T. REX
Electric Warrior (reissue) (Warner Strategic Marketing)
Reviewed by Holly Day

---

I was just not smart enough to appreciate this record enough when I was 16 - a good 16 years after this originally came out, of course, but that's when I first heard it in its entirety instead of just the few popular cuts from it like "Bang a Gong" and "Jeepster." Tyrannosaurus Rex and Slider appealed to me much more back then, because I was much, much more into deep lyrics and craft in "songwriting" than I am now. And, while I still love those (earlier and later) T. Rex releases, this album is definitely where the fab team of Marc Bolan and Mickey Finn really cut loose and went deep into musical madness, both in the way these songs are put together musically and lyrically. Songs about dancing, and abstract goddesses, fashion sense, and hippie mysticism were not particularly appealing to me in my youth, and so I completely glossed over the incredible string arrangements mixed with the whine of electric guitar, Bolan's occasional sitar-like guitar solos, not to mention the band's amazing ability to mesh a wild collection of styles - from psychedelic fuzzbox washes to gritty blues to funky, snappy pop to ballady love songs - together on one record, and make them work together against each other thematically. The entire original album is here, of course, with six extra tracks from random singles that include an acoustic version of "Planet Queen," a previously-unavailable cut of the song "Woodland Rock," which was originally released as a promo from NME Magazine, and pieces of an interview with Bolan originally released as a Reprise promo. It's really amazing how absolutely contemporary this album sounds now, in every way, going all the way to include Bolan's fanatic attention to creating good studio recordings that have definitely withstood the test of time.

© 2003 - Holly Day