Constrictor

Constrictor
Alice Cooper studio album
Publication (s)	September 22, 1986
admission	1986
Label (s)	MCA Records
Format (s)	CD
Genre (s)	Hard rock
Title (number)	10
running time	37:07
production	Beau Hill
chronology DaDa (1983) Constrictor Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987)

Constrictor , based on the snake species Boa constrictor , is Alice Cooper's 16th studio album and was released on September 22, 1986. Beau Hill acted as producer. For the album, Cooper brought the guitarist Kane Roberts on board, who wrote the songs with him and accompanied him on subsequent tours. Constrictor can be seen as a comeback album, since Cooper had almost completely left the music business after his successful withdrawal in September 1983 and no longer recorded any songs or toured and it positioned itself better in the charts than the three previous albums.

The album was best known for the song He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) , which was used as the theme song for the film Friday the 13th Part VI - Jason Lives . In contrast to the album, the song was produced by Michael Wagener . The cover of the single featured a portrait photo of Cooper, half of his face covered by the ice hockey mask that the film's main character, Jason, usually wears.

Track list

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Constrictor   UK 41 11/01/1986 (2 weeks)   US 59 11/22/1986 (21 weeks)

Singles

He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)   UK 61 10/18/1986 (2 weeks)

All songs were written by Alice Cooper and Kane Roberts. Exceptions are given in brackets for the songs in question.

1. Teenage Frankenstein - 3:40
2. Give It Up - 4:13
3. Thrill My Gorilla - 2:56
4. Life and the Death of the Party - 3:45
5. Simple Disobedience - 3:30
6. The World Needs Guts - 3:59
7. Trick Bag (Cooper, Roberts, Tom Kelly) - 4:18
8. Crawlin ' (Cooper, Roberts, Michael Wagener ) - 3:22
9. The Great American Success Story (Cooper, Roberts, Beau Hill) - 3:38
10. He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) (Cooper, Roberts, Kelly) - 3:49

Charts and reception

Constrictor could not place in the German-speaking area in the charts. In the United States it reached number 59. In the United Kingdom, both the album at number 41 and the released single He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) at number 61. In Sweden, the single was a top 10 hit, peaking at number 4, and staying in the charts for eight weeks while the album rose to number 17.

Metal Hammer judged that the song He's Back with its “pounding disco beat” was “not at all representative of the line that marked the resurrection of Alice Cooper”. The "master of the obscure, teen idol and innovative creative mind alike over an entire decade", is rockier than ever on his latest work and lets "the weak albums of the late seventies / early eighties quickly forget." Teenage Frankenstein , Thrill My Gorilla , Simple Disobedience and Great American Success Story testified to the "reflection on the roots" that lie in rock'n'roll. With Life And Death Of The Party , Cooper had even "succeeded in creating a classic that could easily compete with his immortal school's out or Billion Dollar Babies ". It is about an album with which Cooper could "build on his great moments some years ago".

Barry Weber from Allmusic gave Constrictor 3 out of 5 stars. The album is Cooper's best work in years. Although none of the songs come close to those from its heyday in the 1970s, the songs Simple Disobedience and Teenage Frankenstein should be highlighted as a positive surprise.

literature

• Alice Cooper, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman: Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: My Life Between Golf and Rock 'n' Roll . Kosmos Verlag (2008) ISBN 978-3-440-11607-4 .
• Peter Engeking: "The Metamorphoses of Vincent F.", in ROCKS 29 (04/2012), pp. 44–49.

Web links

• Constrictor at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Cooper, Zimmerman, Zimmerman: Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: My Life Between Golf and Rock 'n' Roll , pp. 209f.
2. ^ Maxi single He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask) , MCA Records 1986, 258 553-0
3. ↑ Charts UK Charts US
4. ↑ swedishcharts.com: Single placement in Sweden
5. ↑ swedishcharts.com: Album placement Sweden
6. ↑ Metal Hammer, Heft 11/1986
7. ^ Allmusic.com: Review by Barry Weber