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#1 Record / Radio City

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Big Star

 
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#1 Record / Radio City
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Avg: 4.5 (647 ratings)

  • We Say...

    Review by Kandia Crazy Horse

    Somewhere, armchair critics and befuddled Yankees are quibbling, neatly filing the first two records of Alex Chilton and Chris Bell away under "power pop." Yet, like Elvis and obvious Chilton precursor Jerry Lee Lewis, what else is Big Star's music really, released as it was on Memphis' own Ardent label (distributed through Stax, home of Otis Redding), recorded at the city's Ardent Studios by Dixie Fried auteur Jim Dickinson and named for a local supermarket chain? 'Spose if they'd been named "Piggly Wiggly" or "Winn-Dixie," there'd be less palaver. Of course, the long unsung quartet ascended to Rock Snob Encyclopedia fame mostly from laurels tossed their way over the past two decades by fellow Southern modernists R.E.M., who spearheaded the renaissance of Big Star-philia, Brits with Americana-envy and Midwesterners like the Replacements and Wilco, but the current Southern rock vanguard is hip, and includes tacit reclamation of Memphis' finest among the twisted skeins of their respective aural missions.

    To be sure, Bell's post-band masterpiece I Am the Cosmos more overtly alludes to every suhthuhn boy's primary concern -- God -- but the lyrical themes, attenuated gospel-derived harmonies and underdog perspective of the mostly gorgeous, magnificent songs throughout both these albums sketch a peculiarly Southern point of view. So what if they openly adored the Beatles? The Allman Brothers were spurred to action by Cream and the San Francisco Sound and no one thought they were Anglophiles or Haight Street hippie wannabes. "Thirteen," that quintessential tale of young love, is like the sonic rendering of a William Eggleston photograph, and "The Ballad of El Goodo" is often like one shot by Eudora Welty. Crossover was king of the late modern epoch and Big Star -- Chilton, especially -- were masters of the game, wedding their collective Southern gothic demons (and guitar-as-snake in the grass) to girl group-worthy pop on "When My Baby's Beside Me," "In the Street" spiced with sun-kissed SoCal beach-canyonisms, virtual Witchseason folk "The India Song" and the twang riff-happy, mongoloid Cousin of Boogie "O My Soul." Chilton himself remains an idiosyncratic purveyor of hardcore blue-eyed soul at its very best.

  • They Say...

    Review by Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

    A two-fer combining Big Star's first and second albums, #1 Record/Radio City remains a definitive document of early-'70s American power pop and a virtual blueprint for much of the finest alternative rock that came after it. The lone Big Star record to merit the full participation of founder Chris Bell, the brightly produced #1 Record splits the songwriting credits evenly between him and Alex Chilton (in the tradition of Lennon-McCartney). But from the beginning, the group is tearing apart at the seams: Bell and Chilton's relationship seems less a working partnership than a battle of wills, and each possesses his own distinctive vision. The purist, Bell crafts electrifying and melodic classic pop like "Feel" and "In the Street," while Chilton, the malcontent, pens luminous, melancholy ballads like "The Ballad of El Goodo" and "Thirteen." Ultimately, their tension makes #1 Record brilliant. However, Radio City shifts gears dramatically: Bell is largely absent (though he guests, uncredited, on a few tracks, including the wonderful "Back of a Car"), allowing Chilton's darker impulses free reign. From the raucous opener "O My Soul" onward, the new Big Star is noisier, edgier, and even more potent. Erratic mixing, spotty production, shaky performances -- by all rights, Radio City should be a failure, yet Chilton is at his best when poised on the brink of disaster, and the songs hang together seemingly on faith and conviction alone. Each track recalls pop's glory days, from the Kinks-ish snarl of "Mod Lang" to the Byrds-like guitar glow that adorns "Way Out West." The much-celebrated "September Gurls" is indeed a classic -- everything right and good about pop music distilled down to three minutes of pure genius.

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