Love It To Death (1971) was the beginning of a long run of successful major label releases for Alice Cooper. This being their first major label release after Pretties For You (1969) and Easy Action (1970) got them enough attention to kick start their career.
If you have been picking up the 24-karat gold releases from Audio Fidelity this year, by now you should have a nice collection of these limited edition discs. It has been a great year for classic rock releases and the label.
Love It To Death set the precedence for what was to come and if you are familiar at all with the subsequent releases and this album’s songs like “Long Way To” with its driving garage drums and undying rhythm filled guitar riffs, many light bulbs should start going off. If you listen to “Black Juju” you will instantly recall “Gutter Cat vs. The Jets” on School’s Out. There is no coincidence here and Alice and his band used a similar formula for a very good reason and certainly their label was calling for another big hit like the anthem “I’m Eighteen” and they got it with the now legendary “School’s Out”. Interspersed amongst tracks like this were elements of Broadway, jazz and more. They should have ended the recording while they were ahead with “The Ballad of Dwight Fry” because “Sun Arise” was a weak and repetitive track that you are glad to see end. Other than that this was a great start for a band well on their way to superstardom.
Eventually all the cards would fall in line on a masterstroke of showmanship and horror rock on Billion Dollar Babies (which I hope to see next year in this format) but Love It To Death holds up very well today and without this there never would have been a BDB album.
Sonically it is solid and now thanks to Audio Fidelity’s attention to detail and remastering from the original source tapes, a rock classic gets the treatment it deserves. I bet the last time you heard “Ballad of Dwight Fry” sounding this good was when you first pulled off the cellophane from the original vinyl LP or someone you know owns a pristine copy of the original LP and some high-end stereo equipment with one of those turntables that cost a literal fortune. This is just as good, you can count on that.
The banned album cover with Alice sticking his finger through his fly is included here along with all the original album sleeve artwork. It is a package that would be hard for any Cooper fan to resist that is for sure!
Relive this great release and you can see in your mind’s eye a band ready to explode teetering on the cusp of greatness.
4.5/5 Stars
