School's Out

Alice Cooper’s musical theatrics blossomed on this 1972 song cycle about American youth. There’s plenty of glam-rock muscle wrapped in elaborate productions: The title track has the singer’s menacing roar surrounded by children chanting rhymes, and “Gutter Cat vs. The Jets” is a multi-part epic that mashes up carousel organ and clobbering drums with snippets of West Side Story. Teenage rebellion courses throughout, reaching an ingenious peak on “Alma Mater”, a psychedelic ballad cheekily equating graduation with prison release.