Audio CD review:
T. Rex - Tanx

T. Rex - Tanx

Band: T. Rex Title: Tanx Rating: Release Date: 28 January, 1997 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Tenement Lady 2: Rapids 3: Mister Mister 4: Broken Hearted Blues 5: Shock Rock 6: Country Honey 7: Electric Slim & The Factory Hen 8: Mad Donna 9: Born To Boogie 10: Life Is Strange 11: The Street & Babe Shadow 12: Highway Knees 13: Left Hand Luke & The Beggar Boys 14: Children Of The Revolutions 15: Jitterbug Love 16: Sunken Rags 17: Solid Gold Easy Action 18: Xmas Message 19: 20th Century Boy 20: Free Angel

Customer Reviews Bolan Expands the T.Rex Sound S. Marc Bolan was never a big star in the U. (he had only one top 40 hit with "Bang a Gong" the year before), but he was riding a huge wave of popularity in the U. K. when this album was released in 1973. Over the previous two years he had four No. 1's in the U. K. and "Children of the Revolution," "Solid Gold Easy Action" and "20th Century Boy" (all three included here as bonus tracks) were No. 2, 2 and 3 respectively in the U. K. But Bolan knew his teen fan base was dissipating and he looked to broaden the T. Rex sound on TANX. [It went No. 4 in the U. K. , but only No. 102 in the U. S. ] There was still the familiar T. Rex boogie on songs like "Mad Donna" and "Born to Boogie," but there were elements of soul and gospel on songs like "Left Hand Luke & the Beggar Boys" with its female backing singers and acoustic piano. Bolan also added mellotron to the opening track, "Tenement Lady. " While Bolan would not chart another top 10 single in the U. K. before his untimely in 1977 and each successive album charted lower than the previous one, TANX is a solid album from start to finish and holds up well along side ELECTRIC WARRIOR and THE SLIDER. Altogether they form a trilogy of the best of T. Rex's work. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. No Sign of Decline Echoing what alot of others have already said, Tanx was attacked by the critics as being formulaic, and that was one of the nice things they had to say about it. This was Bolans 4th great record in a row. I know all this because I was about 15 years old at the time and already a big T. Rex fan. My first exposure to T. Rex was on American Bandstand. They played Telegram Sam one saturday and I rushed out to buy Slider and have been a fan ever since that magic moment on A. B. I guess you can compare this to David Bowie's(He played Sax on this recording)album "Young Americans" though Tanx I feel is much more succesful at least artistically than "Young Americans". TANX is pure T. Rex even though there are some new elements to the sound here. There is a subtle soul influence but thankfully this is still really a Rock album. That was a common mistake for Rock artists during this period to want to do a soul album. The second half of Tenement Lady sounds a bit like John Lennon's Chord Changes. The lyrics are wonderfully non-sensical years before David BYrne and the Talking Heads would proclaim "Stop Making Sense". The arrangements are flawless and the strings are beautiful. I won't say that TANX is better than SLider or Electric Warrior, but it is on the same level and just different enough for some to prefer it to his previous masterworks. So if you love great Rock Music don't even think twice on this one because it is fantastic. . in retrospect...great! It was about the greatest disappointment I could think of: sound seemed plastic, no grand arrangements like in the single hits, strange unfinished songs, a mess of arrangements and half digested ideas it seemed to me. As a kid, when I bought this album at its being issued, I hated Tanx. Now, much much wiser and riper I've returned to T. Rex only to find that Trax might very well be close to a masterpiece. This must have been what Bolan thought himself, but hardly anyone at the time seemed too willing to acknowledge the fact that Bolan was once again much more than just a silly teenybopper. We, the teens to be bopped, hadn't understood and left him behind, mainly because of Tanx. Yet, do hope that many of those renegates will return to this record (and all other Bolan records, even the worst), and discover the imaginative playing around with cliche's, the smart arrangements, the sweeping emotions involved, the larger than life guitar playing Bolan showed himself capable of, the witty and sometimes sarcastic lyrics. And of course, Bolan's talent to use only two or three chords, and a small set of song lines to say it all. The hit singles of the period, though produced like Supremes songs, lag quite behind the original Tanx record. Yet, at the time, I thought it to be exactly the reverse. . . In a way, I've been spared a sense of guilt: Bolan did not kill himself, nor was he driving the god damned car that slammed into the tree. It was a stupid accident, not the result of our lack of recognition. . You can see a complete list of all T. Rex discography, or go back to the T. Rex tabs