School's Out

With bangers like “Poison” and the heavvvy black eyeliner, I thought Alice Cooper was gonna be way harder core than this corny shit.

An interesting one with great production. Three-leaning-four!

It’s fun. What’s there not to get. Unlike most of today’s music, these albums were written to create a great live performance. And these guys were getting a kick out of freaking out the hippies. We only get half the experience when we only get to hear the record.

Alice Cooper ken ik als een stevige rockband. Cue mijn verrassing toen er een nummer als Blue Turk voorbij kwam. Is dit geen jazz?? Sowieso is de rock op dit album niet perse van het standje TERING HARD, maar meer genuanceerd dan ik had verwacht van tevoren. Begrijp me niet verkeerd, de nummers die je verwacht van Alice Cooper die zijn er absoluut ook. Ik bedoel op My Stars word gewoon gerockt, zelfde voor Public Animal #9, maar dat zijn nummers die ik ook iets minder interessant vind. Al moet gezegd dat My Stars dan wel weer lekker klinkt en dat de stem van de zanger(Alice? ) wel erg lekker klinkt op meer rock nummers. Alles bij elkaar is dit best wel een vermakelijk rock album, met de meer jazzy nummers als Blue Turk en Grande Finale(Holy shit wat doet dat nummer zn naam eer aan) als absoluut hoogtepunt. De rock nummers daaromheen zijn vermakelijk, maar persoonlijk heb ik meer met de andere genres die gedaan worden. Wel is het album relatief kort, verveelt het door de vele wisselingen niet snel en word alles gewoon voldoende uitgevoerd. FAVO: Blue Turk, Grande finale

Maybe this is one of those albums where you just had to be there when it was first released, because it is honestly awful listening to it today. Milquetoast and uninteresting, not to mention the only thing of note is one of the most overplayed and annoying songs ever written. The second half is marginally more listenable, but doesn't make up for a really bad first impression

Middling, 2.8

Did I like this. No Would I listen to it again. No Was it as bad as I thought it would be. No 1.5 (amazingly)

(classic) art rock

Meh

Surprised how eclectic it was musically - really solid 4

This was significantly better than Billion Dollar Babies, to the point I'm surprised it's the same band within roughly the same time frame. I'm also confused by why people seem to like Billion Dollar Babies more? To me, this one had all the energy that that one lacked, as well as some much-needed variety in sound with songs like the jazzy Blue Turk, built off of the jazz standard with a similar name, Blue Rondo a la Turk. Pretty easy 7/10 on this one, vs. 4/10 on the other!

Fascinating album. Starts with the banger that we all know, then becomes something else entirely. I appreciate the experiment. Blue Turk was cool as hell

I don't know how to rate this. On one hand, this could've easily been a full length album of Rod Stewart-type hard rock; instead, Alice Cooper surprises you with tons of creativity and variety packed into a relatively short and cohesive runtime. It's a fun concept! On the other hand... Well, as much as I respect its idea and execution, there's very little on this album that actually grabbed me. Can't really say I'd come back to it. A high 2, but still a 2! :') Standouts: My Stars • Alma Mater

This is an extremely ambitious and weird album. I've seen Alice Cooper live, and this is a lot more in line with the creativity and skill I saw on display than Billion Dollar Babies was. Clearly, this was a creatively interesting effort that came after the smash success of BDB, right? Nah, BDB came after this. Guess I'm out of ideas!

This surprised me. I was only familiar with the title song, but there are some decent rock tunes on this album.

Much higher ratio of musical than I was expecting. Nice short varied album.

not really sure what i make of this album. the title track is.... well. i've heard it a lot. like, a LOT. and i'm still kind of a bit sick of it. but the rest, idk, it's not really offering me enough to make enduring that first track feel worth it? i do like "alma mater" quite a bit, that one's easily my favourite track on the album, although i couldn't really describe why beyond "i like the bits where the drums pick up and the vocal processing is fun". other than that i guess i like the goofy synths on "gutter cat vs the jets" and "grand finale"? but like..... that's kind of all really...... it's not terrible i guess. maybe this could've been a 3 if the first track wasn't so drilled into my head as a kid that hearing it still make me flinch. but like..... it is..... so............

J'avais jamais écouté d'Alice Cooper, mes attentes étaient pratiquement nulles. Je dirais que c'est meilleur que ce que j'aime ça. Maintenant, si on pouvait avoir un autre album réalisé par Bob Ezrin très bientôt, je pourrais approfondir mon opinion. 3.5 étoiles

We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!

I kinda liked this one, I think it's from 1972. 2.7

This rocks. Can hear the doors influence on some of this but no weak songs here

I'm aware of this album, but basically only recognize the title track. Other than that, I've never listened to this album start-to-finish. Yeah, just kind of meh. Don't get me wrong, I respect Alice Cooper, but his music is frequently more style than substance.

Fast paced, and I like the song that sounds like two musicals mixed I didn’t expect it.

Of course I know Schools Out, but this was still way more varied than I was expecting.

Some classic hits, but the album seems weak by modern standards.

It's not bad, but not worth seeking out

Very funny how I can mentally parse each major instrument in the title track, thank you guitar hero 3. What I don’t remember is how sweet the school kid melody section is. “Blue Turk” is like a more swanky Doors cut. Very enjoyable, a strong vocal presence from Alice Cooper backed by an ultra-colorful instrumental. “Alma Mater” had a mid 60’s Beatles sound going for it, to the point where I strongly feel like it would fit right in on Rubber Soul. Other than these songs, I didn’t get too much out of this one. Nothing was expressly bad though. Soft 3/5

I think Alice Cooper was best enjoyed live back in the day. Album is fine, not great. I enjoyed many of the cuts, but I found it a bit uneven.

Would've been a 5 if it cut out the extraneous instrental solos (not you Grand Finale, you can stay). Fun, punchy, and energizing.

I don't understand the appeal. The one saving grace was that the bassist kinda cooked, but bass alone has never has never saved an album.

Three star album with an extra star for the inclusion of West Side Story

"School's Out" features one of the finest opening riffs in rock history: dynamic, thrilling, and full of drama. Hitting number one in the UK when I was seven years old, the track, along with the wider early 1970s glam rock movement, helped shape my lifelong taste in music. As a whole, "School's Out" is an eclectic, surprisingly varied album with a strong musical theatre thread. Though occasionally uneven, it avoids repeating the title track’s formula, revealing a level of musicality that belies the band's shock-rock reputation. Side one 1 "School's Out" (5/5) 2 "Luney Tune" (4/5) 3 "Gutter Cat vs. the Jets" (5/5) 4 "Street Fight" (3/5) 5 "Blue Turk" (4/5) Side two 1 "My Stars" (4/5) 2 "Public Animal #9" (3/5) 3 "Alma Mater" (4/5) 4 "Grande Finale" (Instrumental) (3/5) Total - 35 Average - 3.9 438/1001 232/438 albums reviewed were new to me.

Hard rock for the earl 70s. But mediocre even for those days. 2.5/5

This Rock Opera album feels like listening to a rock opera with the curtain closed and no idea what is happening on stage. The guitars, drums and bass give it a hard-rock foundation, but the music keeps expanding into jazz, blues, orchestral passages and Broadway-style theatrical arrangements, while Alice Cooper shifts between singing, acting and exaggerated character performances. I can hear that I'm supposed to be following a larger dramatic production, but without the visual impressions and stage context, many of the changes feel abrupt rather than meaningful. There is enough variety to keep me interested, but I often feel like I'm missing the scene that would make the music make sense. For me, that makes it an interesting but only moderately satisfying album.

3.5 Alright

wasnt what i expected, was some nice instrumental but overall not for me

Quite good, the blues is present and that's why I loved "Blue Turk".

