Just added Love It To Death, Killer and School’s Out to the album troika list, then decided I had to hear me some Alice. Went to youtube and stumbled upon this.
Appears to be a genuine attempt at a music video, way before music videos were a thing.
Not an A+ Alice song, nothing extraordinary about the video either, and guessing you guys have seen this before, but it’s very cool to see footage of Alice and the band in their prime.
Parallels to the 2016 election would be too easy:
Clearly there is a major miscue between great/classic and “stuff that was very good I liked a lot” Steve.
Love it to Death and KIller are wonderful discs, but School’s Out falls short IMHO just as Controversy does.
But, none of those discs are in the same league as any of the albums discussed with respect to scope of songwriting, topics covered within the lyrics, and breadth of skill in interpreting even the genres within rock or pop very well.
The fact that Black Juju exists alone disqualifies Alice, again whom I love, but who has never written anything as strong as Freddy Sings the Blues, or Helpless, or In My Life (18 gets close) or Moonlight Mile.
In fact, nothing the Ramones, or AC/DC, or Sabbath ever did comes close.
Maybe all you suggested are great records you love from your youth, and maybe they are even 4 star albums, but as cohesive artistic statements at a higher level, pshaw.
And, if you think that is harsh, my fave bands are The Kinks and The Who. I consider Ray Davies to be among the sharpest, wittiest observers of like and culture, and think Victoria, Lola v the Powerman, and Musswell Hillbillys to be a good troika, but not good enough. Maybe 4 Star like you say, but no more. Same with any troika by the Who who get dinged by things like Underture and Cobwebs and Strange. Who’s Next is worthy of five stars, and The Who Sell Out is, but no three in a row.
Let the culture wars begin.