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Flush the Fashion Review

FLUSH THE FASHION - ALICE COOPER
Warner Brothers BSK 3436

"I love what's been happening in music in the past few years," says Alice Cooper in an interview accompanying his new album. "When I listen to Devo and then go back to PRETTIES FOR YOU, there's very little difference."

A new wave Alice? Not quite. But FLUSH THE FASHION does present him in a more straightforward rocking setting than any album since LOVE IT TO DEATH days — before the flamboyance of his macabre stage show displaced his rock and roll.

For starters there's "Talk Talk," a '60s hit by the Music Machine that's been overdue for a smart revival. Cooper does a ferocious version, with snarling vocals and slashing guitars. Without a break he then slams into "Clones," the single, with its Gary Numan-like synthesizers, and never lets up until the end of side two.

Throughout, Davey Johnstone, a former Elton John sideman, is invaluable on lead guitar (he also co-wrote most of the music to Cooper's lyrics). And the production, by Roy Thomas Baker, is positively invigorating. Though it might be more accurately be called FOLLOW THE FASHION, this album accomplishes the seemingly impossible task of making Alice Cooper seem relevant again.