$80.99
Alice Cooper’s Zipper Catches Skin is one of the most overlooked records in his catalogue, and that is partly because it sits in an awkward place historically. Released originally in 1982, it arrived during Cooper’s so-called blackout years, when the albums were inconsistent, the public image was frayed, and the classic 70s run already loomed over everything. The limited clear/black swirl vinyl reissue came out on 17 July 2018 through Rhino/Warner Bros. as part of the Back To The ’80s series. Rhino lists it as 140g smoke-colored vinyl, meaning clear with black swirls, and gives the UPC as 603497860746. Discogs lists the US pressing under RCV1 23719, while fan discography sources note it was limited to 4,600 copies.
As an album, Zipper Catches Skin is not a lost masterpiece, but it is a lot more interesting than its reputation suggests. This is Alice Cooper stripped of some of the big-budget theatrical sweep and pushed into something nervier, uglier, and more sarcastic. It sounds like a record made by somebody half-laughing through a bad stretch, which gives it a weird charm. Instead of grand horror-pageant material, you get a scrappier, meaner kind of rock record, one that leans on sneering character songs, twitchy new-wave edges, and a very early-80s sense of unease.
That is also what makes it work better now than it probably did for a lot of people at the time. If you come to it expecting Welcome To My Nightmare or Billion Dollar Babies, you are going to be disappointed. But if you hear it as a damaged, transitional album from a great artist trying to keep his identity intact while everything around him is shifting, it becomes a lot more compelling. There is a bitterness to it, but also a wiry sense of fun. It feels unstable, and that instability is part of the appeal.
Songs like “I Am The Future,” “Zorro’s Ascent,” “Make That Money (Scrooge’s Song),” and “Tag, You’re It” give the album its personality. There is a trashy, cartoonish quality to some of it, but Cooper was always good at turning that into something memorable. The Rhino product page specifically calls out “I Am The Future” as the song tied to Class of 1984, and that track alone helps explain the album’s mood. It is sharp, synthetic, a little nasty, and very much rooted in that strange early-80s crossover zone between hard rock and new wave.
The downside is that Zipper Catches Skin does not always hold together front to back. A few songs feel more like sketches than killers, and the production can sound thin in a way that dates it. It does not have the total confidence of the best Alice Cooper records. But it does have character, which matters more. Plenty of cleaner, bigger records leave less of an impression. This one at least sounds like itself.
For collectors, the 2018 clear/black swirl pressing is the one worth chasing. It is the standout modern reissue variant, and the smoky vinyl suits the album’s sour, half-lit mood better than standard black ever would
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