Third/Sister Lovers

Ass

Very lethargic. Lyrically uninteresting. Also, comparing a personal tragedy to a Holocaust is embarrassing. Find new words. The Nature Boy cover near the end was pleasant (though worse than several other versions I've heard)

Dull

Mostly just slow and whiny, and the times they tried to shake it up and with something more pop/rock weren't really able to save it

some great new ideas musically scattered throughout the album, but the overall execution is quite abysmal. i see why this might have a cult following. big star is, unfortunately, not getting my following this time

A relatively calm album with one or two weird screechy moments but not much overall, feels maybe a bit progressive for the 70s but have no other real references.

For as much as I’ve said that I love Big Star, I never got around to listening to their third album. I’m sure I heard at some point that it wasn’t as good as #1 Record, so I never bothered. It’s really good but it doesn’t really have a cohesive sound. Has the feel of a great rarities album. Still, the hooks are their and they had me playing this on repeat yesterday.

Started bad and got worse. I truly don’t know how they got to three of these. While the inexplicable Christmas song and xylophone were fun, I really didn’t enjoy this, either the lyrics, vocals, or instrumentals. Just annoying.

A fine album with a nice enough variety

God, I just can't stand the vocals on this album. It's like nails dragging down a chalkboard. Drums were fun to listen to.

The ratio of "up its own ass" and "cool" is off for this one. The lyrics aren't as clever as the singer thinks and a lot of it is meandering fluff that doesn't deserve to score melancholy points.

I don't get this album. It did nothing for me.

too long, too boring and too few moments where the album tries not to be boring

Pretty good

Not sure it flows as well as #1 Record, but a good album ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Good stuff

OMG the dean blunt sample. i already loved it now i love it more cuz im a big fat loser fucker. aside from that i loved this. super dense and detailed pop rock. really emotional and intimate, this is my fav from big star fs excellent album

Long rubbish

No idea if the problem is with me or with the world, but I really fail to see how this has the reputation it does. If you’re trying to really expand out the ideas of your British Invasion-y pop rock music to the point of commercial collapse, this is really boring for most of the time and doesn’t sound especially notable. If you’re just trying to self-sabotage your work, same problem and also I don’t really care to listen to you do that. I’m glad other people get something out of the wobbliness of it and the simple lyrics, but yeah, nah, I’m out.

This definitely got more engaging as it went along but not enough to make me want to return to it

I thought it started off strong and then fell off for me, listened to it twice but just couldn’t get into it properly

Booring

It was fine, just existed in the background.

This started as glam rock in the worst way, but then got to some more mellow and acoustic tracks that I really enjoyed. Their rendition of Femme Fatale was solid.

Solid

Came out in 1978, sounds like a bad album from 1964. I'm baffled that this is well regarded. Nothing about it is a good listening experience and it ends with a terrible cover of a 50s song. 1 star

I fell in love with Big Star circa 2015 shortly after I watched the documentary from around that time on the band, which was instantly one of my favorite rockumentaries of all time. #1 Record and Radio City were soon occasional “listen to all the way through every once in a while” albums for me. But Third? Didn’t click with me, for a long time, and I didn’t come back to it like their first two albums. I remember thinking Kanga Roo was great, but it wasn’t until revisiting it for this project and given it two listens back to back that I fully appreciated how good this album is. It’s like Alex decided to give up on “making it” and poured his creativity into an album without the pressure to. He’d get much weirder later in his later non-Big Star projects, but this is Big Star weird and it’s brilliant. What an amazing song crafter and singer that guy was.

Stroke It Noel - 4/5 For You - 3.5/5 Kizza Me - 3.5/5 You Can't Have Me - 3.5/5 Nightime - 3.5/5 Blue Moon - 3.5/5 Take Care - 3.5/5 Jesus Christ - 3/5 Femme Fatale - 3.5/5 O, Dana - 3.5/5 Big Black Car - 3/5 Holocaust - 4/5 Kanga Roo - 4/5 Thank You Friends - 3.5/5 I can sort of see the link between the Beatles, these guys, and future alternative/alt-country with this album. The track listing is all whacked up from what I'm seeing so it played the much less interesting B side first so I wasn't left all that impressed at the beginning. I can see the appeal of Big Star but it's not really for me Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Stroke It Noel, Holocaust, Kanga Roo

Great album. Pretty new to Big Star but pleasantly surprised to find songs I know and everything else was really listenable and interesting. Best tracks: O, Dana, Thank You Friends, Kizza Me, Blue Moon Rating: 7.5

OK

I was a little bit skeptical of this for some reason but ended up really enjoying it! A lot darker than I expected, with some experimental cuts

There is no such thing as a bad Big Star album. The end.

