Easy Action

Easy Action is often regarded as the middle child of Alice Cooper’s early years. The 1970 sophomore album is more palatable than 1969’s Pretties For You, yet void of the gargantuan insta-hits mixed by Bob Ezrin on 1971’s Love It To Death. But three of these nine tunes reveal Alice Cooper finding his voice. Some songs even sound like blueprints for Love It To Death, like the first cut “Mr. And Misdemeanor” which reveals Alice experimenting with the signature snarl that overtook his later inflections. Conversely, the sunny psyche-pop of “Shoe Salesman” heats up some 1969 leftovers as Alice sings through his nose like a mop-top in a Nehru jacket. The breakdown in “Still No Air” flirts with early 1970s longhaired proto-punk while the epic “Below Your Means” would obviously sound different had Cooper and company never heard The Who. The sinister sounding “Return Of The Spiders” and the seven and a-half minute long “Lay Down And Die, Goodbye” are two standouts that best forecast the future sound of Alice Cooper.