Alice Cooper album recommendations sought

I want to get more Alice Cooper music and wanted some recommendations on which albums to go for. Currently I have Welcome to My Nightmare on vinyl and Mascara & Monsters on CD. I'd like to get vinyl of his releases preferably.

To give you an idea of the songs I like best on the GH are:
Be my lover, hello hooray, no more mr nice guy, teenage lament '74, only women bleed, department of youth, how you gonna see me now. I guess the more melodic of the rock tracks and the more acoustic slanted ones. Any fans want to give me their advice on which albums to get next?

 

Billion Dollar Babies is essential!

 

Easy:

Love It To Death
Killer
School's Out
Billion Dollar Babies
Muscle Of Love

 

Based on the OP's likes, after checking out the albums from the Original AC Group, you'd want: "Goes To Hell", "Lace & Whisky" and "From The Inside" -- as all three have a classic acoustic ballad on each of them ("I'll Never Cry", "You And Me" and "How You Gonna See Me Now" respectively. IMO "Goes To Hell" should be your next purchase.

I have zero idea if any of these are on vinyl, though.

 

Go hear it first:

alice cooper full album - YouTube

 

YES. Get all these first, then Pretties For You and Easy Action (if you're so inclined), then on to the solo years. But the five albums Neobeam mentioned are the most important albums in the catalog and you ought to hear them in order to really get grounded in Alice Cooper.

 

^^^^^^THIS

Avoid the first two ACG albums and everything by Alice after From the Inside!

 

I agree with this answer. These 5 are the top tier choices, anything else isn't essential.

 

Avoid?

AVOID?!

Hell no! Get all kinds of wasted, and THEN spin 'em! It makes a difference!

 

The classic albums by the original group (Love It To Death, Killer, School's Out, Billion Dollar Babies and Muscle Of Love) are required listening. But based on your preferences I think you may enjoy the following album (Goes To Hell, Lace & Whisky and From The Inside) just as much, if not more, even if they are not considered as essential generally. Yes, the first two should be avoided, not because they are not good but because they are far from what you seem to enjoy (I personally love everything up through DaDa).

 

Thanks for the responses, I'll give BDB a go as the tracks from it on the Mascara compilation are all good and then maybe Killer. Obviously people here are fans but do the album tracks hold up to the singles or does he have his sharw of filler?

 

No filler on Killer

 

People saying avoid his first 2, is it something similar to Springsteen's first two where he was trying to find his sound?

 

Didn't expect these many responses so quickly have to say, I didn't realise he was so popular! I saw the documentary film last year and thought it was excellent btw

 

Top of the list. Superb.

 

I would put forth that from the classic albums already suggested, some of the album tracks are better than the singles.

 

I like Goes to Hell, although in all honesty it never gets to the heights of Welcome to My nightmare. From the Inside is indeed essential too. But Lace and Whisky? No. Couple good songs, but the production is mush, and there is more tepid numbers than most of his albums.

I think Dada is an overlooked album too, it's certainly better than Lace and Whisky, imo.

 

Killer is the best. Hard tough rock. Blistering leads. Loud, offensive stuff with lyrics that were guaranteed to upset parents.
By Billion Dollar Babies, they were a tired group of guys not as interested in brutalizing the record grooves.
After Killer, It's Love it to Death, where they take almost pop songs into hard rock heaven. School's Out is next. The band is starting to experiment with other sounds, like horns and strings and slower stuff. Great offensive jazzy track about necrophiia.
B$B is the weakest of all, which is not to say it's bad. Some great stuff on 'side 1', but the later going gets to be a slog and the deliberately offensive lyrics are sounding like they're sticking out their tongues, instead of peeing on society.

 

Start with Love it To Death and just go up from there.

 

I'm not sure if you'll like all of them, but my personal favorites are:

Love It To Death
Killer
Billion Dollar Babies
Welcome To My Nightmare
From The Inside
DaDa
Hey Stoopid
The Last Temptation
Dragontown
Welcome 2 My Nightmare

 

Definitely the original group ya gotta get. And then From the Inside and Lace and Whiskey.

 

"Killer" is my favorite album of theirs/his (title track & "You Drive Me Nervous" etc) but I'd also recommend "Goes To Hell" if you like "Welcome To My Nightmare" album.
"Billion Dollar Babies" is of course great but I think it's pretty well represented on the comp you have. "Killer" and "Goes To Hell" are not. "Love It To Death" has "Caught In A Dream", one of my favorite Alice tracks.

 

I think Billion Dollar Babies is the best, and Love it to Death is good, too. I don't really care for any of his other albums, though they do feature some good songs. The first two aren't bad, they just don't sound like the sound Alice Cooper is known for. They are much more psychedelic and poppy.

 

If I'm looking for vinyl is it the original pressings to go for or has there been a reissue series?

 

In my opinion there is no filler on Love It To Death, Killer, School's Out and Billion Dollar Babies (and album tracks are superior on many of them, especially Killer), after that it gets gradually more spotty. I think you are on the right track that your next logical step, since you already have Welcome.., is to go backwards and check out BDB.

I guess you could say that, the first two are very experimental, and by the third album, with the help of Bob Ezrin, they focused their sound.