3rd (studio album) by Big Star

3rd by Big Star
Year: 1978
Overall rank: 681st   Overall chart historyOverall chart history
Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 436 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution   Average rating historyAverage rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 20 albums of 1978 (14th)
Award Top albums of the 1970s (155th)
Award Top 1,000 albums of all time (681st)
Product Details
Availability

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Big Star Third (Test Pressing Edition) VINYL LP NEW
Condition: New


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Big Star - Third / Sister Lovers - Big Star CD OBVG The Fast Free Shipping
Condition: Very Good


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Big Star : Third/Sister Lovers CD (2002)
Condition: Very Good


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Big Star bestography

3rd is ranked 2nd best out of 17 albums by Big Star on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Big Star is #1 Record which is ranked number 412 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 4,361.

Big Star album bestography « Higher ranked (412th) This album (681st) Lower ranked (855th) »
#1 Record3rdRadio City

Upcoming concerts

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January 13, 2024 - Tri-Star Club
Food City Center, Knoxville, United States. United States
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Circles Around The Sun x Mikaela Davis and Southern Star
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Mar
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Dark Star Orchestra
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3rd track list

  Track ratingsTrack ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Rating/Comments
1.
Rating: 82 (79 votes)Comments: 0
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2.
Rating: 82 (77 votes)Comments: 0
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3.
Rating: 80 (76 votes)Comments: 0
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5.
Rating: 83 (80 votes)Comments: 1
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6.
Rating: 83 (78 votes)Comments: 0
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7.
Rating: 82 (76 votes)Comments: 0
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8.
Rating: 81 (78 votes)Comments: 0
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9.
Rating: 82 (77 votes)Comments: 2
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10.
Rating: 81 (75 votes)Comments: 1
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11.
Rating: 81 (78 votes)Comments: 1
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12.
Track pick
Rating: 87 (105 votes)Comments: 2
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13.
Track pick
Rating: 86 (94 votes)Comments: 0
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Track pick Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

3rd rankings

3rd collection

3rd ratings

Average Rating: 
80/100 (from 436 votes)
  Ratings distributionRatings distribution Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 436 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
80/100
 Report rating
03/05/2024 00:55 Skerns  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 4,45879/100
 
70/100
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02/04/2024 16:42 asimpkins  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 1,98668/100
 
90/100
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02/01/2024 08:32 0gan  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 34488/100
 
55/100
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11/21/2023 07:43 Hyggevinyl  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 2,92373/100
 
85/100
 Report rating
11/08/2023 15:57 JamesMowbray  Ratings distributionRatings distribution 3,88470/100

Rating metrics: Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 2% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 79.7/100, a mean average of 78.7/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 79.8/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.9.

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3rd comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 32 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Maximum Rated First | Longest Comments First
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Rating:  
80/100
From 08/13/2023 11:35
Versão que eles queriam, grande disco.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 01/15/2023 13:42
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.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 09/06/2022 17:19
Great followup record
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 07/07/2022 04:05
Boring
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (1 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 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
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
15/100
From 09/08/2021 17:11
monotone drolling gibberish
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
50/100
From 05/16/2020 14:02
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.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
From 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.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 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.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 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
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (3 helpful | 1 unhelpful)

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Best Albums of 1978
1. Darkness On The Edge Of Town by Bruce Springsteen
2. Parallel Lines by Blondie
3. The Cars by The Cars
4. This Year's Model by Elvis Costello
5. Van Halen by Van Halen
6. Die Mensch·Maschine [The Man-Machine] by Kraftwerk
7. Some Girls by The Rolling Stones
8. The Kick Inside by Kate Bush
9. More Songs About Buildings And Food by Talking Heads
10. Music For 18 Musicians by Steve Reich
11. Hemispheres by Rush
12. Dire Straits by Dire Straits
13. Ambient 1: Music For Airports by Brian Eno
14. 3rd by Big Star
15. All Mod Cons by The Jam
16. Outlandos D'Amour by The Police
17. Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! by Devo
18. Chairs Missing by Wire
19. The Modern Dance by Pere Ubu
20. Powerage by AC/DC
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