Third/Sister Lovers

Third is a record that has only grown in my estimation over the years. While previous Big Star records represent the pinnacle of 70s power pop, Third deconstructs their approach amid the band's disintegration. Third stands on its own, but lands much better in context of the band's previous work. It's loaded with the cynicism of a band with so much unmet potential ("Thank You Friends") and yet contains so many moments of broken beauty ("Big Black Car", "Nighttime", "Take Care"). This tender/caustic tension is at the heart of this record's power. Its influence is evident on artists from REM to Wilco and Yo La Tengo. In fact, I often think of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as a spiritual successor to this record. Their similarly fraught creation and off-kilter production follow much more pop-oriented efforts by each band. Favourite songs: "Big Black Car", "Kanga Roo", "You Can't Have Me", "Blue Moon", "Nightime"

Big Star didn’t end. It imploded. Third is its wake.

“Third/Sister Lovers” by Big Star (1978) Never heard this album nor this group, although I loved lead singer Alex Chilton’s #1 hit “The Letter” (1967) with the Box Tops when Chilton was only 16 years old (and I was only 12!). For an album produced in 1978, though, the recording and mix is not good. Too little separation, and primitive, unimaginative mixing. But musically, it is inventive. One can only imagine how much better this would have sounded if it were produced at Abbey Road, or The Hit Factory or even Muscle Shoals. Lyrics lack depth and originality. The suggestion is out there that “Thank You Friends” is a sarcastic condemnation of how badly Big Star was treated by the recording industry. Listened to from this perspective, it’s much better than if heard as a straightforward expression of gratitude. “Jesus Christ” is listed, but not playable, on Spotify. What’s up with that? The lyrics suggest a hymnic reflection on the singing of angels at the birth of Christ. It would be nice to hear it. One can get a taste of it in the twenty second sample on the iTunes Store. It’s not that impressive, chiefly because of the poor production. Too bad. “Femme Fatale” provides a good example of the band’s musical skills, and they are so-so. Alex Chilton’s simple lead vocal shows that he struggles with pitch at the softer end of his dynamic range, and the backing vocals (including his girlfriend Lesa Aldrege?) are even worse. Bass playing by Jim Dickinson is really good. His contribution to the band’s sound is probably a main reason for whatever success they had. “Holocaust” uses the systematic murder of six million Jews as a metaphor for the feelings of a woman whose mother just died a natural death. Yuck. This kind of pretentious appropriation is what gives much popular music a bad name. “Stroke It Noel” employs backing strings which are very poorly performed, and even more poorly recorded. I have keep reminding myself that this album was released in 1978. It would be a bad recording even if it had been released ten years earlier. Anyway, the lyrics on this song, the chorus of which is based on (uncredited) Bobby Freeman’s 1958 song “Do You Wanna Dance?”, are trite. The lines “Keeping an eye on the sky/Will they come, oh the bombs?” is anachronistic. By 1978, the fear of nuclear war was very much diminished from what we experienced in, say 1963, thanks to the U.S. effort in the Cold War, which is largely unappreciated today. (Full disclosure: I participated in the Cold War for the four years prior to this album’s release. But no hard feelings [smirk].) A pattern emerges here. Big Star takes hugely important issues and reduces them to triviality. This was ok in the 1950s and early 60s, but they seem to be lacking self awareness and compositional maturity in 1978. And for a band to call itself “Big Star” when it was anything but is, well, sad. Overall, I’m not sure why this is considered a cult classic, but cult defies justification anyway. Coulda died without this one. 1/5

I've always loved this, and this love has only deepened over time.

Man, Big Star is that traditional rock band that you HAVEN'T heard of. Once you click, however, you'll stick.

