"Then you have the Alice songs that continue this drive but draw upon more recent ideals as well. “This Maniac’s in Love with You” draws on the fun and menacing side of Alice from the previous two albums, more a statement of Alice’s proclamation of love and the warning of that in the same breath. Then you have the closing track “I’m Your Gun”, the double-entendre laden song that became a hallmark of some of his most popular tracks from the late 1980’s albums. Middle class songs that play the role of advancing the album beyond the big tracks. And the title track “Trash” finds itself in this category as well, a fun filled upbeat song with Jon Bon Jovi joining in along the way.

Filling in the gaps between all these are other top shelf songs. “Spark in the Dark” gets the album moving after the opening track, a typically crafted Desmond Child song with Alice playing his alter ago to perfection throughout. “House of Fire” utilises Cooper’s anthemic style again, with chorused backing vocals helping him along, along with Joe Perry’s excellent solo slot on guitar. And “Why Trust You” is arguably my favourite track on the album. It moves at the best tempo, it has Alice at his moody best, and it sounds light and fun even when lyrically he is spitting venom. Modern Alice at his very best".

On this episode we are going to talk about “Trash” by Alice Cooper, his 11th solo studio album released 35 years ago this week, on today’s ‘don't matter what you say, no matter what you do, as long as it is me and you’ episode of Music from a Lifetime.

"It is interesting that this album became the band’s highest charting album in the US, which to me was more through the general build of the three very good albums before it. It feels as though that peaked here with “In Rock We Trust”, and that people bought the album because of the albums that preceded it. Because to me, this album does not rate above those.

The positives here is that Dave Meniketti’s vocals are terrific on this album. I have always enjoyed his voice and the way he sings his songs, and that is no different here. And the core group all sound good as well. But the songs... well, they just don’t cut it overall. To me this isn’t a bad album as such, it’s just an average album. And more than that, in places it is just dull. This album, and the band overall, is trapped in an era where hard rock had transitioned to becoming glam metal for the attention and grandiose spectacle that was necessary to gain an audience, and where the new wave of heavy metal was moving at full throttle towards thrash metal, and this doesn’t touch either of those elements. Are there good songs? Yeeeeeessss. Are there more unremarkable songs? Yes. It’s interesting that they skewed more towards the glam rock side with their 1987 album “Contagious”, which perhaps was the right step but a little too late".

On this episode we are going to talk about “In Rock We Trust” by Y&T, the band’s 6th studio album released 40 years ago this week, on today’s ‘time has made you just a memory’ episode of Music from a Lifetime.

"The arrival of Stryper on the music scene in the early 1980’s is an interesting story of returning to one’s faith and building a band around those beliefs in an industry that on the surface appeared to have little of that about it. The band itself began under the name Roxx Regime in 1983, the double x in Roxx showcasing the era of the band and the direction their music was going to take.

On formation the band looked to be a straight-out glam metal band, with brothers Michael and Robert Sweet the core. A number of soon-to-be-famous guitar players, including Doug Aldrich and C.C. de Ville, all had short stints in the band before the arrival of Oz Fox who became a permanent member of the group. At around this time they began to write songs that reflected the band members Christian beliefs, and this was the direction they followed from that point onwards".

On this episode we are going to talk about “The Yellow and Black Attack” by Stryper, the band’s debut studio EP album released 40 years ago this week, on today’s ‘that's why I wrote this song, to sing to pushin' fools’ episode of Music from a Lifetime.