Life is strange indeed

Review Score: (10/10)
Tanx was one of the few T. REX albums that I disliked when I first put it on my turntable some 25 years ago. Like many fans of FM radio back then, I was treated to endless replays of Get it on, but never knew that Bolan had gone on to make other Lps. I had heard rumors that Bowie played sax on one of the tracks, and that Alice Cooper had sung backup on Shock Rock, and that led me to think that Tanx would be a more hard rocking effort. And so I was initially dissapointed in such melodic tracks like Broken Hearted Blues, Highway Knees, and Life is Strange. But after a few more listenings these tracks grew on me and have resonated with me all these years since. Bolan is a master at writing simple songs, some of which seem to have less than 25 words in them, and make them sound like lyrical classics. And the extra tracks on this collection are all top notch, from the rolling Sunken Rags, to the VERY glam Free Angel. Tanx is definatly not Electric Warrior, it is different in a way that shows Bolan's penchant for obscure almost fanciful twist of lyrics to paint pictures that are a little off kilter, just enough so that the pictures he paints in your mind will never be brought fully into focus. Thus the album never gets tired, the songs never become dated. This is as good now as it was back then, better considering the fluff that FM radio has given us these past five years or so. Along with Unicorn, this is Bolan at the top of his game and while it wasn't his greatest commercial sucess, it may well be his artistic peak.

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