Alice Cooper Studio Albums - Rankings

01. DaDa
02. Killer
03. Billion Dollar Babies
04. Welcome to My Nightmare
05. Trash
06. Welcome 2 My Nightmare
07. Pretties for You
08. Dirty Diamonds
09. Special Forces
10. Easy Action
11. Brutal Planet
12. Hey Stoopid
13. The Last Temptation
14. Muscle of Love
15. Love It to Death
16. Raise Your Fist and Yell
17. Zipper Catches Skin
18. Paranormal
19. Along Came a Spider
20. Flush the Fashion
21. Alice Cooper Goes to Hell
22. The Eyes of Alice Cooper
23. School's Out
24. Constrictor
25. Lace and Whiskey
26. From the Inside
27. Dragontown


I have a mix of favourites and unloved albums in my Top 10. I am one of the few people that thinks the early 80's "blackout" new wave inspired albums were a huge improvement over the late 70's slightly disco tinged albums. I don't care what anyone says, DaDa is sheer brilliance. I also have a fondness for the two pre-Ezrin avant-garde albums that everyone seems to dislike. One of my absolute favourite songs is on neither of those albums, but was recorded in that time period, Nobody Likes Me. How that was left off of Pretties For You or Easy Action is beyond me. The newer albums are a bit of a mixed bag, but Welcome 2 My Nightmare was surprisingly awesome for a sequel type album and Dirty Diamonds just has great song after great song once you get to the title track, although most people have an incomplete version without The Sharpest Pain, which is indispensable in my opinion. I rank School's Out (the album) much lower than most people. I feel it is, by far, the weakest of the Alice Cooper Group's albums. I think the catalogue overall would have been served better had it just been a single with Side A: School's Out, Side B: Public Animal #9 and replaced either Raped and Freezin' or Unfinished Sweet with My Stars on Billion Dollar Babies. The rest of the album is basically unlistenable for me. Paranormal is middle of the road for me and a real drop off from Welcome 2 My Nightmare.

 

Welcome To My Nightmare
Love It To Death
Killer
School's Out
Trash
Hey Stoopid
Billion Dollar Babies
Alice Cooper Goes To Hell
From The Inside
The Last Temptation
Brutal Planet
Dragontown
Paranormal
Easy Action
DaDa
Rise Your Fist And Yell
Welcome To My Nightmare 2
Muscle Of Love
Lace And Whiskey
Constrictor
The Eyes Of Alice Cooper
Dirty Dimonds
Along Came A Spider
Special Forces
Pretties for You
Flush the Fashion
Zipper Catches Skin

 

Alice Cooper Band:

1. Billion Dollar Babies
2. Killer
3. Love It To Death
4. Schools Out
5. Easy Action
6. Muscle Of Love
7. Pretties For You


Alice Solo (excluding live albums):

1. Welcome To My Nightmare
2. The last Temptation
3. From The Inside
4. Hey Stoopid
5. Dada
6. Trash
7. Brutal Planet
8. Goes To Hell
9. Paranormal
10. Dirty Diamonds
11. Welcome 2 My Nightmare
12. Constrictor
13. Dragontown
14. Eyes Of Alice Cooper
15. Lace And Whiskey
16. Raise Your Fist And Yell
17. Flush The Fashion
18. Special Forces
19. Along Came A Spider
20. Zipper Catches Skin

 

1. Killer (1971) Psycho-dramatic, Grand Guignol, magnum opus.
2. School's Out (1972) West Side Story......on steroids.
3. Love It To Death (1971) Sex; death; religion. A gothic masterpiece.
4. Billion Dollar Babies (1973) Sick Things rule.
5. Dada (1983) Alice in real life hell, fashions a creative resurrection.
6. Welcome to My Nightmare (1975) Busby Berkeley-meets-Hammer Horror......yep, that good.
7. Brutal Planet (2000) Fire & Brimstone bonanza.
8. Pretties For You (1969) All over the place......and all the better for it.
9. From The Inside (1978) Plush angst in the confessional.
10.The Last Temptation (1994) He's back......from hair-metal hell.

