Very much working on the better late than never theory here.
So,
Electric Warrior is definitely one of those albums whose reputation seems to ever-so-slightly be at odds with the music within. When the album lands, it lands as well as anything in the early 70s (judge for yourself how high or low that particular bar is) but there's a few patches where it struggles and, while it's definitely an important album, it's certainly not a perfect one.
Glam has always been a curiously British phenomenon. There are aspects of it that appear elsewhere - Lou Reed's
Transformer-era make-up, the antics of Alice Cooper, early Abba ("Waterloo" is a straightforward glam song, right down to the outfits and star-guitar, which the song doesn't tend to get credit for - disco is still a good couple of years away from "Waterloo") and so forth. But actual, full-throated embrace of glam remains very much stuck as a UK chart phenomenon.
The other thing to note about glam is that it's mostly a singles affair.
Electric Warrior is pretty much the only straight-up, glam band classic album. Other glam albums exist of course -
Ziggy Stardust, most obviously - but Bowie isn't a glam artist as much as an artist who flirted with glam then moved on. And arguably deconstructed the entire essence of glam before abandoning it on
Diamond Dogs. "Moving on", though, was the thing T.Rex could never manage and they ploughed an increasingly dry furrow up till Bolan's death.
They're not the only ones. None of the "glam bands" survived their era. Even Slade, possibly the most remembered of the glam bands outside of T.Rex, are largely recalled for their Christmas single more than anything else in their back catalogue. Nobody's seeking out albums by, say, Mud or The Sweet or the Bay City Rollers. Which is fair, because they're mostly redundant - a delivery system for singles (and cash cow, lest we forget) and little else. There are a few genres where "singles +/- greatest hits" are enough and,
Electric Warrior aside, glam falls squarely into that bracket.
I don't want to dive into the whole socio-economic factor of why glam came to prominence - the general theory is "bright, shiny distraction away from from economic woes and the grey colour pallet and misery of the early 70s in the UK" and that will suffice. It's more complex than that, and glam's emergence from other musical forms isn't simply, "stand up and play" but as a short-hand it will suffice for now. To speak to
ganews 's point about what glam is supposed to sound like, the answer is solid, high-in-the-mix drums, crunchy guitars, and catchy, easy-to-remember melodies. And it should all be delivered as ostentatiously as possible.
Ideally, ridiculous outfits, glitter, anything that sparkles, and screamingly loud colours should go into the visual presentation (though not exclusively - Suzi Quatro is often lumped in with glam and she wore black leather, and Gary Glitter tended towards black and silver). if it helps any, I've got a quick Spotify glam playlist. Gary Glitter is absent for what I assume are obvious reasons, though like it or not he's a major force in the genre, and sneaking in Elton John's cover of "Pinball Wizard" is cheating a little.
To the album! And firstly, that cover, which looks
much more like the cover to a heavy metal album than it does the somewhat fey sensibilities of Mr Bolan.
"Mambo Sun" - Fairly gentle intro to the album that promises a lot and understands that restraint is sometimes more effective than overload (not a message the album will be repeating much). Quietly effective opener that works for what it is.
"Cosmic Dancer" - A classic from the album with good reason. Delightfully put together, a great Bolan performance, a melody that can easily get suck in your head for weeks at a time and plenty of space in the track to enjoy every instrumentation. Lovely.
"Jeepster" - Fine, if slightly generic, number that equates sex and cars in the same way that's been done since at least "No Particular Place To Go" (and probably much earlier). Very far from innovative but certainly easy enough to listen to, if little more than a fun ditty.
"Monolith" - It's... fine? Not the album's strongest moment and musically it feels a little out of kilter with what's around it without particularly providing a contrast to anything. Not bad in isolation but very much the definition of "album track".
"Lean Woman Blues" - Just great. Not, if I'm being completely honest,
entirely successful but there's just so much to love here. Visconti's production is simply glorious, the music is lovely, and Bolan has rarely sounded better. If there are any weaknesses here, they're easily overcome by the strength of the performance. A song that deserves to be better known than it is, despite its flaws.
"Get it On" - The Big One. Everything that glam is in one simple, straightforward single. Bolan's voice is slinky and sinewy and all over this in exactly the right way, the instrumentation is perfectly produced, and the lyrics are complete nonsense while still managing to sounds pleasingly filthy. There's not a single thing wrong with this song and it's one of the most perfect singles of the 70s.
"Planet Queen" - It's fine for what it is, but what is is is very much Not For Me. Feels more of the old Tyrannosaurus Rex than it does the current incarnation of the band, and it's put together well enough but, like "Monolith", stands out a bit from the rest of the album. The lyrics are complete bollocks at the best of time, but then again it is trippy folk music so it's hard to expect anything else.
"The Motivator" - "Get It On" retread for people who want more of that, but it's not quite as good. That's not really an insult, since "Get It On" is pretty much perfect and it does what it does well enough but it's not hard to understand why this is the album track and "Get It On" was the single. Still, there's plenty to enjoy, even though there's a slight sense of the album running out of steam at this point.
"Life's A Gas" - And then we get to this, an absolutely beautiful song that highlights everything Bolan is good at. It's sweet and tender, he emotes without seeming fey or overly-mannered (an occasional problem for Bolan) and the song has a simple, charming melody that perfectly captures the emotion of the lyric. Absolutely lovely. And a perfect album closer. But for...
"Rip Off" - Something of a contrast, it's fair to say, but it's still a great tune. Feels like it's bringing the album to a close in a way that lives up to its title, with a strong rocker rather than a sweet ballad. Everyone in the band delivers, Bolan's on form, and it's a fine ending.
So does
Electric Warrior stand the test of time? Mostly. As mentioned, it's not flawless and there's definitely a few lulls here and there, but there's also a huge amount to enjoy. It's obvious to say, but if you need to own one glam album or one T.Rex album, it pretty much has to be this one.
