had this been used it probably would have provided good enough publicity to make this album a larger hit. This is fine for a James Bond sountrack but it's probably the weakest song on the album.

Teenage Lament '74 is next. This was a decent hit in the UK but only enjoyed mild popularity in the US, only reaching number 48 in the charts. Overall it is a very good song about teenagers and their problems. The album closes off with Woman Machine, not bad but certainly not the best song here.

As last comment, this album is a very enjoyable effort and should have been a bigger hit. The band's performances once again shine here. Dennis Dunaway's bass playing and Neal Smith's drumming are top-notch. So is Michael Bruce's rythm guitar. Glen Buxton probably plays only minor parts if any at all here as he was suffering greatly due to alcohol abuse. Alice's performance is once again very good.

This album is recommended to hard core Alice fans. Casual fans should try other albums such as Billion Dollar Babies and Love it to Death first, but still, DO NOT MISS THIS ONE. It may not be the best way to introduce Alice to new fans but it certainly a must have once one gets to know Alice's style.

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