11. Special Forces (1981) Bare bones, 'blackout' bonkersdom.
12. Easy Action (1970) Garage vignettes.
13. Muscle Of Love (1973) Forever in the shadow of B$B.....low-key lovelies, for the most part.
14. Flush The Fashion (1980) A jagged little pill.
15. Goes To Hell (1976) Alice 'does' Broadway......where's the grit?
16. Along Came A Spider (2008) Neo-glam shamateurishness....some stompers.
17. Zipper Catches Skin (1982) Weirdsville USA shambles.
18. Dragontown (2001) Brutal Planet's (far) lesser twin.
19. Dirty Diamonds (2005) The odd jewel.
20. Hey Stoopid (1991) Mixed bag.....to say the least.

21. Paranormal (2017) Ordinariness personified.
22. Breadcrumbs ep (2019) Ho hum.
23. Lace & Whiskey (1977) Lacklustre & lousy.
24. Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011) Starts well.....then falls flat on its bloated face.
25. Eyes Of (2003) More Blink 182 than White Stripes.
26. Raise Your Fist & Yell (1987) Piece o' crap......and that's just the cover.
27. Constrictor (1986) Piss weak songs parody.
28. Trash (1989)

 

The only albums I really love are:

1. Killer
2. Easy Action
3. Love it to Death
4. Billion Dollar Babies
5. Schools Out
6. Pretties For You
7. Muscle of Love
8. Dada

after this I would probably say:

9. Flush the Fashion
10. Special Forces
11. Zipper Catches Skin

That’s all I like. It was a sad day when I ran out of Alice Cooper albums to love. Everything by the original band is superb! And I like the weird new wave years, especially Dada. Could never get into any of the others.

 

Wow--looking at my post from a bit over two and a half years ago, I don't think my ranking would look very similar now.

 

Killers , Love it and Schools are one , two and three.
Everything else is debatable for me up to a point.

 

Welcome to my nightmare
Love it to death
Billion dollar babies
Goes to hell
Killer
Lace and whiskey
Schools out
Muscle of love
Dragontown
From the inside
Flush the fashion
Last temptation
Dada
Brutal planet
Zipper catches skin
Welcome to my nightmare 2
Trash
Special forces

Pretty rough, but something like that.

 

Look the way my opinion changed in the course of months:

May 2016

October 2016

 

For now until I have time to go through his entire studio discography. These are based on which albums contain my favorite tracks of his with the exception of Trash which is his only near full album I like. One or two of the tracks I could take or leave off of it.


1. Trash

2. Welcome To My Nightmare

3. Billion Dollar Babies

4. Constrictor

5. Schools Out

6. The Last Temptation

7. Killer

8. Love It To Death

9. Raise Your Fist And Yell

10. Hey Stoopid

 

I can't mix Alice Cooper the solo artist vs Alice Cooper the band. For me the band hits harder than he does solo. Solo it's individual tracks, but not really albums, it's like he needs the original band to make great albums.

 

Killer 2.0
Welcome to My Nightmare 5.1
Billion Dollar Babies 5.1
From the Inside 2.0
Muscle of Love 4.0
Love it to Death 2.0
Schools Out 2.0

Even though I was blown away by the Welcome to My Nightmare concert @ Wings Stadium and my future wife was also in attendance I rank Killer #1.

 

Killer
Love It To Death
School's Out
Billion Dollar Babies
Easy Action
Pretties For You
Muscle of Love
Welcome to My Nightmare

That's it for me!

Scott

 

1. Easy Action
2. Pretties for You

 

My Top 5 of Alice hasn't changed for years. 1975-1978 is by far my favorite period.

Goes to Hell
Welcome to my Nightmare
From the Inside
Lace and Whiskey
Billion Dollar Babies.

 

Killer
Billion Dollar Babies
School’s Out
Love It To Death

There’s a fairly steep slide post-Billion, but that’s a damn fine 4-album run.