T. Rex Album: “Futuristic Dragon [Expanded Edition]”

I can certainly understand that in the world of Pop, you're either hot, or you're not. After "Zinc Alloy", which many perceived as a lame "Ziggy Stardust"-styled ...(after Bowie spent so much time stealing from Bolan, ironically), I stopped buying T-Rex records. The reviews at Amazon brought me back to this one. Purportedly recorded before "Zip Gun" (which most people detest), this would've been perceived as a "Diamond Dogs" ...(complete with spoken intro, half-baked thematic concept, etc.), and perhaps by the time it came out, people hadn't even cared to listen anymore, but I must say, I love this album. I bought it three months ago, and I still listen to it every week. It's good, semi-overblown but catchy T.Rex rock. Start with the single (and bonus track) "Laser Love". It's a lost glam gem. Gloria Jones doesn't bother me a bit; this song is a blast. The first five tracks are solid, especially "All Alone" with its swinging violins (I have this perverse love of pre-Bee Gees disco, especially heavily orchestrated tunes). It gets a little soft in the middle, and then gets wonderfully odd at the end, especially with "Dreamy Lady", which is this perverse sorta lounge number that would be at home at any karaoke bar. Am I being facetious? Heck no! This album is Bolan having FUN. It's utterly charming, unpretentious, and wickedly absurd. This could inspire the next Radiohead album! Don't pass it up; it's a keeper.

Certainly not futuristic, but the strongest set of tracks since 1972. I don't understand what was Marc trying to make, a concept album out of a dragon as the main focus of his story or was he in two worlds, we remember his world of Tolkienesque dreams and his other world were he considers himself to be a bionic soulboy. Well all I can say is Bolan was trying to get back to his roots and he nearly pulled of a good record, but that wasn't to be. The album Futuristic Dragon is very complicated and only has a few tracks which make you feel good, songs like Chrome Sitar, All Alone and Sensation Boulevard are excellent. The title intro is superb with an amazing guitar riff and Bolan seems to be coming into his own. The best track on this album would be the top 20 hit single "New York City", partly because Flo and Eddie were doing the backing vocals (for newcomers, these two were former members of the band "Turtles" and were responsible for T-Rex's amazing backing vocals during T-Rex's heyday in the early 70's). Apart from this, songs which are gullible are My Little Baby, Jupiter Liar and Dreamy Lady. The other tracks are better off in the Bolan song rack as a collection and are not good songs, I say this because Bolan's girl friend Gloria Jones who had now taken over the backing vocals of T-Rex made Bolan's songs sound more soul and sour . Marc being a professional could have done better. I know Gloria Jones was a soul singer, but she doesn't give a good performance on Marc's tracks.

Coming back to the Futuristic Dragon Album, you could buy it, but don't expect the music to give you a lift. If you really want to see Marc Bolan making a come back, then buy the "Dandy in the Underground" album since it can be rated among his best work.

I would've given it a 5 except that the bonus tracks are just ok. The album proper, Futuristic Dragon (intro) -Casual Agent, is super tight and a definate Marc Bolan gem.

It's more disco and funky but still retains that sort of trashy fun sound that's so loveable on 'Tanx'. I have 16 T-Rex albums which either makes me an expert or just plain crazy (probably both). This is truely his last great album. There are songs from the 1 or 2 albums afterwards, but basically this is the final complete gem of the late Marc Bolan!

The second album 'Dazzling Arrainment' is pretty good as well. Some of the earlier paired down versions of songs on 'Futuristic Dragon' sound just as good as the originals but produced in a much more paired down raw format.

In short: get these songs and listen to them immediately! It's good for you!

Wow, so let me get this straight. Supposedly Futuristic Dragon was once considered a mediocre recording by the regular record-buying public? It received fairly (or flat out) negative reviews upon the time of its release back in 1976? Is this all true? If so, EVERYBODY was wrong!

Futuristic Dragon rules. Why am I not supposed to like this album? Okay yeah, it does show signs of the time period in which it was recorded with a few songs *sort of* reminiscent of the good old disco days (by "good" I of course mean... yeah, you know). I guess an obvious example is "Dreamy Lady" with slightly noticeable disco beats in the background. STRONG emphasis on *slightly*. I believe there's several other examples of "going disco" that deserve stronger criticism than Futuristic Dragon so let's not all gang up on T Rex here folks. Let's not all gather around and pick on a quality album here!

Actually most of the people here on amazon understand how great it is. I see plenty of 4-star reviews. Nice! I'm going a bit higher than that and giving it a perfect 5 because as far as I can tell, there's really not a single weak moment anywhere.

"Jupiter Liar" sounds like the good old T Rex we fell in love with back in the day, "Chrome Sitar" is just flat out catchy, "All Alone" contains folk rock storytelling elements done in a distinctly clever glam rock kind of way, "New York City" contains an AWESOME MELODY AND CHORUS. Sorry I had to scream there, hehe. It's about a girl walking by with a frog in her hand, but despite the silly lyrics the melody... yes, and the background vocals! YES! It's a keeper.

Alright the album gets a tad worse after that, but only a little bit. "My Little Baby" perhaps suffers from being repetitive but, but... it's constantly repeating a GOOD melody, so that makes it perfectly fine! Alright, finally! I always wanted to know if T Rex could flat out rock without all the glitz and glamour, and they prove it with "Calling All Destroyers". That's a pretty darn cool song. Those guitars remind me of the 80's version of the Moody Blues too. "Sensation Boulevard" contains the same kind of intensity, and perhaps it's even an attempt to capture the spirit of the punk rock movement that was soon approaching? I don't know, maybe.

"Dreamy Lady" as I mention above is a short and catchy disco-influenced pop song, and then we experience a devastating vocal melody in "Dawn Storm". Yes that IS a mighty cool vocal melody. Perhaps it sounds a tad dated, but I can assure you- this is no more dated than, for example, a late 70's Zeppelin album and yet everyone still admires In Through the Out Door like it's no big deal, so an occasionally dated sound shouldn't be a problem here either. "Casual Agent" contains more of that creepy orchestration that's just... so darn creepy. I love it. Actually have you ever heard orchestration used so creatively before? It sort of bounces all over the place while trying to keep up with the vocal melody. That's really unique to me.

Listen to this album. Please! It's better than you're probably thinking judging by the supposed harsh criticism. It holds up better than most people probably thought back in 1976, too.

Futuristic Dragon is one of my more recent T.Rex purchases and is not one I have to play regularly. It seems as though this is a compilation of recorded tracks and aborted ideas between 1975 and 1976 and a tired Bolan put these tracks together instead of creating an album. Half the album could be the unfinished work of a concept album, hence the tracks 'Futuristic Dragon', 'Calling All Destroyers' and 'Theme For A Dragon'. I understand many of the tracks were recorded around the time of Bolan's Zip Gun and Bolan delayed the release of FD so as not to crowd the market. This would explain Mickey Finn's very audible bongos,which had become very hard to pick out in prevous albums, even though he is not credited in the album. Most tracks seem badly produced but in general this is a good album which lacks any real standout songs and originality.