Fresh from dropping out of the Mothers of Invention, Flo and Eddie (AKA ex-Turtles Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman) take up backing vocal duties here as T. Rex goes electric. Despite the foreboding cover, this isn't actually as heavy or hard rocking as the material which would emerge on The Slider, with the possible exception of closing rave-up Rip Off. It isn't even very poppy as far as glam rock goes, aside from the album centrepiece Bang a Gong (Get It On). The rest of the album wavers between gleeful embrace of the new glam sound and trippy mystic meditations; if the Electric Warrior is doing anything here, he's pondering on whether or not to unsheath his guitar in and go to war in the first place. Those looking for the first fully and unabashedly hard rocking T. Rex album should go for the subsequent one, but this is actually the more interesting proposition. Bolan would never visit territory this oblique ever again.
By: Warthur