I haven't heard this album in a long time, and just tonight, I found a vinyl copy, so I thought, "OK." What's incredible is discovering how much I still love this album. The performance by Big Star on "Radio City" is energetic, powerful, and layered with guitars that pulls the listener into a concept of imagery that comes with their music. It's perfection as practiced by Jody Stephens, Andy Hummel, and of course, Alex Chilton.
The DNA of their sound, at least for this album, is The Beatles "For Sale" or at the very least, "Revolver." But it's work that doesn't imitate the fab four sound, but more used as a platform for Alex and company to build their music on. At the time, there were a lot of power-pop bands and artists. A lot of them were good, including Cheap Trick. But I find Big Star very much on the spiritual side of the music than getting the right guitar sound, or the perfect melody arrangement. There is magic in these recordings and songs. I think a lot has to do with the "It" quality of Alex and the band. John Fry, their engineer, really caught the essence of the sound in the studio. For some odd reason listening to this album on vinyl, it really grabbed me by the heart and head.
The essence of Alex Chilton is here, and there is something reckless, sexy. Yet, in firm control of the material, that is his personality. I don't think there is such a thing as a 'bad' Alex performance or even album. One can like something more than the other, but his genius is to give every song he sang a distinctive quality that can only be Alex. Like hearing Bowie, or Billie Holiday, who' put a stamp on their songs cannot be imitated, Alex is in the same league as those singers. There are those who sound like students when they do this sort of music. Still, Big Star owns their material in such a manner that it is characteristic of their genius. And then there are the Bill Eggleston photos. That's brilliant, as well.
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