Albums I Love: The Slider

I always thought it would be cool to have a radio show entitled 'Albums I Love', where I would pick a given album (that I love of course), talk about it for five or six minutes, play the whole record uninterrupted, and then discuss the music and its relevance etc. with callers for the rest of the hour. Well I don't have a radio show, but I do have a blog! So here it is, the now regular installment 'Albums I Love'. This week we will be focusing on T. Rex's 1972 release, 'The Slider'.

If you live in the UK, then you have no idea why I would choose to present such a monumental album as an out-of-the-way gem that listeners may have missed, but here in the US that's exactly what it is. Walk into any US record store- I can almost guarantee that under 'T. Rex' you will find three copies of big brother 'Electric Warrior' and no trace of, the in many ways more accomplished album, 'The Slider'. This could probably be most easily explained by the fact that the only T. Rex single to chart in the US came off 'EW'; but hold on a second, now lets mozy on down the aisle to Led Zeppelin. Woah look at this! Here's all their albums, not only 'Zeppelin II' (host of "Whole Lotta Love", the only Zeppelin tune to break the US Top Ten). The fact is that T. Rex doesn't get one tenth of the respect they deserve from the rock'n'roll pantheon. Marc Bolan singlehandedly defined sexy, sleazy, glam, pop rock (think The Kills forty years ago with just as much attitude). Bowie didn't come close to anything like this. Not to mention giving outlet to one of the most distinctive guitar players of an era. And yet we relegate T. Rex to the obscurity of history. This injustice can not stand.

Thanks to my fathers record collection I grew up with 'Electric Warrior' as a favorite. And though on the internet I would read about 'The Slider', see the excellent reveiws, not only was my father barely aware of its existence, but for literally years I remained unable to find it anywhere with the exception of Amazon for a hefty price of about 25 bucks. Alas, this led me to dismiss the album as an obscurity, a collectors item, some fluke release that ultimately must not have been too important. A few long years later, while unlocking the spoils of the internet, I finally got my first listen to the record and all such notions were shattered.

The record opens with "Metal Guru", the boldest, slickest, most in your face track the band has ever done. It pops with cascading harmonies, a du-wop vibe, and as always that crunchy, reverb drenched backbeat holding it all together. The record never lets up from there. The title track comes in cool and collected, working a slick groove with a few simple chords like only Bolan ever could. It goes down smooth and is only a taste of whats to come. Tracks like "Mystic Lady" and "Spaceball Ricochet" continue pleasantly down a road where "Cosmic Dancer" left off. This album is heavier than its predecessor ("Buick Mackane"), more highly produced ("Rabbit Fighter"), and every bit as catchy and hypnotic ("Telegram Sam").

As a guitarist, Bolan is a breath of fresh air in a era that seemed to favor simply throwing as many notes as possible at any and every song possible. Bolan understood using the guitar as a means to an end, as opposed to playing the guitar as an end in itself. So no, nothing as heinous as Page's "Heartbreaker" solo is to be found here. And yet he's not as minimalist as a Robby Krieger. He understands that he's playing sloppy fun rock music, and that the guitar has to slosh around in the sleaze just as much, and it does. Never excessive, always satisfying, Bolan deserves much more credit than he will ever receive for his chops and vision on a so oft abused instrument.

This is classic rock, but not in the old tired fashion your used to hearing it as endlessly replayed on your local radio. Musically it holds up amazingly well to anything coming out today. Expand your horizons, reach back, go out and buy... well, maybe better off to just download, 'The Slider' today!

Best Tracks: "Mystic Lady", "The Slider", "Telegram Sam"