Meh

Meh

Easy listening but easily forgettable too

Hindsight is a funny thing. Big Star's Third wasn't readily available to the public upon it's release, so it gained a big of a mysterious quality to fans, especially considering this record's defining quality was the disintegration of the band. What happened to make this the last Big Star record, and what made Alex Chilton abandon his band's signature sound only to wander the deserts of underground musical genres for the next 15 years. The production, while rough and borderline unfinished in places, have a real magical quality in the context of the band's history. They achieved pop perfection with songs like "September Gurls", but here we get a look behind the scenes, at the raw emotions Jody Stephens and Chilton were feeling. Their music had remained in the shadows, and that hurt and anguish is felt through an album that feels like it's being stitched together before your very eyes. I agree with Nick about this record having a huge impact on bands like Yo La Tengo, REM, Wilco, the Replacements, Teenage Fanclub, etc. etc. I'm not always in the mood for the depths and tension in this album, but it's a masterpiece by my account. Fav tracks: Kanga Roo, Thank You Friends, Blue Moon, You Can't Have Me, For You, Big Black Car

I like the big star

Big Black Car Femme Fatale Blue Moon Nature Boy Dream Lover

This was great power pop - both catchy and twisted. Reading the history of the band alongside is fascinating. Is this the definitive version of this album? What even is a definitive version? The production sounds so fresh.

Big Star were a fav among college friends. Mostly #1 record and radio city though. This one is a bit too sloppy and unfocused for me.

When there are 1001 albums on the list, there are bound to be several albums that I won't be able to explain why they are on the list. This was a first listen to a band I've never heard of. This isn't the worst album I've heard so far, but it didn't even make it to "okay".

El disco va mejorando según lo escuchas. Te atrapa. Femme fatale.

Thank you friends Wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you I'm so grateful for all the things you helped me do All the ladies and gentlemen Who made this all so probable Thank you, friends I rejoice to the skies Dear ones like you do the best I do As far as can see my eyes THIS is why I started listening to this list - I never heard of or heard this album before, and its excellent! 5/5

Saved Prior: None Saved Off Rip: Stroke It Noel, Blue Moon, Till The End Of The Day Cutting Edge: None Overall Notes: Despite the fact that I didn't save a lot of songs, this was a cool listen. It puts the disintegration of a band and of a man front and center and you can hear that in the music. Is it for casual listening? Absolutely not. This is another album that I'll be returning to over the summer when I can really immerse myself in the world of the album. As it is now, I'll give it a 4 and keep it saved to my albums on Spotify.

Bibelmusik meint meine Frau. Inhaltlich nicht gecheckt aber irgendwie hat sie schon wieder recht

Left little impression. Not for me

forgettable

Maudlin and sleepy

When this album started, I thought I was going to enjoy it. However, I found it a bit durgy and nothingy. I can't say it really.kept my attention

Very meh.

Kann ich nix mit anfangen. Ich weiß nicht, was das soll.

initial impression: yikes... dreadfully boring Painful vocals, generic sound, kill me. 'Holocaust' was decent.

Ha ha ha ha what the fuck?

An excellent album. Ahead of its time, but great songs in their own right as well.

cool

A fractured, unsettling masterpiece that is decades ahead of its time. Third is not the easiest album to connect with, but there's something in these songs that's haunting and beautiful. It's all at once prickly and elegant, with an emotional honesty that's pretty breathtaking. Big Star's well documented distribution problems and bad timing may have kept their music from reaching an audience in their day. But for many of us who have been lucky enough to find them in the decades since, this is music that just burns itself into you. It has incredibly staying power, even 45 years on. If you know anything about Big Star, you know that Third is really Alex Chilton's album (with Jody Stephens, to a far lesser extent) and that the original band was done at this point. Some have described this as an album about a relationship crumbling, or the band crumbling, but it's also about Chilton's fragmenting sense of self and of what he thought he could do with music. It's notable that after Chilton put Third behind him, he went into the New York punk scene and evolved into a whole new sound. This album doesn't sound like Chilton's solo work, but it is his creative launching point. There are remnants of the muscular yet dreamy power pop that dominates Big Star's first 2 albums, but this work is less structured and more experimental than the others. It's a sound that contrasts deliberate atonality/raggedness with more polished, classically informed piano and string arrangements. Chilton is able to take the music into some very dark spaces that are equal parts ethereal and heart rending, with odd occasional moments of whimsy and brightness. If you enjoyed this, I strongly recommend taking the time to listen to the album Complete Third, not to mention the first 2 albums. Also, the documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me is a must see. Fave Songs (All songs, from most to least favorite, 1978 PVC US LP version): For You; Stroke It Noel; Blue Moon; Nightime; Kanga Roo; Holocaust; Big Black Car; Femme Fatale; O, Dana; Take Care; Nature Boy; Dream Lover; You Can't Have Me; Jesus Christ; Kizza Me; Thank You Friends; Downs.

Most haunted (non) album of all times Prefs: TOUT Moins prefs: RIEN

An album I've never listened to before now. And I've heard a lot of these songs before because they've been covered by bands I like (This Mortal Coil, Placebo, Jeff Buckley) or are covers themselves like Femme Fatale. A very interesting ramschackle of an album that seems to have had more success among musicians than it did commercially. And now listening to the entire album a 4th time it dawns on me why it is. My first listen was a decidedly 'meh'-experience. But it sure is growing, into an album I would listen to again and again, especially songs like Holocaust and Kanga Roo. It's dark, it's emotional it's terribly played. Absolutely amazing album. 4,5*

El disco va mejorando según lo escuchas. Te atrapa. Femme fatale.

Nice

My first thought when queuing this up was what it would sound like if Sixpence None The Richer covered "Kizza Me." Then I heard the songs. I'm impressed. There's a bit of a Velvet Underground repetitive-but-interesting drone going on (which ironically we see less on display in their VU cover of "Femme Fatale"), as well as some Bowie here, similar in vocal delivery and in trying to stay accessible while attempting new things in production, instrumentation, or chord and song structure. I even hear early Flaming Lips' guitar rockets à la "Five Stop Mother Superior Rain." This is not heavy Zeppelin 1978, nor full-on 70's psychedelia, but some sort of proper tea sippin' pseudo-glam. I love the "Nature Boy" cover as well; this and some other songs sort of fall apart timelessly while it's playing. There is something cinematic about much of the album, but more like a dramatic blockbuster movie performed live by your local amateur theatre company and local volunteer orchestra. The mid-tempo and slower songs are really the heart and soul of Third/Sister Lovers; the faster rockers aren't bad, but feel a little more pomp and fluff compared to the beautiful arrangements and performances that over-shadow them. The inability to label Third/Sister Lovers accurately is one of the things I love about it. As the album continues, it stays in and explores the world it creates. You don't know what's coming next, but it is always true to form, even though you can't quite find the form. It defines itself. This is truly a unique album. Big Star, I'm now a big fan.

makes me wanna check out even more big star

"Third/Sister Lovers" is the third album by American rock band Big Star. The songs on the album were recorded at Memphis' Ardent Studios in 1974 but never got properly released until 1978 due to financial issues, the uncommercial sound of the album and the lack interest from bandmembers' Alex Chilton (vocals, guitars, keyboards) and Jody Stephens (drummer). Bruce Dickinson produced this power pop and alternative rock album which documents the band's deterioration and declining mental state. It did not do well commercially but gained critical notoriety during the 80's and is considered a cult classic. I followed the song listing order from the 1992 Rykodisc release. Guitar slashes, a forward bass and a bouncey piano kick off "Kizza Me." Very 1970's rock power pop. Strings eventually added at the end. He wants to feel her deep inside. A doo-doo vocal intro begins "Thank You Friends." This is slower with strings and background female singers. Layered music and a guitar solo. A positive message as Alex is thanking all of us for making it. "Jesus Christ" has a electric guitar carrying the melody augmented by a piano and a pop-rock beat. A chorus with backing singers and we get a sax solo! "Holocaust" has a piano and echoing slide guitar. An eerie atmosphere with strings added in this sad and heartbreaking song. He's looking in the mirror at himself nearly dead and the song ends with him saying he's a holocaust. "Kanga Roo" has an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, idiosyncratic drums and and percussion and a background grinding noise. I think the whole "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" album by Wilco is based on this song. The album closes with "Take Care." Strings and acoustic guitar in this slow waltz. We are firmly in baroque pop. Chilton is begging everyone to take care in an emotionally drained voice. There are a number of versions of this album with different song orders. I like the order of this version; it pretty much firmly divides the album. The first half of this album is power pop with catchy melodies. A more positive tone with layered music. The second half has slower songs and more added strings falling more in the baroque pop category. Heartbreaking and beautiful with Chilton's tenor voice emotional and emotionally drained. This a wonderful album with a deeply talented artists and deep songs. A must listen.

One of the biggest surprises I've had so far

A lot like the Velvet Underground but different in interesting ways

I have to say, I'm surprised seeing how few 5 star ratings there are for this album, but I guess Big Star doesn't resonate with everyone. I've been obsessed with Big Star since discovering them in 1992 when Rykodisk put out the Live album and the Jim Dickinson version of this one. I'm not sure what it is that made them so magical - some combination of the music and the story I suppose. Of the material that they released, which was unfortunately not a lot, this is my favorite. The songs are incredibly beautiful, strange, dark, and fragile. They feel as if they could fall apart at any moment, and in some cases they do. A reflection of Alex Chilton's mental state at the time I guess. "Get me out of here, I hate it here," from Nightime breaks my heart every time. Since I already know this album inside and out, I took the opportunity today to listen to Complete Third, the 2016 Omnivore release that includes all the demo versions, rough takes, and ultimately the masters. It's 3 hours long, so it's a lot, but it's a treat to hear how beautiful these songs already were at the demo stage with just acoustic guitar (or piano in a couple of cases) and Alex's lilting falsetto, and then how they were fleshed gradually with strings and other instruments. It's also a treat hearing some of the cover versions he chose to play around with, in particular the Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale and the Beach Boys Don't Worry Baby, which can only be found on the Complete release. His voice was a beautiful fit for those songs. It's a shame that Alex turned his back on the type of music he was making at this point in his life. I've never been a big fan of his solo work, but he was who he was, and that's partly what makes him great. A musical genius for sure, and this album is the best evidence of that. 5 stars.

Not a huge fan of the first song on the album, but it only goes up from there. Genuinely hard to pick favorite songs, but “Thank You Friends,” “Jesus Christ,” “Femme Fatale,” and “Kanga Roo” are probably near the top. In addition to being a great album, the history behind it is super fascinating. I just love Big Star.

For a long time, there's been a misunderstanding between this album and me. But today's suggestion to have yet another go at it, and to listen to it *properly* this time around, puts that misunderstanding to rest, once and for all. This is an extraordinary LP, the sort of record that attracts a cult following indeed. And now, I understand why, finally. I believe that my initial misunderstanding of *Third / Sister Lovers* stems from misguided expectations. Its first two tracks, "Kizza Me" and "Thank You Friends" sounded nice enough, but Alex Chilton's frail voice on those two power-pop cuts suggested that his "big star" was irremediably fading, and that his vocal performance couldn't stand the comparison with the one on *#1* and *Radio City*. Which brought another level of misunderstanding on my part: I thought that fans of this album mostly loved it for extra-musical reasons, because the recording sessions for *Third* also documented Chilton's sad descent into a personal emotional turmoil that made listening to the music a sort of voyeuristic experience. I suspected that the positive reponses to this record was too much influenced by such a sensational context (just as it did for Syd Barrett's solo output). If you add the two layers of misunderstanding, it sort of "blocks" a more open-minded and spontaneous assessment of the music *actually* played, the sorts of risk it takes. And how those risks can eventually pay off. The thing is, rather than comparing this LP with Big Star's early releases, I should have compared it with later "essential albums" by other acts inspired by them later on. Because the entropic and emotionally raw nature of *Third* indeed foretells those later great albums in surprisingly prophetic ways. There's an illuminating review at the top of this section, which basically says that without this LP, there wouldn't be Wilco's *Yankee Hotel Foxtrot*. That take was an eye-opener for sure. Or should I say, an "ear-opener". The messy-yet-delicate aesthetics are indeed the same. "Jesus Christ" is even a close cousin of "Jesus, etc.", and not only because of the similar titles, but because of the music itself. Chilton and Stephenson were inspired by timeless muses here, even if they consciously thought they were getting nowhere during the sessions. Another reference point is This Mortal Coil, whose *It'll End In Tears*'s tracklisting displayed cover versions of *Holocaust* and "Kangaroo", two uncompromising cuts that make for a challenging listen, owing to the bluntly depressive nature of the first and the experimental, partly-improvised (?) instrumentation of the second. No wonder Ivo Watts-Russel was drawn to those off-kilter compositions like a moth to a flame. Yet the original versions have their own special kinds of light as well. A muted, chiaroscuro sort of light, admittedly, but one that elicits a deep response if you're in the right melancholy mood for it. All of this is well, but on their own, those elements wouldn't fully redeem the record for me. What does redeem it however is how incredible the second side of the album sounds and feels, with a stellar string of breathtaking and devastating ballads, most of them enhanced by incredible chamber orchestra arrangements. Those cuts, "Stroke It Noel", "For You", "Blue Moon" and "Take Care" are the true gems of this LP. And the latter song, which concludes the original tracklisting, is also a pretty obvious influence on my friend Nick Wheeldon's music and songwriting (very few people outside of France know Nick, but if you like or love this Big Star record, I cannot encourage you enough to check out his recent albums, available on Spotify--they're worthy of a list like this for sure, it's THAT good). So here I am, falling in love with *Third / Sister Lovers* at last. Glad I've just found a rather cheap secondhand copy of this album online (with the same tracklist as the one found in those links on this app). You know how the saying goes, "true love waits" sometimes. 4.5/5 for the purposes of this list, rounded up to 5. 9.5/10 for more general purposes. Number of albums left to review: 138 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 370 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 218 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 278

Interesting and worthwhile album that I had not heard before.

Almost 800 albums in and yet I know nothing of Big Star, aside from random songs I've picked up in my life ("The Letter", sung by Alex Chilton pre-Big Star; "You and Your Sister" by Chris Bell after the band split). This album was recorded in 1974, released in 1978, yet the version of the book emphasizes the 1992 version with bonus tracks. Apple Music says it sounds nothing like their previous output. I'm beginning to think this is not an easy intro to this band... but of course, I just go where RNGesus commands. edit: I was mistaken, this is awesome; guess I’m a Big Star fan now 👍 HL: “Thank You Friends”, “Big Black Car”, “Jesus Christ”, the “Femme Fatale” cover, “For You”, “Take Care”, "Dream Lover" (bonus) May 13, 2024

имба. темная лошадка. темные поп-рок баллады с красивыми инструменталами. музыка похожа на пинкфлойд, а вокал на тома йорка, учитывая, что всё это было в 70ых

This album really does feel like falling apart, but does so in a beautiful way. Favorite tracks: "For You" and "Nature Boy."

Perhaps one of the few times when I'm purposefully listening to a version of an album with multiple bonus and re-arranged tracks, as it seems that is the intended album layout not only according to the original artists, but also what Robert Dimery has me listening to with the 1001 Albums list. I'm not complaining, as even if the bonus tracks are weaker than the meat and potatoes of the album, tracks like Nature Boy are fantastic covers, and earn their place. The main bulk of the album, though, is utterly fantastic! It's wonky, production and tone is all over the pace, and it is just plain a mess, but within that chaos is perhaps some of the best pop to bless music. It starts strong enough with Kizza Me sounding nothing like the band's prior power pop, but it's the variation that allows it to stand out all the more. Alex Chilton, at his most explosive, sounds very personal and vulnerable, and it almost gives his voice this feminine, glam cadence, but with all the punch of a singer who knows how to pull at the heart strings. However, it's when the album slows down that really blows me away. The back-to-back of Holocaust into Kanga Roo is mind-blowing, and nearly had me chocked up by the end, and nearly every song from then on was an emotional punch in the gut in the best of ways. Even when the pop rock roots returned, there was always this tinge of melancholia, and when this was their final run, their final record, it must have really felt like goodbye. Hell, it still does, and it truly is a great feeling to experience via music. There are a few songs that don't reach their full potential, but this album is so loaded that it doesn't matter. I mean, even on top of great song after great song, you have a wonderful Velvet Underground cover, and still a handful of power pop masterpieces to get the blood moving, but this album, despite feeling nothing like Big Star's prior two albums, feels like the perfect culmination of every emotion Big Star ever evoked, and despite the messy outcome, I think that only adds to the bittersweet emotions this album spawns, and that easily makes it my favorite of their records.

Absolutely beautiful. Classic sound and very interesting songwriting. Touching and strong. The ballads here are spot on. Holocaust, Kanga Roo, Blue moon, take care. So great.

What a great record! Many missing tracks on Spotify which is a bummer. Great adventures in songwriting and melody here.

#1 Record, Radio City and Third should all 3 be in the 1001.

Genial disco. Relajado, nostálgico, conmovedor. Y que sorpresa encontrarme Nature boy ahí.

A few exceptional songs

I really like this. It's kind of funny the day before I listened to The Strokes' Is This It, and honestly this feels like it's of the same era. It holds up really well. I never would have guessed this was pre 80s music.

Another album that defies classification. It contains elements of punk, new wave, symphonic pop, and experimental music. Lyrically, the album is dark and brooding which pairs well with the power pop underpinnings. Nothing about this album is straightforward. It is challenging but incredibly rewarding.

Missing link from Beatles to REM/Elliot Smith. Love this record.

El disco va mejorando según lo escuchas. Te atrapa. Femme fatale.

I loved #1 Record's 70s rock vibe a lot. This album is quite different in feel. The album opened in a not unexpected way with Kizza Me. But then it descends into darkness bottoming out with the haunting "Holocaust." This is a beautiful album whose eclecticism really appealed to me. The songs are stunning. Gorgeous string arrangements had me swooning, especially in songs like "For You." The eclecticism of this album is held together by the an underlying melancholy that makes this an album I expect will be something I return to often. Haunting and beautiful.

The influence for so many great bands in the 90s

This is a great album but it required a couple of replays from me to fully appreciate it. Definitely not something to just put in the background. The listing is a mess and varies in each issue, which results in sudden change of moods and styles. I was listening to Spotify version with a few bonus tracks. I can definitely see how this band and the album (which I have never listened to prior) was so influential to (mainly) American alternative bands. There's a wide spectrum of genres that can be spotted on the album, from powerpop (O, Dana), baroque pop (For You), glam rock (You Can't Have Me) and more folky tunes (Big Black Car). My favorites are the ballads which go from extremely sad and depressing (Holocaust, Big Black Car) to sweet love songs (Blue Moon, For You). I also enjoyed a lot the bonus track - Till The End of The Day which sounds like the Beatles meets powerpop. I also love the fragile voice of the singer, at times on the verge of completely breaking down. The only thing I did not care for was the Holocaust analogy, I think its a bit over the top and unneccessary, sounded a bit juvenile. Overall, the album is not only relevant thanks to its later influences, but also is a great piece of music on its own.

I really loved that production all around really enjoyable - 10/10

alex chilton the woman that you are ❤️

El disco va mejorando según lo escuchas. Te atrapa. Femme fatale.

Often heard about them when reading REM interviews in the music press way back when, but pre-streaming/internet I would never hear them. So I guess now I'm going to hear them. The full album is on A***on Music, which trump's Spotify's pitiful offering of missing tracks. And, well, it's beautiful. Of course I was going to like this as a lifelong fan of REM, particularly their early stuff, of which this is most reminiscent, or vice versa. You can absolutely hear the Replacements too, and stuff like the Green Pajamas. Yes the production is loose as fuck, but for me thats all part of the charm. There's great tunes here, that vary between up tempo freak outs (You can't Have Me) and quietly devastating (Holocaust). Kanga Roo feels like a precursor to shoegaze in places and is absolutely wonderful. Anyway I'm a sucker for the mythology around 'lost' records like this, and 'Smile', with tracks scattered around all over the place, where noone can agree on the running order. Then someone finally does, decades later. Love it.

4.5

4.0

Big sad.

Pretty good heartbreak album

Enjoyed this- too many songs and too long but great song writing. 4/5

good stuff

1001 Alex a Hilton albums generator. Not as good as #1 Record, so not sure that all the Big Star albums needed to be on the list. Enough good songs to make it a keeper, though

Reading the reviews for this one you'd think people were listening to a completely different album. Had heard some Big Star (and this album too) before, but after giving it a couple of good listens it really started to open up to me. Plenty of variety from song to song, you've got some hard rockers in here, and also some of the most beautiful songs i've heard in a while. A real treat for the ears, and will be checking them out a lot more in the future i'm sure.

In my mind, Big Star are a new wave band from the mid-1980s so it consistently blows my mind that their peak creative period was actually the '70s. This album, be it Sister Lovers or Third, doesn't sound like a product of the late 70s. It has a much crisper sound, no doubt signalling how ahead of its time this band was. And behold the pop stylings!

Tight!

Amazingly, this album still sounds timeless and fresh despite being from 1978. Some of these are quite beautiful midnight guitar ballads of love or regret. How is it some albums can sound terrible, forced, dated, awkwardly produced by amateurs, and this one still sounds to current, universal and well made ? So finally another wonderful “discovery” album... so much to it, too. Nice to have this for phase two of my use of the 1001 list. I am using it to not just listen and rate, btu also understand why on album is considered important or influential... The 1001 book isn't much help (uses too much impenetrable ‘insider’ shorthand ) so I resort to internet articles and they say enough when I ask basic questions like “why is big star considered influential?" Yes, evidently this band is held responsible for what we recognise as 80's and 90's "alternative pop" sound, or our beloved, lamenting university radio (or Triple J in Australia) at the time. This - they say - is the most influential band no one has heard of. My online search yielded this (rolling stone) comment: "It's a record of gorgeous, disjointed heartbreak ballads." and this (from “insidehook”) that “Third wouldn’t have sounded out of place on ’90s college rock radio at all." I agree. It still sounds current... yes, hauntingly good stuff and sounds fully 1990's and very playable at midnight. their languid stuff is very good indeed if you're in the mood for it. Standout for me were: Dream Lover , Nature Boy, Night time- sound so perfectly ahead of their time. and do remind me of a softer version of REM . I did note that Chris Bell (vocals, guitar) sounds, to my ear, very, VERY Australian on Motel Blues (on another album).

I first came across 'Holocaust' and "Kangaroo' as (exquisitely tasteful) covers on the first This Mortal Coil album, which I listened to a lot over the years. Big Star were one of those bands you heard about, but their records were just impossible to come by, and, in fairness, this one wasn't even really an album. It has been released on a variety of labels, under different titles, with different track listings, and, while their is a now a complete set of recordings available, there is no definitive album. It really surprised me to read that these songs had been extensively demoed before recording, because these recordings are chaotic and damaged. The songs are haunting and often sadly beautiful, but the recordings fucked up (pardon my french). And I can understand why record companies didn't want to touch it. According the Pitchfork: "Fry shopped the album to labels in 1975 in the hopes of recouping some of the money poured into the project. Nobody bit. Lenny Waronker at Warner asked, 'I don’t have to listen to that again, do I?' Over at Atlantic, Jerry Wexler claimed 'This record makes me feel very uncomfortable.'" It was more than three years until it got its initial release on an indie label, well after the band had split up (and it is even debatable whether this was ever a Big Star album). There are aspects of the album that speak to care and ambition (the strings arrangements, for example), but much of the album seems deliberately bad sounding. This adds to the discomforting feeling that the album imbues, and even Alex Chilton's voice (So strong and compelling in the Box Tops) is fragile here. The songs are intense, and I can see why this band and this album have become cult favourites, highly influential on many alternative artists in the 80s and 90s. I want to mention This Mortal Coil, Jeff Buckley, REM, and Sparklehorse, off the top of my head. Stephen Deusner in Pitchfork writes "For many listeners-- including, for a few years, me-- Big Star were more legend than band. They were the beloved patron saints for struggling musicians: These albums were inspired and inspiring but never found a wide audience, yet the fact that they eventually became so revered offered encouragement to young songwriters with their own dream of big stardom and No. 1 records. Even if you never found an audience in your prime, you could always hope for later cult success. And to some extent, of course, the myth overtook the music" I have listened to this through a number of times today. It is uncomfortable and haunting, but there is a depth there. The myth of the album is almost overwhelming, but these are songs that I am learning to love. It's a weird and difficult album though. It's a challenge to give this a star rating; it's got some really beautiful aspects, but it is also so broken. I'm really struggling to know what to think. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

This is fantastic. I've listened to Matthew Sweet and the dB's, which likely are closely related descendants. Til the End of the Day is wonderful blistering and the rest of the album is both strong lyrically and musically. Really enjoy the somewhat haphazard energy and delivery.

