Flush the Fashion

Here, Alice Cooper doffs his hat to garage-rock heroes The Music Machine on the chest-beating opener (“Talk Talk”) and embraces dance-inflected postpunk on the incredible single “Clones (We’re All)” (which cracked the American Top 40) and its thematic doppelganger “Model Citizen.” Throughout, he managed to mix ’60s punk with then-contemporary pop without sounding like he was jumping trends or kowtowing to radio. And then there was his sneer, which commands full attention on everything from a ’70s-styled woe rocker (“Pain”) to a cheeky nod at pain-reliever junkies (“Aspirin Damage”) to a charming little meltdowner (“Nuclear Infected”) to a rocker about spliff-happy parents who’ve “loosened their uptights” and can’t act their age (“Dance Yourself to Death”). Fresh off his work with Queen and The Cars, producer Roy Thomas Baker infused the Cooper canon with some synths and programmed beats (think The Cars and Devo), while riffs from Elton John six-stringer Davey Johnstone keeps the rock steady. Guests include Flo and Eddie from The Turtles. The 1980 release (his 12th studio album) was the Coop’s last bestseller until 1989’s platinum comeback Trash.