Published on Oct 18, 2001
Interesting title. Depending on your point of view, listening to
this album will pretty much give you a similar sensation. Zipper
catches skin = pain…listening to album = pain. I’ve heard in the
past that these early 80’s albums were churned out by Alice just to
get out of his contract with Warner…that sure would explain a few
things, including this truly bizarre mess of ideas. Why else would
a previously hugely successful rock artist feel it necessary to
saturate shelves with four albums in four years, and then not tour
for most of them?
The first major improvement over the album’s 1981 predecessor,
Special Forces, is the welcome return of axeman
extraordinaire Dick Wagner, responsible for most of the superb
guitar playing on Alice’s mid to late 70’s albums. It’s simply
amazing how much more creative and memorable the guitar playing is
on this record than on the last two. I suspect that Wagner’s return
is also at least partly responsible for the increased theatricality
of the material.
This does not mean however that
Zipper Catches Skin sounds more like Alice’s classic 70’s
output, because despite the presence of far more professional
guitar riffing and a greater diversity in the overall songwriting,
sonically this is very much a typical early 80’s post punk style.
No multi-layered, glitzy bombastic studio polish anywhere to be
found here.
While the production of this album could definitely be better
(it was produced by Alice himself and the bass player), it’s an
improvement over the utterly tepid
Special Forces. In keeping with the minimalist punk
aesthetic of the time, the production and arrangements are quite
bare and straight forward without any of the clutter and studio
gimmickry that some feel marred Alice’s mid to late 70’s solo
releases. Due to the blunted production I find that you need to
turn the volume up very loud with this album to get the full
potential power of the music, but once you do, it is very enjoyable
to listen to, so hit that 11!
Cooper sounds like he had a lot of fun recording
Zipper Catches Skin, and even though his vocals are sub-par
due to a strange habit of talking through the songs more than
actually singing, the mood overall is very upbeat due to the
hysterically tongue-in-cheek subject matter and the blissful
melodies. Another thing worth mentioning is that he decided to
almost completely eliminate all use of keyboards, synthesizers and
drum machines this time around in favour of the melodic punk style
approach I mentioned above, giving these songs the ability to
overcome the passing of time much more successfully.
Zipper Catches Skin is one of those rarer instances where
Alice did not write with a concept in mind, but is simply just a
collection of unrelated rock songs. In terms of lyrics, I don’t
think Cooper has ever before or since been as insincere as here,
with bizarrely diverging but hilarious tales ranging from silver
screen heroes (“Zorro’s Ascent”), to human greed (“Make That
Money”), to a call for intergalactic peace (“No Baloney
Homosapiens”), to sleazy womanizing (“I Like Girls”), to the
perspective of a slasher film director on the set (“Tag, You’re
It”), to the title-says-it-all “I’m Alive (That Was The Day My Dead
Pet Returned To Save My Life)”! The addition of two highly melodic
uptempo punk pop songs in the form of “Adaptable” and “I Better Be
Good” ensure that the listener will not be able to resist cracking
a smile of enjoyment.
So, as completely wacky as this album is, it’s undoubtedly a
high energy affair that should be able to lift the spirits of even
the unredeemable grouch, and the term high energy is key to this
album’s description; with the exception of the synthy ballad “I Am
The Future” (included on the
Class of ’84 soundtrack), all of these songs are very fast
and happy sounding! Easily his quickest album in terms of tempo.
Will Alice never cease to throw curveballs at us? Just when it
seems we have him figured out he writes music in a style that he
hasn’t been associated with before, thereby enhancing his
chameleon-like career.
Speaking of chameleons, this was the third straight album for
which Alice gave himself an image makeover. Just seeing the
godfather of shock rock on the back of the disc in a white button
shirt, tie, and with short brown hair conservatively parted to one
side is, well…shocking!
Some people would probably be put off by
Zipper Catches Skin‘s inherent silliness, but it’s nothing
more than an extremely fun, fast, hard (but not particularly heavy)
rock album that isn’t meant to be taken seriously in any way.
Alice’s lyrics on this album are the weirdest, silliest, and
possibly funniest, ones he’s ever done, but I can see how it may be
a bit difficult to get into when holding the typical pre-conceived
notions of what to expect from the guy. This is not a shock rock
album, and none of it is controversial…it is creepy in a way
though, through its eccentricity, and provides glimpses of an
artist about to fall off the sobriety wagon again.
Many die-hard Alice fans are not fond of his early 80’s output,
including this release, accusing it of tinny production and
under-developed songs that leave much to be desired in the wake of
his earlier work, but the truth is that while 1982’s
Zipper Catches Skin may not contain any classic Cooper cuts,
it’s a surprisingly solid collection of perfectly listenable
contemporary material that by no stretch of the imagination
deserves the less than favourable reputation that it is saddled
with.