Weighing in at 15 CDs,
The Studio Albums 1969-1983 is a hefty box set but, at $85, it is relatively affordable considering that it contains everything
Alice Cooper -- both the band and the man -- recorded at Straight and Warner. Whatever bonus material attached to CD reissues over the years has been stripped away -- nothing from the 2001 deluxe edition of
Billion Dollar Babies, then -- and there are no new remasters of the albums, but this set isn't bare bones. The mini-LP replicas contain a few inserts carried over from the vinyl and, more importantly, those early Straight Records are present, which is good because they were out of print for a while. Not everything here is great -- he did have a rough patch in the late '70s and early '80s -- but it's all interesting, and it's especially nice to be able to get the entire catalog so easily and cheaply. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine