When
Tony Visconti was offered the opportunity to remix Electric Warrior for 5.1 sound, he set himself one crucial brief -- "I wanted this version to sound like it was recorded in 1972 and mixed in 1972, if Surround Sound was already available." In other words, no posthumous remixes, no clever overdubs, nothing that wasn't there to begin with, when he and Marc Bolan closed the final tape box (in 1971, actually) and switched out the lights on the original sessions. He succeeded. Across the board, the sound is superlative, a 180-degree sweep that fills the room with the ghosts of
T. Rex and jam packs your mind with some of the most astonishing melodies ever to ride out in the name of pure pop. Divided neatly between the spacy ballads that were Bolan's forte ("Planet Queen," "Girl," "Life's a Gas"), and the seductive rockers that were his genius ("Mambo Sun," "Motivator," "Monolith"), Electric Warrior was recorded just as
T. Rex hit superstar status and, with two of their four singles-so-far on board ("Get It On" and "Jeepster"), it remains the consummate Bolan album. But it's more than that, as well -- overwhelmingly exuberant, its flawless blending of
Chuck Berry pop, Middle Earth imagery and guiltless sexuality combine to forge a timeless musicality, for even as "Lean Woman Blues" hurtles straight out of the '50s, the closing freak-out "Rip Off" races equally resolutely backwards from punk. Electric Warrior was released at the dawn of the '70s. It was still resonating a decade later -- and, thanks to this marvelous remaster, it still makes a difference today. ~ Dave Thompson