Solid album, kind of all over the place. 6.3/10

This was a bit odd but just mellow enough to make me kinda like it.

A game of two halves, innit? A album with a reputation talking about Chilton's mental state, it been depressing, harrowing etc. yet side 1 scarely shows this. Only Big Black Car and the (unnecessary) cover of Femme Fatale, change the pace from uptempo power pop. But great songs. Kizza Me is a wonderful opener. Basically, the template of most college rock to come. The strings underneath are a great touch too The real weight of the albums reputation rests largely on two songs - Kangaroo and Holocaust. That is not to demean the other tracks but those two really break the mould. Without them, it would be a good record but they elevate it to the next level.

buen rock

Listened to the Rykodisc 1992 edition, which seems to be the one the book is recommending. Tracking down the release history of this album was more interesting than the album itself. Most of this was boring to me, and what remained was irritating. Standout Track: Till the End of the Day Rating: 1.5

Proto-Wilco that is a little boring but was way ahead of it's time

Pretty good. Often sounded much more contemporary than mid 1970s. A few tracks easily felt love they could have been from the mid 90s. Nothing in particular stood out but I'll definitely give it another spin.

Not bad but nothing special either

More interesting than good

Fine enough pop-rock. Nothing in particular jumps out at me. From reading the description I was expecting something a little more interesting? Like talking about Chilton's mental state and the "uncommercial" sound of the album gave me the impression it'd be a little less commercial and bland. "Take Care" is pretty easily the best song on the album. Not offensive, but not particularly interesting.

I feel like there are dividends to be gained from a few repeat listens to this. Hard to really pick out the diamonds on first listen, but you get the feeling there is some great writing lurking.

Interesting album but technically an Alex Chilton solo album. I believe this album is overrated because of the hype surrounding Big Star which gained most of their popularity with the indie alternative crowd after they broke up..

Alex Chilton will always be god. 5/5

really uncanny record, like you can see a strange and uncomfortable reality peer behind a thinly kept illusion of traditional rockism. keep it in the background and you probably won't notice much, but closer listening will reveal how insanely strange, often tragic and unkempt this album is

I was digging this weird emo sound and then it got real weird at the end. This was an unexpected style and I really don’t know how I feel about it

Another album on the list that's just fine.

70

it's fine

It was OK, but very generic post beatles music. Not bad, but nothing worth seeking out.

I had heard this before, but I didn't realize until I read the Wikipedia article today that the "Sister Lovers" part of the title was from a re-release. It's very different from the first two albums.

6.2/10

A bit boring. Another one of those bands I think I ought to like but don’t.

Ok.

This is a thorny thing. I’ve rated Big Star highly as I love the jangly end of guitar rock but this is a different thing. Incredibly fragile, it barely holds together but also incredibly ambitious. Baroque strings, woodwind and piano all hold the songs together. Lyrically it’s transparent and soul baring. It requires your effort but it’s worth it

So disappointing. I'm probably not giving this a fair listen today, but it feels kind of dreary and such a let down after the number 1 record. The covers especially highlight how I'm just not into things presentation. Dirge rock version of a jazz standard seems bizarre.

This was recorded in 1974 but not released until 1978. Reading the wiki, this album was considered a departure from their first two albums and is more of an Alex Chilton solo record. This is classified as power pop but it seems to be more experimental indie rock folk with strings. I think of Elliot Smith and Wilco when I listen to this. This album is interesting but most of the songs are sparse and drag...they're depressing. I'm sure others think this great but it's not for me. I liked Kizza Me and the two covers (Femme Fatale - Velvet Underground cover and Til the End of the Day - The Kinks) best.

OK there is the cover of "Femme Fatale", but it is incredibly meh.

Holocaust is probably one of the saddest songs ever written. By the opening track my hopes were really high but immediately after that it goes down and stays down. The fact that is 19 songs long and most of them very similar to each other doesn't help.

Oh these hippies and their music... a song about Jesus Christ? It's probably ironic and I was too naive to notice but it threw me off guard

Fine to listen to. Nothing memorable at all

First albums are fire. This one is not up to that same par. 2.5/5

Bland

It says something that the only two tracks this album I really enjoy are covers. Big Star was ahead of its time in the sense that it took another 30 years for people, generally, to start blaming the world for their lack of success, rather than trying to improve themselves.

