My Amazon Reviews: T Rex "Electric Warrior"

My Hubcap Diamond Star Halo
5 Out Of 5 Stars

Marc Bolan was an older man trapped in a younger man's brain. In his world, unicorns and faeries still ran amok, bongos were still pretty cool and twee spacey poetry made for good lyrics. But something happened by the time he expanded his band into a full unit and set forward with "Electric Warrior." Bolan discovered the magic three chord boogie and blues and found out that sleazy grooves were so much more fun that medieval trippiness.

Which made "Electric Warrior" arguably the first brilliant glam album. While David Bowie, producer Tony Visconti and Bolan were pals, it was another year before Bowie delivered "Ziggy Stardust" to the world and really shored up the UK Glam scene. "Electric Warrior" managed transatlantic success, bringing a taste of Bolan-mania to this continent via "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" and that single's stride to the US Top Ten. Yet, despite the "Electric" part of the title, Bolan still showed remarkable restraint. Only in the final "Rip Off" does the band go for some floorboard shaking.

But the real winners here, from "Bang a Gong" to the Chuck Berry inspired "Jeepester" and the handicapping blues of "Lean Woman Blues" rock in their own sublime way. Bolan was still enthralled by his hippy-dippy days, but it seemed now confined only to the lyrics (sample from "Planet Queen": "Flying saucer take me away, give me your daughter," or the bulk of the still sultry "Bang a Gong." It made its peace with folk, rock and shot-gun marriage to bubblegum, and you'll hear traces of everyone from Bowie to Mott to Slade (hey, if "Hot Love" and "Bang a Gong" aren't godfathers to "Cum On Feel The Noise," you tell me what is) across this album.

I'd also advise to find the expanded Rhino version that includes "Hot Love" as a bonus track and seven other bonus tracks, including an acoustic run through of "Planet Queen," and "Raw Ramp," a bonus single and a cool T Rex Electric Warrior interview. It's well worth it, just for "Hot Love" alone.

     

My Amazon Reviews: 10,000 Maniacs "Our Time In Eden"

Days To Remember
4 Out Of 5 Stars

The final studio album from 10,000 Maniacs with Natalie Merchant, "Our Time In Eden" catches the band peaking just before coming apart. Merchant's penchant for earnest, collegiate lyrics, backed by shimmering guitars and, on several songs, a horn section, made the album sound fuller than before. And with the song "These Are Days," the band delivered a true classic song that still can pull out memories at every listen (is it not obvious why a nostalgic TV commercial uses this as a theme song?).

Then there was "Candy Everybody Wants," a punchy social song backed with a wicked horn riff. (If you can find it, there's a live CD Single that features Michael Stipe.)

“If lust and hate is the candy,
if blood and love taste so sweet,
then give them what they want.”

Landing a decent blow against the Me Decade with a hook as catchy as candy itself, it became a modest hit for the band. Not as catchy but just as heavy in message is "I'm Not The Man," about a wrongly accused prisoner waiting on death row for the executioner. Like all their best studio albums, 10,000 Maniacs balanced the preachy with the popworthy, the poetic ("Stockton Gala Days") to the pointed ("If You Intend").

While the band did actually score a hit after Merchant left (a cover of Roxy Music's "More Than This"), she was a lynchpin to the band's complete sound. "Our Time In Eden" wrapped up a trilogy that included "Blind Man's Zoo" and "In My Tribe" to create a body of work that crystallized a certain style of female-led folk pop bands, It's very much of the early 90's, yet still resonates.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Judas Priest "Hellbent For Leather"

Hell bent and heaven sent
4 Out Of 5 Stars

As each Judas Priest album became more and more successful,the band felt the need to top itself with each release. This album, "Hellbent for Leather," was a significant jump from "Stained Class." It also advance the groups image as leather clad bad boys playing the heaviest guitar rock out of England. As the title song put it the band was in a take no prisoners mode.

The album kicks off with a sexual innuendo "Delivering the Goods." Rob Halford delivers the song with grunts and a low-key growl. That doesn't mean he hasn't given up his operatic howl, evident on "Evening Star" and "Before the Dawn." "Before the Dawn" also showed the versatility of the band. Played as the acoustic set piece, it slips in the middle as a curio along with the band's cover version of Fleetwood Mac's "The Green Manalishi with the Two Pronged Crown."it joins the ranks of great Judas Priest cover songs like "Diamonds and Rust." They may have been a hard-core heavy metal, but they had visions outside the format.

"Hellbent for Leather" contains a pair of classic Priest songs. Both the title song and "Living After Midnight" preserved the image of the band not just leather clad rockers, but knowledgeable about the way with a hook. By their next album, the five-star rated "British Steel," they would have that mastered. But for the moment, "Hellbent for Leather" added to the growing mythology of this great rock band.