Ballrooms of Mars

Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow

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Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow - A Creamed Cage in August is an album that exists. Why does it exist? I have no idea, but I made the album cover in Animal Crossing, and now it's in the music room of my house. [wip, give proper write up] The long album title supposedly wasn't on purpose. It's been noted that Marc Bolan said that once he achieved the level of fame he wanted, he would rename the band to Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow and essentially start over from scratch. His record company pressured him into not going through with this change to prevent confusion from audiences. The "Marc Bolan & T. Rex" label was slapped on top of the album cover to indicate the album's artist (although, I think Marc's face is enough to let you know who the band is). It's also worth noting that the Zinc Alloy character has roots in the 60s, and was always meant to be brought out at the height of Bolan's fame.

My personal thoughts

Zinc Alloy could be good. Not great, but good. The main issue I see in these tracks is that they're lacking something or another, or they have too much going on. [wip] The main downfall for these songs, I feel, are the backing vocals. I have no issue with the backing vocals being more soulful-- I actually really like soul vocalists. Humble Pie is one of my favorite groups partially because of their soulful songs. My issue is that they just feel too overused on Zinc Alloy, to the point where they overpower Marc's vocals. There isn't a good balance between the leading and backing vocals which leaves them being more annoying than pleasant to listen to. "The Avengers (Superbad)" is a notable example of this. It was hard hearing what Marc was singing because the backup singers didn't quiet down until later on into the song, which is also when his singing had stopped. Unless you're not supposed to hear Bolan on purpose, that is not good mixing. [wip] A lot of the songs have a campy or dated feel to them. Normally I wouldn't mind this campiness, but it doesn't do the album many favors. The sound of "Teenage Dream" just has this very out of touch feel to it, although I do think it's somewhat charming. I can't say the same about the other tracks. That sort of grand sounding song was also attempted with "Liquid Gang" but ultimately comes off as annoying there. [wip]

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