Comments:

You feel in the music that Bolan was in the process of rediscovering himself after having released a number of more or less uninspired albums, since the two classics "Electric Warrior" and "The Slider" from 1971 and 1972 respectively. These two albums were produced by Tony Visconti, and when Bolan and Visconti parted ways it became more difficult for Bolan to reach the musical heights of earlier times.

On "Dandy in the Underworld" it appears that Bolan as a producer tries to look back to Visconti's style and several songs do have some of the old sound. While the album never gets close to the magic of two classic albums, it is mainly because Bolan's songwriting is more uneven and that several of the tracks are actually more or less simple 12 bar blues tracks in various disguise. A highlight is, of course, the irresistible "I Love to Boogie", which had been a pretty big single hit half a year before the album was released.

The title track "Dandy in the Underworld" has a lot of the old sound and is one of the best songs on the album. A version of the track was released without much success on a single. Another great song is "Crimson Moon", which has both classic T Rex sound and the classic boogie beat. The famous boogie beat is repeated on several of the tracks, which unfortunately sound too similar. The last track "Teen Riot Structure", however” is liberatingly different. It is more classic rock with a tight sound featuring organ in the backing; maybe the "new" punk wave was spreading a bit on T. Rex.

Without being able to call "Dandy in the Underworld" a classic, it is, however, a worthy, but far too early, end to a great career.