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Cover Art Marc Bolan and T-Rex
Messing With The Mystic:
Unissued Songs -- 1972-1977

[Chronicles]
Rating: 8.5

When I was fifteen years old, I took off for the weekend with a carload of guys, all at least ten years older than I was, to catch the very last L.A. Street Scene. In between drinking copious amounts of alcohol and popping Benzedrine caps and Quaaludes, we managed to catch some of the best acts of the '80s for free. What does this have to do with T.Rex? In reality, nothing, except that as we were walking around downtown L.A. from the Animotion set to the Sparks set to the L.A. Guns stage, we passed around our requisite boombox and played every song of T.Rex's known to God and man at full volume (all the way to 11) to avoid having to have real conversations with each other. Or at least that's how it seems now.

This release of Marc Bolan's previously unissued songs both hits and misses. For the most part, the songs are recorded poorly and riddled with static, which detracts some from Bolan's wonderful voice. There're also a lot of Bolan's ventures into the spiritual side of glam-rock, which can sound deep and meaningful to the listener at one moment while sending the same listener into hysterical giggling fits at another. Still, there are worse collections of Bolan's circulating, and there are enough good songs on this to make buying the whole CD worthwhile.

-Holly Day

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RATING KEY
10.0: Indispensable, classic
9.5-9.9: Spectacular
9.0-9.4: Amazing
8.5-8.9: Exceptional; will likely rank among writer's top ten albums of the year
8.0-8.4: Very good
7.5-7.9: Above average; enjoyable
7.0-7.4: Not brilliant, but nice enough
6.0-6.9: Has its moments, but isn't strong
5.0-5.9: Mediocre; not good, but not awful
4.0-4.9: Just below average; bad outweighs good by just a little bit
3.0-3.9: Definitely below average, but a few redeeming qualities
2.0-2.9: Heard worse, but still pretty bad
1.0-1.9: Awful; not a single pleasant track
0.0-0.9: Breaks new ground for terrible
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