Artist: Cooper, Alice
Label: MCA Records
Release: 1987
Exactly one year after his last record, Cooper is back with ten new tracks on Raise Your Fist And Yell. First glance at the cover is awful, easily one of the worst designs ever for a Cooper album. Set the artwork aside, though, and you get some interesting stuff on this record and quite a few differences from the previous one. Mostly, he’s waded into heavier waters and added a bit more of that classic Cooper creepiness. Funny enough, the original title was Summer Blood, which would’ve been a better fit and the cover would’ve definitely looked a lot better too. The album is also the last one on MCA.
As for the songs, once again there are no ballads and everything is geared toward straight-up hard rock, and this time with more success than on its predecessor. One track also chips in for the film industry and even plays a small part in Carpenter’s movie of the same name – Prince Of Darkness. No need to add that the film is a horror flick. Besides that one, Freedom and Lock Me Up got airplay too, and they weren’t exactly the best picks, since the album offers better rock tracks like Give The Radio Back, Time To Kill and Step On You. If you dig around in the lyrics, you notice more brutality, which is typical of Cooper’s style. There’s also a touch of the personal, since Gail is actually his wife’s middle name. The track sounds like a seventies horror movie, with great slow, lulling sounds and quick, punchy transitions. A bit more digging turns up the fact that the opening line in Lock Me Up is spoken by none other than Freddy Krueger, aka actor Robert Englund, known for the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series. The album earned a certain reputation, with critics labeling it a musical horror movie, which, judging by the lyrics and the tour called Live In The Flesh, it unmistakably is. Hard to say who followed whom, whether the eighties horror flicks followed Cooper or Cooper followed the success of horror films, the so-called slasher movies, since both have been around for a very long time.
The album is good, but it’s not the best. It had its moment of glory when it came out, but over time newer records ran it over, and above all Cooper is still battling his own seventies successes, which is what gives him his unforgettable name.
Lineup
Alice Cooper – vocals
Kane Roberts – guitar
Kip Winger – bass guitar
Ken K. Mary – drums
Paul Horowitz – keyboards
Production
Michael Wagener
Track list
1. Freedom
2. Lock Me Up
3. Give The Radio Back
4. Step On You
5. Not That Kind Of Love
6. Prince Of Darkness
7. Time To Kill
8. Chop, Chop, Chop
9. Gail
10. Roses On White Lace
Album length: 37:01