So hard to rate this because it’s a wild mix of genres and styles. Not the soft-70s-hair-rock I was expecting. Really enjoyed’ Blue Turk’ which sounds like The Doors then at one point in the second half they turn into prime Rolling Stones. The album is let down by some of the nonsense though, where they just sound like a parody band. An interesting listen.

Kind of surprised by how much I actually dig Alice Cooper and all his weirdness. 4 Boolean: True

Had more variety than I expected, but wasn't enough that I would want to relisten I think. Had a cool ending though. Rating: 6/10 Favorite Song: Blue Turk

2.5. it's not horrible it's ok

Eh, not my favorite. There are diverse elements in the songs, though, and I like what Alice does with his voice, turning it into an instrument of its own. Not bad, but not my cup of tea.

Okay album

Actually quite enjoyed this album! Goes all over the place after starting with a cheesy "Schools Out". 4/5

If you aren't familiar with early Alice work beyond the classic singles, this album will come as a real surprise due to the myriad styles it covers.

okeeei medio un rejunte de muchas cosas, pasan demasiadas cosas

"Gutter Cat vs. The Jets" followed by "Street Fight" is a fun combination. My dad has a fondness for West Side Story that I now connect to this album. Not for me, just ok

Nice. I mean, after the opening track it really doesn't get better, but overall it's a good rock album.

This was weird. I never really knew what the next song was gonna be like. I liked the variety, if any of these songs were repetitive throughout the album, like if it all sounded like any one of these songs it would be so much lower for me. Between a 3 and a 4 Gutter Cats vs the Jets (fav) Blue Turk

Barely remember listening to this. Just didn’t grab my attention at all. Probably deserving of a relisten and rerate but I’ll wait a little for that

I really liked the sound of this, a lot of it was not what I expected and I enjoyed all of the songs. Grand finale did remind me of nfl theme song. Btwn a 4 and 5

It’s good, his voice is quite unique and it’s a little bit operatic at times

- .... it's the Coop. Complete with dark humor, great writing, great playing and visionary production. His / their first 5 or 6 records are up there with the best of the best. -

My knowledge of Alice Cooper is limited to ‘School’s Out’, ‘I Wanna Be Elected’, ‘Poison’, ‘Feed My Frankenstein’ and ‘Hey Stoopid’, so I was reassured by the presence of SO. Turns out that was a mistake as it very much an outlier in a lot of ways. Coopers vocals work when he is screaming over loud guitars, but I was surprised by how little of that there is. Away from this style of song Cooper’s vocals limitations are highlighted quite starkly. A lot of the music also feel like first takes and could surely have been improved by subsequent run throughs. ‘Gutter Cat vs the Jets’ is like a poor man’s Elton John crossed with Prog Rock and whilst having theatrical promise fails to deliver on any level. For an album that is only 37 minutes it somehow manages to feel it drones on and ‘Grande Finale’ is just unnecessary, but I feel the band put more into that than elsewhere.

One of 3 Alice Cooper songs I like are on this - the problem having it at the beginning is you’re not expecting anything to top it. And you’d be right. “School’s Out” saves this album from being a complete write-off, but not by much. It’s a 1.5 for me, but I’m not feeling remotely generous enough to stretch it to 2.

What an amazingly random album! I only knew the title track going in and nothing else sounded like it at all. It was far more jazzy, poppy, musical theatrey than I ever could of imagined. I can see how many people would absolutely despise that cheesy mix, but it's absolutely something I can get on board with. Probably nearer a 3.5, but its getting a 4 because it surprised me (and to even out the inevitable low marks from my group, who I know must have hated this with a fiery passion). 4/5

Schools out is a great tune but doesn't represent the rest of this album um at all. After the opening track, you go on an adventure of jazz, blues, glam, orchestral. "We can't even think of a word that rhymes" is still one of the best lyrics ever.

Very enjoyable. I liked it quite a bit. Always enjoyed his hits. But now I'm starting to like how varied their discography actually was.

