T. Rex

This double-disc Japanese compilation of T. Rex singles is expensive to be sure, but that should hardly be held against it. Why? Well, coming in at 44 cuts, and containing all the singles, and being one of the only collections ever to have both "Get It On" and "Ride a White Swan," included, as well as some of the hippy dippy tracks like "By the Light of the Magical Moon" and "The Wizard" (on both of these Marc Bolan sounds more like Donovan -- was Bolan the second Donovan or Donovan the first Bolan?). The other thing is that the major cuts are mostly on disc one, so you don't have to do a lot of skipping: there are the two aforementioned monster hits, plus "Metal Guru," "Telegram Sam," "Jeepster," "Children of the Revolution," "Hot Love," "Solid Gold Easy Action," "20th Century Boy," "Celebrate Summer," "Truck On (Tyke)," etc. You get the picture. In its own way, disc two is no less successful, just a bit more obscure: "Sailors of the Highway," "Dandy in the Underworld," "Thunderwing," as well as "Cosmic Dancer," "Zip Gun Boogie," "Life's a Gas," and cool little bonus demos like sung poems, the haunted Doc Pomus ballad "Teenager in Love," and the original two-track of "Dreamy Lady." What's not to like? Since even bad T. Rex records are still better than Suede or Oasis, you really can't go wrong by dropping the big bucks on the is fab sounding, rather stellar collection. T. Rex forever, y'all. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide