Apparently this style of music is known as “power pop”. There are some tracks on here that I would call “glam rock”, with stomping beats and wailing vocals, closest perhaps to The Sweet. But maybe “glam” is as much about the visuals as the music – all silver platform boots and facepaint – and it’s technically incorrect to refer to these guys as glam.
Chris Bell and Alex Chilton share guitar and vocal duties, with bassist Andy Hummel also adding to the vocal harmonies, with drummer Jody Stephens being the only member not to sing. Bell and Chilton largely share the writing credits as well. On the opening track Feel there’s a bit of classic rock saxophone, but there’s no credit for it. Are we too early for it to be Raphael Ravenscroft? Feel is classic stomp rock, as is Don’t Lie To Me, but then Thirteen is a delicate acoustic exhortation of teenage love (“Won’t you let me walk you home from school”) and The Ballad of El Goodo is an excellent track for holding your lighters aloft to (or, these days, your phone screen, which is perhaps less romantic but also less of a fire hazard). Towards the end, Big Star even manage to sound a bit like the CSNY stable with Watch The Sunrise and ST 100/6 (whatever *that* is a reference to).
They’re sadly overlooked. Most, if not all, of these tracks ought to get more radio play as they’re excellent pop-rock and all relatively short. This album wasn’t promoted very well, leading to poor sales and tensions within the band (I say tensions. Physical violence). The untimely death of Chris Bell in 1978 seems like the sad capstone of this particular iteration of Big Star. I feel that they deserved more. That cover seems ahead of its time too.
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