The second best album put out by Alice Cooper. Of course I'm talking about the band Alice Cooper, but it tops anything solo Alice ever put out. Rolling Stone called this one of the best albums released in 1971, and it was.

For me several songs on this album really stick out. The best song here is "Be My Lover", written by Michael Bruce. A Stones fan, he must have had "Honky Tonk Woman" on his mind when he wrote the splendid lyrics to this song. Perhaps one of  rock's best pick up/groupie songs ever recorded, contains Alice's best vocals to date. Then you got "Desperado". This song was written for the band's late friend, Jim Morrison of The Doors, but it isn't about him. Many think of the Eagles song of the same name when they hear this title. Well not to take anything away from that song, but this one is better. A great cowboy/outlaw-rock song done by a band know for heavy metal, punk, goth, glam, even new wave, but not country rock. Yet this song is another true gem. Alice with his almost death like tone of voice - with some Jim Morrision like vocals mixed in at times, spits out the words with such conviction, "Your as stiff as my smokin' barrel/Your as dead as a desert night/You're a notch and I'm a legend/Your at peace and I must hide".

The excellent "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" is a rocking punk song that ends up sounding more like early metal by it's close. Then there's the LP's opening number, "Under My Wheels", a great early metal song, just wish there were less horns and a little more of that great Glen Buxton lead guitar. The most interesting song on this album is "Dead Babies". Even these days this song is still somewhat off the wall, but in 1971 only ACG could come up with something like this: "Little Betty ate a pound of aspirin ....Betty's mommy wasn't there to save her...........Dead babies can take care of themselves...Dead babies can't take things off the shelf....Well we didn't want you anyway" (years after its' release, it was claimed that the song was really an anti-child abuse song). The album's closing song is the title cut, "Killer". It starts out strong, but by the time it ends it almost has a "Revolution #9" type style to it. Kinda strange. But this album does rock and I highly recommend it.

- Keno 2000

To listen to some soundclips from Killer or to purchase it click on: Killer