"He's sick, he's obscene" (Billion Dollar Babies: Expanded Version - Alice Cooper)

Member Name: cswann

Product:	Billion Dollar Babies: Expanded Version - Alice Cooper
Date:	09/09/00 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great hooks

Disadvantages: A couple of tracks are only here for outrage sake

Sex, violence, outrage, shocking theatrics - Alice Cooper anticipated all the rock trends. If you know him mainly for the songs like "School's Out" or his appearance in "Wayne's World" - well, it's time you explored further, and the 70s albums are a good place to start.

Opening track "Hello hooray", with the menacing voice, and its freakshow theme sets the tone nicely.
"Elected" must be familiar to everyone, it's rolled out every time we have elections, but it also seemes to be making a statement about Cooper's own fame, following his previous album "School's out" ("I gotta get the vote, I told you 'bout school", he sings).
"No more Mr Nice Guy", is another excellent slice of pop, Beatlesque backing singing, and that ending's straight out of "Help!". As the song says "He's sick, he's obscene". There's plenty of weirdness and bad taste on this CD, e.g. "I love the dead", but it's more funny than shocking, more calculated irony than obscene.
If you're the least bit squeamish about the dentist, best not listen to "Unfinished sweet" !

Musically, it's an interesting mix: Hawkwind and The Who playing a James Bond theme.
Having got all those 60s / 70s influences out of the way, the album has aged remarkably well, sounding almost contemporary at times - listen to "Generation landslide" and you'll swear that someone's smuggled a track from Primal Scream's "Screamadelica" onto the album.

Listen without prejudice - you could be pleasantly surprised.

Summary: