3rd (studio album) by Big Star

From VictorVale 08/13/2023 11:35

Versão que eles queriam, grande disco.

A deeply troubled and complex listen that only gets better and better the more you listen to it and notice its intricacies. Some of the song writing here is pure darkness with it coming from a clearly disturbed mind that is going through an extremely difficult time. This makes for an unnerving but also interesting listen as you get a feel of the experiences he has gone through. He is then backed up by some beautiful but disturbing instrumentation at times making the listen even more perplexing. The diversity of instrumentation is staggering though and the quality of the guitars, piano, drums and string arrangements is brilliant. There are faults in this record with the sound sometimes being cracked and disjointed but for me that only adds to the rawness and uniqueness of the music. This is a record that I strongly disliked on first listen but I have been drawn back time and time again and slowly fell in love with its strangeness but also with its beauty and delicateness in places. Overall, this record is full of fantastic music, lyrics and vocals with them all combining to create a special experience that I can't get enough of.

Great followup record

From luigybetis 07/07/2022 04:05

Boring

From Jboy56 12/29/2021 13:08

Had to listen this because I'm going through the 1001 Albums book, Sad and dark, not very uplifting stuff

monotone drolling gibberish

Really wasn't into it at first, just seemed a collection of average mid 70s songs, but then it seemed to kick in (me or the album, not sure) with Oh Dana and Holocaust. Liked For You as well.

From Sandinistar 11/11/2018 04:40

A genius musician puts his deteriorating state on tape with haunting, beautiful results. Some of the most sincere, depressing ballads ever are here in "Holocaust" and "Big Black Car." The band is only barely at all tied together, and yet everything sounds deliberate and perfect.

From DaVGManiac 07/21/2018 12:45

Heartbroken by the lack of commercial success, the band's frontman decided to put out one more solid record before quitting, and the result is surprisingly decent. Half of the tracks on here are dark and depressing, while the rest are quite catchy and cheerful. Some might say that this is the best of Big Star's classic trilogy. I definitely agree with those people's opinions.

From Brad1770 02/15/2018 00:26

As a huge R.E.M fan I've had this album and band on my radar for a very long time (R.E.M have cited Big Star as major influencers).I finally got around to checking 3rd/Sister Lovers out and it did not disappoint . I love this album

The version I listened to was the 18 track version on SPOTIFY which included the 14 tracks here on BEA but in a different order plus 'Native Boy' , 'Till The End Of The Day' , Dream Lover' and 'Downs'. Every track on this album bar 'Native Boy ' and 'Downs' (both of which sounded incomplete) was sublime . I particularly loved the more atmospheric moody songs which make up the majority of the album

3 years ago in January 2015 BEA user JasonZaia posted an excellent comment outlining how he interpreted the album track order and inclusion considering Big Star never really completed this album .... please check out his post before reading on . So what I did was to order his suggested track listing on a Spotify Playlist and listened through . What I discovered was this order completely changed the album context making it a wholly moody atmospheric experience with all power pop elements removed, as I said previously I love the moody pieces and I loved this playlist

However I recon some power pop needs to be included to better represent Big Star as whole so as a result I would like to propose MY alternative track listing which leaves off the 3 weakest tracks 'O Dana' / 'Native Boy' & 'Downs'

Side 1
1/ 'Stroke It Noel' ( love this as an opener)
2/ 'Till The End of The Day' ( power pop inclusion)
3/ 'For You'
4/ 'Holocaust'
5/ 'Kanga Roo' (Holocaust and Kanga Roo need to stay together)
6/ 'You Cant Have Me'
7/ 'Thank You Friends' ( nice way to close side 1)

Side 2
1/ ' Kizza Me' ( power pop opener)
2/ 'Big Black Car'
3/ 'Nighttime'
4/ 'Jesus Christ' ( up tempo to break things up)
5/ 'Blue Moon'
6/ 'Dream Lover' ( gorgeous song a MUST inclusion)
7/ 'Take Care'
8/ 'Femme Fatale' ( this cover just seems to work as a closer )

Majestic

85/100