Nita Strauss reunites with Alice Cooper for new single Winner Takes All – and Strauss is cutting heads in the solo

Following the news that Nita Strauss was returning to the Alice Cooper camp to provide high spectacle on box-office virtuosity on electric guitar on the forthcoming Too Close For Comfort tour, it is no shock to learn that Hurricane Nita has drafted the King of Shock for a new single, and it’s all kinds of huge.

Titled Winner Takes All, we can reassure you that it is nothing at all like the Abba super-pop track of a similar title, and is a bona-fide funhouse of a track that foregrounds Cooper’s gravel voice and macabre magnetism.

For the most part, Strauss lets Cooper pull focus. The vibe on Winner Takes All is contemporary hard-rock with a soupçon of mid-tempo Euro metal, gang vocals, a big riff that lands right on the grid.

Then, of course, you’ve got the guitar solo, which is Hurricane Nita matching form to content, setting the scene, establishing the melodic stakes – perfect intonation, btw – before unleashing the sort of quicksilver serpentine legato that her Ibanez JIVA signature guitar was designed for. That JIVA neck profile? Well, on the new-for-2022  JIVAX2 it measures just 17mm at the 1st fret, which makes even the legendary Ibanez Wizard neck profile look like it’s carrying some timber. Incredible.

Strauss says it was a no-brainer to get Coop’ in the studio, and that it was “an honor” to get the rock legend on one of her original tracks.

“When we were working on the music for this album, there was no question that I wanted to create a song to collaborate with my longtime boss and friend, the legendary Alice Cooper,” she said in a statement.

“I think the track accomplishes what we set out to do – showcase Alice's voice and signature style on the backdrop of a heavy, modern rock track. After many years of lending my style of playing to Alice’s music on stage, it was truly an honor to work together and hear his voice on one of my songs!”