Alice Cooper: Dada (Limited Orange Swirl Vinyl)

SKU / Catalogue Number

• Catalogue Number / SKU: RCV1 23969

Alice Cooper’s DaDa is one of the strangest records in his catalogue and one of the most underrated. Originally released in 1983, it was the last album of his so-called blackout period, made during a time when his personal life and career were in rough shape. The limited orange swirl vinyl reissue came out in July 2018 through Rhino/Warner Bros. as part of the Back To The 80s series. The US pressing carries the catalogue number RCV1 23969, and collector sources list it as limited to 4,500 copies.

As an album, DaDa does not behave like a normal Alice Cooper record. It is not a big shock-rock statement, it is not packed with obvious live staples, and it is definitely not trying to be likable. That is exactly why it has such a pull. This thing is cold, awkward, theatrical in a lopsided way, and often deeply uncomfortable. Instead of the sleazy fun of Welcome To My Nightmare or the garage bite of the early band records, DaDa feels like a nervous breakdown in expensive clothes. It is one of the few Alice Cooper albums that genuinely sounds unwell, and that gives it a weird power a lot of cleaner records do not have.

What makes it work is how committed it is to its own ugliness. “DaDa” itself is bizarre and theatrical without sounding playful. “Enough’s Enough” and “Scarlet And Sheba” have a sharper rock edge, but even those songs feel tense and off-balance. Then you get something like “I Love America,” which is satirical, ridiculous, and sour in a way that only Alice Cooper could really pull off. The whole album feels detached from normal reality, which is probably the best thing about it. It sounds like Cooper stopped trying to chase audience expectations and just made the odd little art-rock wreck he had in him. The reissue is also notable for restoring the album on vinyl in its orange swirl form for collectors in both the US and Europe in July 2018.

This is not top-tier Alice Cooper if you measure him by crowd-pleasing hooks or classic-rock anthems. It is too strange for that. A few songs feel more fascinating than great, and the early-80s production can sound thin in places. But DaDaearns its reputation as a cult favourite because it has a personality no one else could fake. It is alien, bitter, a little camp, and often more revealing than the bigger records around it. For listeners who like the messy, damaged corners of an artist’s catalogue more than the obvious classics, this is one of the best Alice Cooper albums to revisit.

For collectors, the orange swirl pressing is the one to chase. The US edition is listed as Orange Swirl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, with RCV1 23969 as the catalogue number, while the European edition appeared a few days later with the same basic orange swirl format.