Really surprised how much I enjoy Alice Cooper’s stuff. I grew up thinking he was just a madman. I did not realize how clean and classic his music is. 3+

Appreciate the effort, but it's too much show tune Alice Cooper. The weakest of the classics, but seriously, Love it to Death, Killer and Billion Dollar Babies are hard to beat so no shade.

It’s hard to imagine this album being categorised as hard rock. It’s so camp and glam and it’s awesome! Public animal #9 lol - almost a 4 for creativity!

This is quite a fun album - makes me think of The Doors but with sparkles. How funny it is that Alice Cooper was supposed to be so 'shocking' but its all eyeliner, sax solos, grandiose piano and jazz hands. "I'm like a lifer in a state penitentiary" - no Alice, you're really not.

How does one rate an album with one iconic song but the rest of the album is rather bad? I have no doubt that Schools Out is iconic and a banger. If the album was like that it would get a 5. If School's Out never made it on this album, it wouldn't even be on this list and probably already forgotten about by everyone.

ok, i did not know or expect that this album basically starts out with the title song and runs with it as a glam rock musical about teenagers, complete with a turf war against the jets from west side story at one point? the music is whatever, kind of generic rock opera stuff, but i give points here for going for it. 3/5

School's Out was a really good album. The only song i was familiar with before listening was the title track as that would frequently play on the classic rock radio station before i jumped over to the local alt rock station. This album manages to outdo this band's later effort when it comes to quirkiness and it manages to do a lot of it well by having a very glam rock vibe in the same way as something like David Bowie but a bit more gothic and heavy than something he would make. This album was on track to possibly being a 5 star but there were a few songs that i thought went a little too far with the quirkiness but as it stands, this album is still a strong 4 star. Best Song: Gutter Cat Vs. The Jets Worst Song: Grande Finale

This is fine.

Well... we got another Alice Cooper album. The dude hasn't been relevant since some time in the early 80s, and yet here we are. Imagine my surprise when, after "Gutter Cat" which is both legit good and clearly borrowing from Bernstein, to hear the weird-ass lounge tune "Blue Turk." I don't think Cooper was actually quoting Brubek's "Blue Rondo a la Turk" ( and Brubek wasn't actually quoting Mozart's "Rondo alla Turc"), but there is something shared between each of these beyond just similar names. There seems to be real inspiration there. Anyway, I liked Blue Turk, and the possibly imagined linkages make me think I should go back and listen to more Alice Cooper. Or not. It's fine, overall, but not really my jam.

I liked this more than most Alice Cooper. He travels some ground even if it’s never too far away from musical theater. I liked the Gutter Cat and have always liked the title track. A few others were pretty good, too.

I was hovering around 3 for this one, but enjoyed the bonkers final track enough to bump it to 4.

4/5 - Where the hell did this come from? Way more variety here than I was expecting. I think I would have liked to see this band in the 70s very much.

Unexpectedly eclectic! Came in expecting 70s proto-hair metal, ended up really enjoying all the blues jams and even the weird broadwayish stuff. Go Alice.

Never really listened to Alice Cooper - well, this is really solid, and I can hear a lot of influence that they have made on others. That said, it is just not for me.

Cool classic rock

Yo ya conocía la canción homónima del disco por haberla tocado en el Guitar Hero, así que arrancó dentro de todo bien. Después la verdad que no es el tipo de rock que me fascine, igual estuvo bien.

This was a miss for me, maybe I need to revisit this one

Ganz nett

Take away the song where he pretends to be a kitty cat in a biker gang and you got a pretty ok album!

the best song is mostly just a soundtrack for family package holiday adverts. Other than that....meh. Doesn't sink quite to the grubby shameful metal depths to earn itself a 1, but is quite bad

I was never a huge fan of School's Out (kid singing urgh). And the rest is meh. Surprised to see this on here honestly - inoffensive commercial trash

second listen still awesomeness

I'm old enough to remember when people thought that Alice Cooper was "evil" what a time. This was a lovely little surprise, I knew Schools Out but the rest of the album was just was good.

