Electric Warrior

Fly released it in the UK and Reprise in the US, with Tony Visconti producing. It was made piecemeal. Early sessions at Trident in London in March 1971 came first. Then, on the band's April American tour, they recorded at Wally Heider Studios in Hollywood and at Mediasound in New York, where Jeepster, Lean Woman Blues and Girl were finished. Mixing followed at AIR in London, and Bolan and Visconti then decided to shape the stockpile into an album. Visconti said the relaxed pace in America, with no goal or pressure, shaped the feel of the songs, and that they did not think they were making an album at all.

Bolan said he was writing about himself for the first time. Visconti used flanging, reverb, backwards guitars, tape loops and a guitar plugged straight into the console. Rick Wakeman is credited with keyboards on Get It On, Ian McDonald of King Crimson played saxophone and Burt Collins played flugelhorn. The cover is by Hipgnosis, from a photograph by Kieron Murphy of Bolan at a Nottingham concert on 14 May 1971, printed in metallic gold on matte black.

It went to number 1 in the UK, and Get It On was the first of its two singles. Ben Gerson's review in Rolling Stone in January 1972 read Bolan's lyrics as aimed at rock and roll cliches. In 2003 Pitchfork's Brian James called it the first and best of a trio of brilliant albums, and the BBC's Chris Jones called it a slice of pop heaven. Rolling Stone placed it at number 160 in its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums.