T. Rex, 20th Century Boy: The Ultimate Collection

If you’re like us, you browse Amazon or Roadrunner, find great CDs to replace your classic vinyl, and suddenly get buyer’s remorse, right before the deed is done. But this is one of those collections that should break our longstanding habit of procrastination. It’s a piece of the secret history of rock ’n’ roll, the smoking gun that connects David Bowie with the Replacements, Led Zep with Spacehog. Forget “Bang A Gong,” that cheap Power Station cover from the mid-80s. This is creepy slick-rock, proto-punk from the humid threshold of the 70s. The fact of the matter is that you really only need Electric Warrior in your collection—the acknowledged T. Rex classic first released in 1971—but since you’ve already got that, and you feel the need to completely immerse yourself in the sick grandeur that is T. Rex, go ahead and tune in, log on, and drop dime.