T. Rex

WAX CO SINGLES VOLUME 2 (1975-8)

BOTH EDSEL

If you hit puberty back in the '70s, your first vaguely sexual experience was, perhaps, handing over your 50p to purchase the latest must-have T. Rex single, seven inches of raucous beauty bedecked in a blue-and-red paper sleeve. Someone's had the very fine idea of re-fashioning these period gems on individual CDs and collating them into two box sets, 11 on each. The first roars from "Telegram Sam" through "Solid Gold Easy Action" and "20th Century Boy" to "Teenage Dream", with a bonus outtake from Zinc Alloy to round it off; the second swaggers through "New York City" and "Laser Love", adding a Bolan duet with Gloria Jones. The early B-sides—"Thunderwing", "Cadillac"—are rock at its most supple. Ever.

Rating: 5 / 10