T-Rex - Zinc Alloy & The Hidden Riders of Tomorrow
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Category: Music CD
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CD Details
Artist: T-RexEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Music Label: Rhino / Wea
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Venus Loon
- Sound Pit
- Explosive Mouth
- Galaxy
- Change
- Namelss Wildness
- Teenage Dream
- Liquid Gang
- Carsmile Smith and the Old One
- You've Got To Jive to Stay Alive
- Spanish Midnight
- Interstellar Sound
- Painless Persuasion v. The Meathawk Immaculate
- Avengers (Superbad)
- Leopards featuring Gardenia and the MIghty Slug
- Groover
- Midnight
- Truck On (Tyke)
- Sitting Here
- Satisfaction Pony
- Venus Loon (Disc 2)
- Sound Pit (Parts 1 & 2) (Disc 2)
- Explosive Mouth (Disc 2)
- Galaxy (Disc 2)
- Change (Signs) (Disc 2)
- Nameless Wilness (Disc 2)
- Teenage Dream (Disc 2)
- Liquid Gang (Disc 2)
- Carsmile Smith and the Old One (Disc 2)
- Spanish Midnight (Disc 2)
- Painless Persuasion v. The Meathawk Immaculate (Disc 2)
- Avengers (Superbad) (Disc 2)
- Leopards Featuring Gardenia and the Mighty Slug (Disc 2)
- Groover (Disc 2)
- Midnight (Disc 2)
- Truck On (Tyke) (Disc 2)
- Sitting Here (Sitting There) (Disc 2)
- Satisfaction Pony (Disc 2)
- Nameless Wildness (Disc 2)
- Carsmile Smith and The Old One (Solo) (Disc 2)
- Carsmile Smith and the Old One (With Organ) (Disc 2)
- Painless Persuasion V. The Meathawk Immaculate (Disc 2)
- Avengers (Superbad) (Disc 2)
- Leopards Featuring Gardenia and the Mighty Slug (Disc 2)
Music reviews of Zinc Alloy & The Hidden Riders of Tomorrow
Music Review: awesome experience
Rating: 5 Stars
I bought the 1997 version and despite amazon not listing the bonus tracks, this version DOES in fact include them. Let me describe all five bonus tracks.
"The Groover" has a verse melody that, to me at least, closely resembles Canned Heat's "Let Get Together". Now I personally hate the Canned Heat song, but somehow T Rex makes it work (possibly due to the chorus). "Midnight" quite possibly contains the heaviest and craziest guitar solo in the history of the bands career, and it reminds me of Jimi Hendrix quite a bit. It's absolutely awesome, especially when Marc Bolan keeps repeating the chorus while the intensity of the guitar playing increases more and more. It's funky and borderline heavy metal. "Truck On" occasionally gets criticized (at least, by those who've actually had the privilege of hearing it) for the way the final minute keeps repeating the same chorus over and over again, but I love it all the same. GREAT verse melody too.
"Sitting Here" resembles the verse melody from "Spaceball Ricochet" and perhaps it's even better as far as connecting to the listeners on an emotional level. "Satisfaction Pony" I initially didn't care for, but hearing it again has shown signs of improvement. Now I realize that the song is based on a simple riff that loops for a few minutes, and it's a good one. Not to mention the guitar soloing is really superb as well. I was wrong to say Gloria Jones ruined the song because I now realize her vocals aren't as noticable as I originally believed.
I LOVE the sound quality of the 1997 version too. Everything is extremely *raw* despite the style of glam rock T Rex was creating at the time pointing in a direction that would indicate exactly the opposite. Trust me, the album is loaded with guitar solos, funky rhythms, elements of heavy space rock, gospel and who knows what else.... and it all comes across as insanely raw and surprisingly melodic. I love it.
The liner notes are good too. They reveal just how badly the band was struggling to make it commercially in both America and Europe, so they had to change in order to win over more fans (which is why Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow is a drastic change in the bands style).
I don't quite understand why T Rex's music isn't being put in the same league as Zeppelin or Floyd among the younger crowds these days. An album like the Slider and Electric Warrior surely deserve to be placed in the same league as, say, Zeppelin II or Wish You Were Here. I sincerely mean it.
Not only does T Rex sound good but they also sound *cool* and perfectly appropriate for teenagers looking to let loose and rock out. You'd think teenagers would be able to relate to these lyrics too, the same way they do Nick Drake and Alice Cooper (to name two classic rockers considered to be popular and cool musicians).
Just listen to the aggressively catchy way most of these songs are written. Obviously T Rex isn't in the same category as other glam rockers- T Rex rocks harder, includes better and more creative, dreamier lyrics, and just feels remarkably different from any other glam band before or since. They don't resemble David Bowie, Queen or Slade at *all* for example. No, this stuff is way too sincere, dark, and serious to be in the same category as those three. The one thing that continues to amaze me about the style of T Rex is how this music can sound so dark and yet, so undeniably catchy.
Zinc Alloy & the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow shows T Rex going slightly more mainstream with their sound, a more noticeable amount of Gloria Jones taking on her role delivering those distinctly haunting background vocals, and lyrically this is still the same T Rex that dazzle me in ways that blow most rock artists clear out of the water. Lyrical writing of the highest caliber.
This is so underrated it makes me sick to be honest. Not just the Zinc Alloy album either- I mean, T Rex's entire career. Time can be a real frustrating bummer sometimes. Artists that deserve to be remembered aren't, and yet, an album like Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music receives praise and attention every single day.
Anyway, what makes Zinc Alloy & the Hidden Riders so darn good is the way the music takes the glam rock movement and makes it serious by way of dramatic background arrangements and serious and splendid lyrics.
I originally wasn't the biggest fan of "Teenage Dream" because it felt a little too much like "show tune glam" I guess you could say, but eventually the abundant amount of orchestration and quality lyrics won me over. The rest of the album feels more commercialized and reminiscent of the Slider album. However, the guitar solos on here are *easily* an improvement over even the very best ones found on the Slider. Listen to the guitar solo at the end of "The Avengers" for instance and tell me you're not blown away. A typical glam rock band? I think not. More like a space rock/glam rock explosive combination of madness.
Zinc Alloy still maintains the familiar sound and style of T Rex in all its glory, so its lack of popularity in comparison to other T Rex albums (and especially compared to *other* 70's bands) will probably remain a total mystery to me until the end of time. I don't get it.
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Description of Zinc Alloy & The Hidden Riders of Tomorrow
This edition has been digitally re-mastered from the original analog master tapes. Included are non-album singles following the original record's order. There's also a newly produced bonus CD with a "work-in-progress version" of the album. These songs are rare versions (previously unreleased in the U.S.) arranged to mirror the original running order of the record.Alternative Rock CDs
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