I really don’t get the hype for this band. I’ve listened to two albums too many via this project. One of the best 500 albums of all time according to Rolling Stone? Get out of here.

None of the songs are less than decent, but not many really stood out in any way.

This is like an alt rock album made in the late 70s. Kinda dec, but overall not my favorite ever. Suprised it has critical acclaim. 4

I really wanted to get into Third/Sister Lovers, especially given how much love Big Star gets, but it just didn’t click for me. I listened to a couple of songs, hoping it would eventually pull me in, but I found myself losing interest pretty quickly and ended up skipping the album. I can appreciate that there’s something deliberately messy and unconventional about it. The rough production, strange arrangements, and generally downbeat atmosphere give it a very distinct character, and I can see why some people consider it a cult classic. But for me, it felt more uneven and disjointed than compelling. Maybe it’s one of those albums that needs the right mood or a few more listens, but on this first attempt, there just wasn’t enough there to make me want to stick around. Definitely not for me.

An interesting album. There are a lot of positive elements, but somewhere it lost me. I can’t even say why. Good enough god a 3*.

Love half the songs, hated half.

Most of the Wikipedia article on this is just listing the exhausting variations this was published in and whether it counts as a Big Star record. I am not really sure which version I listened to, but I am very sure that I don't care. Anyway I was bored less than halfway through. I don't want to hear any of these songs again, my only real thought during any song was "when will this end?" Painful, a real endurance test. The final track, Downs, was it recorded as a joke or an insult to the producers or something? Deliberately badly done and discordant, ended the album on a real bum note.

"Holocaust" was quite uplifting, until I paid attention to the lyrics.

What an amazingly beautiful and tortured album. Without the lyrics, the music and vocals are gorgeous and world weary. The lyrics torment you.

Yup Alex Chilton was a genius

Loved this one. You can really hear the influence it had on later punk rock like The Replacements. It’s like the precursor to garage bands before you had the tech to record on garages. “You Can’t Have Me” is a great example of harder rock with pop sensibility, as is “Kizza Me”.

I knew their first two albums better. But this blew my mind!! Everything I love about the replacements is on his seminal Alex chilton masterpiece. “Thank you friends” is like a blueprint to future Paul: “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.” Big black car, amazing. Holocaust, devastating. There’s nothing I didn’t like on this album. “You can’t have me” is another stand out. And the cover of femme fatale … just so many beautiful and complicated songs.

A long ish one but some catchy numbers

What an odd album, I can see it being a cult classic just because of its oddities. Like, what's with that Jesus Christ essence of Christmas song, without being Christmas-y. I don't hate it, but it only ever stops me occasionally. Nature boy? Beautiful, I'm glad I'm hearing it here, well pulled off with the slight '70s rock tone. Maybe that's why it's odd. The '70s were for disco, most of these rock acts were transitioning in time, waiting for the '80s to add sense to the sound. I won't listen to this again, I'll probably forget all about it in a week. I still prefer this style of rock to other alt acts like REM. It's got something that occasionally feels better than average and I can appreciate that. 2.7/5

Today I learned where Elliott Smith learned how to write songs. Also how to sing. Clearly I should have known about these guys already; it sounds like they came up with the whole 90s slacker rock sound a couple decades before it took off. But yeah, this was a fascinating listen, I thought. I really loved all the interesting little musical curveballs in a lot of these songs, like the sudden, brief strings that pop up here and there and the unorthodox chord progressions. Kangaroo is a good example of what I'm talking about as it's like all the weird songwriting quirks on the album are condensed into this one, very weird song that I'm not sure if I love or hate. It's discordant and honestly a little ramshackle sounding, yet it's oddly beautiful. It's the most unconventional song on the record, yet I think it kind of sums up the whole vibe of the album nevertheless. It feels like a very confused and erratic album, but I find it very compelling in spite of its obvious shortcomings. I'm almost tempted to give it a 5 but I think that's maybe just me letting the novelty influence me a little too much. Definitely going to check out their other records after this. Favourite tracks: Thank You Friends, Jesus Christ, Kangaroo, Nighttime

It is an "ok" album for me!

The self-titled album and Radio City: yes. This shit: no.

Third is a morose album that starts strong and fades quick. Fortunately for Big Star it’s made it onto the 1001 Must Hear List and reached cult status, otherwise it ends up in obscurity like their previous efforts. Blue Moon is the top track followed by Kizza Me (not counting the cover of The Kinks Til The End Of The Day which is actually the best song, but out of place on this somber disk.) The final track sums the album up nicely; quirky, depressing, experimental, and off-key but for some reason it’s interesting enough that you want to listen. (2.35*s) Sounds like Big Star struggled through their musical career and maybe more than that.

