What a difference a year makes. The Alice Cooper group's first two albums, Pretties For You(1969) and Easy Action(1970) were basically psychedelic, Los Angeles freak-out material. Alice wore no make-up. The group was known as "The worst band in the world" and it was popular to buy tickets to their show just to walk out on them. On Love It To Death(1971) their first album for Warner Brothers, the Alice most of us know and love (hate?) emerges fully formed as if from a diseased womb, springing his brand of theatrical-garage rock-punk-Stonesish-Doorsy music upon the ears of a disillusioned generation of teens.

Of course, Alice needed help to come into the world, and Bob Ezrin (who would later produce Peter Gabriel's first solo album and Pink Floyd The Wall among others) was the Dr. Frankenstein who made it a successful birth. Although receiving no songwriting credits on the album, it seems very likely that he, in fact, had a great deal to do with the band's seemingly miraculous transformation into good songwriters.

The song formats are perfect, with everything taken in exactly the right proportions, whereas their first two albums (especially the second) often didn't make a whole lot of musical sense. Gone are the extended, sloppy jams, being replaced by well thought out solos that fit perfectly into the mood of the tracks. And how about all those integral piano lines on Love it to Death? Ezrin had to have written most of the parts to Second Coming a song credited to Alice alone. One of the most important developments was a move from da-daist lyrics to songs with concrete themes, like teen angst on "I'm Eighteen", and insanity on "Ballad of Dwight Frye".

However, you can't take away credit from the band either

ALICE'S singing has never been better than on this album. He sings with all the emotion we are used to, and he is usually right on pitch (except a few cases where out of tuneness is used artistically). "Is it my Body?" is a great karaoke song if you've never tried it.

GLEN BUXTON, who had been imaginative on the earlier albums, but far too busy, suddenly is playing very melodic, to the point solos ("I'm Eighteen", "Long Way to Go", "Caught in a Dream", "Is it my Body?" "Hallowed be My Name") and thoroughly insane ones ("Black Juju", "Ballad of Dwight Frye", "Sunarise") only when necessary.

MICHAEL BRUCE churns out riff after riff, with his great pop sensibilities and Yardbirds inspiration shining through on songs like "Caught in a Dream" and "Long Way to Go".

DENNIS DUNAWAY, who had been a good bass player from the start but sometimes didn't know what key he was in, fills the disc from top to bottom with his fat, rotosound, nearly funky bass lines, and hits no wrong notes.

NEIL SMITH becomes much more creative, playing a hypnotic beat on the toms for "Blakc Juju" and a miltary, funeral dirge, snare thing on "Second Coming".

Three of the songs are good old rock-n-roll, without angst or weirdness ("Caught in a Dream", "Long Way to Go", "Is it my Body"), then there are the angsty rock tunes ("I'm Eighteen", "Hallowed be my Name")and the theatrical show stoppers ("Black Juju", "Second Coming/Ballad of Dwight Frye/Sunarise"). A good blend and a little bit for everybody.

Tracks
1. Caught in a Dream
2. I'm Eighteen
3. Long Way to Go
4. Black Juju
5. Is It My Body?
6. Hallowed Be My Name
7. Second Coming
8. Ballad of Dwight Frye
9. Sunarise

----------------So? What does it all MEAN?-----------------

A collection of dark fantasies, with a dash of social criticism thrown in, just to show 'em. Caught in a Dream sets the stage, welcoming you into the fantasy world (akin to "Welcome to my Nightmare" or "Hello Hooray" from later albums). The different fantasies, or acts: Alice as a troubled teen in Eighteen, a voo-doo, vampire beast in Black Juju, Satan (perhaps) in Hallowed Be My Name, Jesus, or some misguided mortal, in Second Coming, and an insane, retired movie actor in Ballad of Dwight Fry (Dwight Fry was the man who played Renfield in the Dracula movies).

The other songs provide a little dose of reality:

Long Way to Go seems a subtle criticism of the hippies with lines like "What's keepin' us apart isn't selfishness, what's holding us together isn't love" (Very different from "Love is all you need" for example. AC says "I don't have the answers and we have a long way to go".

Is it my Body? asks the question, "have you got the time to find out who I really am?" to blindly adoring fans.

Finally, Sunarise gives us a little taste of happiness at the end, a perfect way to end the album:

Sunarise, come every mornin',
bringin' back the warmth to the ground

It may seem a little corny, but I like the carefree, triumphant mood. It even brought tears to my eyes once, coming as it does at the end of a three song medley, the first two being very dark.

------------------------In Closing-------------------------

This album is, in my opinion, the best Alice Cooper recording. Killer comes close, but is a bit overproduced, and Billion Dollar Babies is also close but goes a bit over the top. On Love it to Death, the Alice Cooper group sound like a tightly knit band, playing music that they truly enjoy.

Recommended: Yes