(7)

I like a bit of 70s Alice Cooper from time to time.

Okay rock. Could be a bit corny, albeit in a fun way

I've only just now realized that I've never listened to Alice Cooper before. Outside of what I just listened to on this album, I don't think I've heard a single song of theirs. Kinda surprising given how famous they are. Anyways, this was decent. Some songs were pretty dang catchy. Nothing really stood out to me as absolutely amazing though.

Lame music made for teens 4/10

Honestly i didnt pay much attention but i did think the first is ironic considering it’s the end of summer

#231 I knew only 3 things of Alice Cooper: - I knew he wore makeup and dressed in black leather - I knew the songs School's Out and Feed My Frankenstein - and because of him I knew that Milwaukee is the only US city to have elected 3 socialist mayors. This album, outside of School's Out, does not sound anything like his persona would indicate. He tries a lot of different styles on this album, which again is jarring. I felt like this was part metal, part rock, part musical, part like The Doors, and maybe a little Beatles-y at points. A nice surprise to have varied sounds, but its not that cohesive and just feels like a collection of songs. Biggest Hit - School's Out Biggest Miss - Gutter Cat vs. The Jets Hidden Gem - My Stars

THIS ALBUM IS SO FUCKING WEIRD AND THE SOUND IS SO RANDOM AND INCONSISTENT BUT THE GOOD SONGS WERE REALLY GOOD. 3.5

When you're a jet you're a jet all the way.

A few surprises in this album but outside of the albums title track, no other stand outs

I was expecting some crunchy hard rock like the title track, instead got something much campier and theatrical. This works really well on songs like Blue Turk and My stars. On other tracks the ambition is less realised as they are sometimes a little too theatrical but this was a real surprise and a nice one at that

A surprisingly varied listen. I enjoyed my listen a lot and found more songs to add to my playlists. I already know of Alice Cooper but had not heard this side of them.

Might need to give this another listen for posterity... but wow, very nice album. I went into it with low expectations because hard rock oftentimes has the issue that the songs melt together into one, but that wasn't the case here at all. Alice Cooper, I wasn't familiar with your game.

Listening to this album I was expecting something closer to hard rock, but the majority of the songs were more closer to a combination of garage rock and rockabilly. There is still an element of shock rock in this album in its relatively early stage though.

I guess I just really like Alice Cooper. 8/10. Yes.

Aside from the title track, this isn't what I expected. It's very varied, but having waded through Tommy, Queen and Meat Loaf, I just don't need any more rock show tunes in my life :(

I never understood the appeal for Alice Cooper. Granted, I hadn’t listened to a lot of his music. I grew up with all the hot take rumors (He is Eddie Haskell from Leave it Beaver and he bit the head off of a chicken on stage, etc.) that quite honestly didn’t make his musical talent worth tracking down. While not profoundly amazing, the album did demonstrate that he is in fact talented and accomplished. Not really sure where and how he would fit in my personal discography, but I was happy to listen and enjoy some of his work.

fine but not necessarily for me

Hard Rock/Glam Rock Favorite Songs: School’s Out, Public Animal #9 Least Favorite Song: *Did not record, I hate to say it, but I couldn’t care less.* When listening to this album, what I’m getting throughout it is how the main protagonist is showcasing the overall levels of maturity throughout the album. He’s excited that school’s out, but then after that, he thought that he would mature into a hard working adult when getting out only to find out that he’s really not, and it would be in Alma Mater that he reflects this and tries to work his way around it. That’s all fine and all, in fact I’ll give the album one singular flower for this, but honestly, the sound of the instrumentals is not making me become a fan of this album more. I feels a little bit too boring for me, with the exception of Blue Turk, which was a genuine surprised. Yeah, just not something to where I would get myself into. 6/10