What a lame album of early indie minstrel rock. I guess it was cool for the 70s but it was a tough one to get through in this decade. Dragged on for days with too much empty experimentation. Chilton sounds like he hung around with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground crew. 1.1 not so Big Stars.

After reading the wiki page I went into this album with some measured expectations. An indie pop alt rock album from a couple of younger dudes who never really made it big? An album whose reputation grew over time and lead to future covers by a handful of other well-respected bands? Maybe this could be the setup to a surprise sleeper from the list. Didn't expect this album to be nearly as bad as it was. Can't quite pin down the issue, but after a couple songs I was wholly uninterested in the rest of it. The whole thing is so overly sappy and weak. The album is dripping with whininess from an upset 20 year old pining over a bad breakup or something. Whatever it was it rubbed me the wrong way pretty early and didn't improve as I was bombarded with a handful of very similar songs one after another. I'm shelving this one and not interested in checking out anything else by Big Star as a result. 1.25 stars

This is a very interesting album, and I can see the comparison to albums like "Pet Sounds" or at least "Smile." However, it still doesn't feel as fleshed out, not just in production but also in the ideas. It has some good ideas, but it needed much more time in the writer's chair and also in editing. Even the Jim Dickinson version from '92 that I listened to could be trimmed quite a bit, both in cutting some songs and trimming some songs back. I'd give it a 3.5 for what it is doing and some the ideas, but I feel I have to round down to a 3 here, right now, because I just don't know if I think it really is an album everyone must hear. Their first album really is that.

Ужас бля что и зачем это тут нужно я не понял, может через 30 лет пойму

It was okay. Good breadth of styles throughout the album. Stand outs are the covers of Femme Fatale and Nature Boy, as well as Holocaust and dream lover. Downs was an interesting listen with some complex percussion. 'Whole lotta shaking goin on' felt somewhat detached from most of the album

I was not feeling this

This was an interesting album. Good, unfamiliar, and varied. I think I'll add this to my collection and make another pass pretty soon. For some reason, I'm not sure if I have this album as much of my focus as I would have liked

not sure I really liked this. sort of a random bit of a lot of Beatle-ish type of tunes

Absolutely horrible. Fuck this album!!

I cannot quite get to calling Third/Sister Lovers a top-of-the-line classic, but it comes close. With the version Spotify provided a few songs are undeveloped, rather than just low-fi and raw. As painfully gripping as “Holocaust” and “Kanga Roo” can be their demo murk limit the listenability. The Kinks and Jerry Lee Lewis covers interject familiar fun, but nothing transformative. A large handful of songs contain Big Star’s magical ability to tap into listeners' hearts with superb melodies, and on this record wonderful string arrangements. The strings lift “Stroke It, Noel” into sing along with tears for me, even though I have no idea what the title means. Was Alex Chilton having a Christian revival moment when he wrote “Jesus Christ”? Seeking a Christmas hit? He certainly created a holiday classic that offers a genuine celebration of the Lord. The remaining duo of Big Star, Jody Stephens and Alex Chilton, drop a few rockers that match the energy of earlier band efforts, most notably “Kizza Me.” Chilton seems more interested in mucking the works than returning to No. 1 Record and Radio City. He retains enough craft to not allow the experiments to turn the songs into gibberish, but they play down his strengths. A terrific record that any group would be thrilled to call their third best release.

eh, okay

Yeah it's fairly decent, but not really necessary - I think radio city is better

3 sterne

Pretty much everyone agrees the first two Big Star albums should have been a hit, but no one would ever say that about Third. All of Chilton's hope is gone here, and you get to hear him self-sabotaging and just generally the sound of a mental breakdown on here. It's not really a perfect album, partially because it's pieced together from scraps, but when you find yourself needing it, nothing else is going to do.

i really liked this! it’s not polished by any means but i found it beautiful and heartfelt. i loved the bass and the strings and while the singer is not brilliant it was obviously from the heart.

In the words of Paul Westerberg, "I never travel far without a little Big Star!". Firmly categorized as you're favorite band's favorite band, Alex Chilton and co. made some of the most influential power pop music that went largely under the radar. Sure, this record is a bit of a mess due to the band's impending implosion, but it's still not without it's charm and merit. A somewhat disoriented collection of songs that almost never saw the light of day, Third/Sister Lovers is a must hear album and worthy of it's inclusion on this list

I know this album needs another listen when I'm in a better headspace for it.