Ik ben deze band de laatste jaren meer en meer gaan luisteren en waarderen. Een grote inspirator voor veel artiesten / bands die ik hoog in het vaandel heb staan. Op dit specifieke album staan aardig wat nummers die ik al heel goed kende, maar dan in een cover versie van Jeff Buckley, Posies, Placebo. Dat maakt het nu 'ontdekken' van deze band nog leuker.

Tuneful and ragged, sweet and bitter, they were REM before REM were REM, and the influence on indie rock could not be clearer or more pronounced. This reads as hollow as it is haunting.

This was good

Enjoyable but not really near classic status for me.

Great listen. Standouts: Femme Fatal, Holocaust, Jesus Christ, Thank You Friend, Kanga Roo, and more! 4/5

Disco de rock que comienza movido y con mucha energía. Poco a poco se vuelve más oscuro, más melancólico. Las melodías más complejas se vuelven más simples y personales. No va de más a menos necesariamente, solo es un cambio marcado de humor. 3.5 estrellas que no debería subir o bajar. Sube a 4 porque no esperaba mucho de ellos.

Loved it, these guys rule

Big Star's original run was pretty flawless, but this is the least captivating of those three albums for me. Still, the least good of three pretty great things is, believe it or not, also pretty great.

Most of this was enjoyable, I like the shoegazey before shoegazey was a thing-ness of Kangaroo but the happy-clappy Jesus song and the absolutely abysmal Velvet Underground cover? Not for me Clive.

Nice 🤯🤯

Banger!

Really interesting record with a lot of beautiful songs, especially the cover of the masterpiece "Femme Fatale" by The Velvet Underground and Nico.

I adore Big Star, but this is my least favourite of their 3 recorded albums. A very arty, dark, and jagged bunch of songs that reflect some inner turmoil in the mind and life of Alex Chilton. I wish more bands were like Big Star.

Great ”lost” album. Would have loved to hear a whole album with the somber sound of tracks like ”Holocaust” but I can’t really complain about getting more power pop songs from Big Star

4/5. The tracks that hit, hit dumb hard, but the ones that dont, kinda weak

Big Black Car. I love the dreamy vibe. That's a great drum solo on Nighttime. Really competent. Fairly eclectic, particularly for the time. I enjoyed it.

One of most refined cult bands in history. Only three records, each of them a masterpiece in its own terms. This one's the last, the most mature, melancholic, musical, complex of them three. Sometimes it is so beautiful it hurts

As much as I love Big Star, I don't listen to this album enough. I enjoy so much about it. In some ways, I really like that this album sees the band getting a little weirder, but that creates some inconsistency and uneven moments...minor complaints for an album I still love.

Really nice pop-rock with an alt-country twist that goes down easy. Some heavy stuff here (in subject matter) but all really easy to listen to. I've been meaning to dig deeper into Big Star so I'm glad this popped up.

Je compte arrêter de distribuer les quatre sur cinq à tout va après cet album, vous êtes prévenus.

Can really see how it influenced bands like the Replacements. Or specifically the Replacements. A little more moody esoteric than my preference but still good to listen to and culturally relevant.

Seems to be here because their first two albums are so remarkable. By this point, Big Star was moving away from power pop, and that hurts (although I still swear by "Thank You Friends" in the power pop pantheon). You could make an argument that this wasn't even Big Star anymore, just Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens and some session musicians. I'll also hear an argument this is Big Star's white album, which tracks with the erratic songs and the feel of a band (or what was left of them) drifting apart. Chris Bell was already gone at this point, so it was really just the Alex Chilton show.

Big Star is known as "the most influential band you've never heard of." I'm pretty sure I have listened to this album before. I will say that it sounds more like a 90's album from someone like Blink 182 or Teenage Fanclub than from the 1970's.

Much darker than I anticipated. Solid songs, and their influence can easily be heard from this album, especially with The Replacements.

Their version of Femme Fatal is great. Other standout tracks: Holocaust, Thank You Friends, Big Black Car, and many many more! Really great album! 4/5