Context
This album was released when Alice Cooper was a band, the original one, one of the seven albums that belong to this era. After that Alice Cooper went solo with “Welcome to My Nightmare”. “Billion Dollar Babies” is the sixth and considerably his best; well at least you’ll find it in almost every top 5 Alice Cooper albums around the internet. I did some detective work on the thematic connection of the album (I went to Wikipedia…) There I found this supposedly statement from Cooper, saying that: “The whole idea behind the Billion Dollar Babies album was exploiting the idea that people do have sick perversions”. I’ll try to find out more about this statement, but for now I’m happy with it, cause it sure makes sense. Lyrics are not the focus here on this review, but I might want to write articles just about them in the future. Alice Cooper’s greatest strength in my opinion are his lyrics and theatricality, so that’s the reason I’m mentioning themes and lyrics in the first place.
When listening to an Alice Cooper album you have to put these thing in mind: The man has been active since the 60’s, so he has plenty of different eras of sound. His lyrics and gimmicks are the cornerstone to his albums no matter what. He’s mainly a horror musician, so expect some dark, creepy and degenerate content.
Now back to “Billion Dollar Babies”.
Rating Theme: related to the song “I Love The Dead” And if you can’t tell by the title, go check out the theme of this song.
Billion Dollar Babies: Intro Song
Weirdly enough “Hello Hooray” was not written by Cooper, but by Rolf Kempf a Canadian musician. However the Alice Cooper band version was quite the hit and is, in my opinion, a fantastic opener for the album. Like come on, even the title is saying hello to you, this one was made to be first.
Grade: 5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies
Billion Dollar Babies: Variation of Songs
Side One
So “Hello Hooray” is a pretty welcoming track. It really feels like the album is starting, with Cooper screaming the title with energetic voice and following with “Let the show begin, I’ve been ready”. It’s a chill song with a piano part that is soothing as fuck, mind my language, and it feels like it’s trying to prepare you for what’s to come. And it does warrant preparation, oh boy it does.
Next we get “Raped and Freezin'”. Surprising enough it is a fun, melodic and danceable track; it gets the feet moving. So not so dark in its instrumental, but check the title again and read the lyrics. “Elected” is not dark though, but it keeps the energy moving. However this isn’t as deancable, but it gains in explosion as Cooper screams the title. Actually his delivery is what makes the song. At the middle of the song one hell of a build up takes place, and from there it only gets more energetic.
Talking about build up… “Billion Dollar Babies”, the track, has probably one of the most memorable build ups in rock and roll history, I kid you not. Keeping up the freshness of every new song so far, the title track is most likely the one with the greatest personality. It has such a unique style with Copper alternating the singing with musician Donovan, that also helped write the song. It feels like there’s something wrong happening, the track is quite eerie and reminiscent of a horror story.
“Unfinished Sweets” is dentist horror story. So this one is for the those that despise going to the dentist. It’s the longest song with 6:18 minutes and it just keeps on the tradition of the album: Every track feels original and with a purpose. This one has an extra surprise when the dentist equipment sounds fuse together with the song and a spy theme begins out of nowhere. Really unique. I believe the spy theme is regarding the “ain’t gonna get me” sentence in the lyrics, as if he wants to run away from the dentist like a spy or whatever.
This finishes the first half of the album. All of the songs except the first one are great examples of top-shelf rock and roll tracks.
Side Two
Now comes rock and roll with radio friendly mixed together, combining to form one of the best rocking tracks of all time. “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is as rocking as its predecessors, but it is clearly made to be heard on the radio. That is not a bad thing though, just pointing it out cause the song get’s a little more poppy with the chorus and such; unlike the five before.
“Generation Landslide” has a damn cool name and it’s what I like to call a “Build Up Song” where the song sounds like it’s building up to something all the time and it makes you lean slightly and keep your eyes peeled for the great release. Oh boy, that harmonica solo is the shit; at the second part of the track it gets wild with the solo I just mentioned and all instruments going crazy; there’s even some “Sympathy for The Devil” percussion there. Another rocking song.
Okay, remember this: “The whole idea behind the Billion Dollar Babies album was exploiting the idea that people do have sick perversions”? The next track is pretty much one of the main reasons and straight to the point examples of this statement being pitch perfect description of the album. “Sick Things” is the evil-looming in the background song. It has some horns in there and a nice bass riff, plus the creepy vocals/back vocals. Alice Cooper sings more like he’s talking to you, and that makes it even more uncomfortable. This is the first not-traditional rock and roll sound so far.
“Sick Things” transition to “Mary Ann” is perfect. This next song is surprising. It’s a piano western saloon track about a lady, as it always is… or not. “Mary Ann I thought you were my man” Oh, Alice Cooper… your lyrics are amazing. It’s as beautiful as it is haunting as it is short. It does break all that rock and roll you heard so far, something “Sick Thing” kinda did, but not as great as “Mary Ann”.
And now this one is for all the dead ladies and gentleman out there. “I Love The Dead” is as rocking as it is a ballad. Following the tradition of “Sick Things”, Cooper seems to be talking to you as if he had you tied on a chair ready to murder you and have sex with your dead body; you know? Pretty light content. This song sounds like a madman’s thoughts. It’s calm, but horrifying. “I Love The Dead” is an anthem of Shock Horror Rock N’ Roll. The most beautiful melody of the album, in my opinion, with a great orchestra behind it. There’s even some grunts and screams mixed with the instrumental that give the track that special something. My favorite being the “Whooooo” screams that start at about 4:10 minutes. They are quick consecutive screams found more noticeable at your right ear.
All in all this album is a guidebook to rock and roll tracks with originality and purpose. They don’t have that much variation of style though, but there is some. We get some spy themes, harmonicas, orchestras, dental equipment sounds, grunts etc. The thing is “Billion Dollar Babies” know it’s a rocking album and tries with success to innovate it, by using that sweet Shock Horror Alice Cooper is known for in the musical history books.
Grade: 4.5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies
Billion Dollar Babies: Closing Song
“I love The Dead” feels like a Grand Finale. Simple as that. I has the scale of a big powerful track that has that explosion and arrangement to end it all.
Grade: 5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies
Billion Dollar Babies: Hits & Deep Tracks
So here is the strong link of the album: It’s all great. A rare thing to see in music, but there are those albums that just perform well in every music. “Billion Dollar Babies” is one of them. However, what are the songs that became objectively hits?
Hits: “Hello Hooray”, “Elected”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”
Deep Tracks: “Raped and Freezin'”, “Unfinished Sweets”, “Generation Landslide”, “Sick Things”, “Mary Ann”, “I Love The Dead”
All are great, but those four hits were found in every Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits of their era. That’s how popular they are. And “No More Mr. Nice Guy” is so popular it is a cultural landmark.
Grade: 5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies
Billion Dollar Babies: Album Order
What can I say against the order? Nothing. The album doesn’t feel like it’s on shuffle. It starts great, it has plenty of fresh, creative and original rocking songs at the bulk of it. Near the end it breaks routine and gives us three peculiar tracks with a lot of new sounds the album didn’t have until that point. It has everything. 10 tracks is the perfect number, since it doesn’t feel like it drags and it’s not too short.
“Billion Dollar Babies” is not an excuse to have one or two big hits. It’s not a formulaic album. It wasn’t made just to make money. It has no filler. Regardless of taste, this album is one for the ages, even if it isn’t your number one Alice Cooper album, it surely is in the top 5 or 3.
Grade: 5/5 Sexy Dead Bodies
Billion Dollar Babies: 4.9/5
That’s it, farewell.
thealbumdetective 