T. Rex: The Slider (1972) by: sky pink
‘T. Rex’ only made two kinds of music – acoustic, psychedelic, hippy folk rock and unforgettable, fascinating, mesmerizing glam rock. ‘The Slider’ is a shining example of the latter – weird lyrics, wild rock’n’roll and glam! – glam pouring out of every line, every scream, every hiss. You can just picture Bolan singing with his head thrown back and his eyes closed, lazily moving to the crazy beat and humming between the verses.
This album is quite possibly the best ‘T. Rex’ ever made (yes, including ‘Electric Warrior’!) in spite of being hopelessly glam. It’s just confusing and familiar-sounding enough to stir some long-forgotten emotions. The songs here range from powerful, mystical ballads to sexually charged (or charging…), rhythmical rock’n’roll-based pieces. Bolan sounds very confident here – he knows exactly what he’s doing and where he’s going, none of the nervous searching that can be seen in his earlier works is here. He doesn’t much care about what people will think of this album – because he KNOWS at least half of them will like it.
Most people who like ‘T. Rex’ state that there is not a single mediocre track on this album. I won’t go as far as that; sad as it is I have to admit not all of them are brilliant (I myself am not very fond of ‘Buick Mackane’). But most certainly are. This album is packed with good songs. They might be not very innovative or complicated when it comes to rhythm or chord progressions, but they have that very special feeling that can rarely be heard on other records, perfect as they may be.
Bolan was actually quite good at putting subtle irony in both his lyrics and the way he sang them. His attitude was more or less ‘Here I am and I’m good’, so it’s no wonder people who take that seriously don’t particularly like him.
Anyway, this album deserves some attention (or lots of it, it depends on how you look at it). Unfortunately, it will probably be forgotten along with a bunch of other mind-blowing rock albums of the 70s.
Best songs: ‘Metal Guru’, ‘The Slider’, ‘Spaceball Ricochet’, ‘Ballrooms Of Mars’, ‘Main Man’.