#1 Record
by Big Star

There are some absolutely fantastic pop and rocks songs on here that demonstrate how brilliant Big Star were and show the potential they had for the future. To begin with, there is Thirteen which is not only the best song on this record but also one of the best songs of all time. It is such a beautiful track with both its lyrics and musicality. You then have more fantastic songs such as The Ballad Of El Goodo, Don't Lie To Me and When My Baby's Beside Me that bulk up the record with quality. There are a few songs that slow the record down and don't really add too much but they don't harm the album that much. There is just so much pop beauty on here that it is tough not to fall in love with it all. Overall, this album is extremely infectious and it is tough to not absolutely love the innocence and sense of bliss this record gives off. (Edited)

Big Star along with Badfinger has often been called the fathers of “power-pop” - obviously mostly due to both bands´ great melodic song-writing. Big Star was led by Alex Chilton, who had already years of experience behind him as a member of the Boxtops.
The original 4 piece band also had another great song-writer in guitarist Chris Bell, and Chilton and Bell together wrote the majority of the songs on their 1972 debut album.

The fine hard-rocking opener “Feel” almost sounds like Led Zeppelin. The extraordinary beautiful next track “Ballad of El Goodo” is one many highlights - jangling guitars, haunting melody very “Byrds-like”. Another song in the same vein is the equally beatiful “Thirteen”. Two up-beat songs “When My Baby´s Beside Me” and “Don´t Lie to Me” were taken from the album as singles, but they were largely unsuccessful, as indeed was the album itself. The label´s distribution system was simply insufficient, so it´s no wonder that frustration and tension was growing within the band.

Chris Bell left the band in late 1972 with the others continuing as a trio but soon the band split up. Later they reunited to do another album for Ardent Records; original member Chris Bell were also back for a brief period of time, but it´s uncertain how much he contributed to these new recordings.

Chilton and Bell were shortly reunited ,when Chilton helped Bell with his solo-album, which was never released in his own lifetime. Bell tragically died in an accident in 1978. The blend of Chilton´s and Bell´s voices on Bell´s “You and Your Sister” is so heartbreakingly good, and this album “I Am the Cosmos” is as close to sounding like the first two Big Star albums as you can get.

https://www.angelfire.com/nv/Badfinger/BANDbigstar.html (Edited)

Amazing debut record

From luigybetis 07/07/2022 02:16 | #287159

A little inconsistent, but there are some true gems in here. Overall, I'd say it is a beautiful record.

Just hearing this 50 years after release. I enjoyed this and as noted by many there is influences of rock and pop - I will add the Byrds to the mix and I thought "Feel" had the rock of Led Zepplin but the vocals of The Who!