Big Star

Artist Rating: 83%

Peak Album Score: 23

Average Album Score: 20

Development Score: 8

- The change in style from the pristine #1 Record to the muddy, bitter Radio City is bigger than most seem to notice. It's also hard to not to give some credit to Chilton for the massive change seen on Third, even if it's not all good.

Originality Score: 6

- Big Star's act of combining an obsession with The Byrds (particularly their guitar tone) with a very American sense for heavy blues was the origin of Power Pop, for better or worse.

Personal Bias Score: 26

- At their best, Big Star can be pretty captivating in their naivety. Unfortunately, they're pretty inconsistent, but even when they don't sound too invested, the hooks are generally there.

#1 Record (1972) - 89%
There's very little not to like about this album: it's got solid hooks, lots of youthful energy, cutely-adolescent lyrics, and very few songs overstay their welcome. Although Chilton hasn't really gotten a grasp on harder-rocking songs yet (they tend to sound rather silly and clunky on here), the Byrds-like janglers are all sincere and sparkly. The band's apparent arrogance in their own success (Number one record? Big stars?) really doesn't show, in any case.

- Highlights: "Feel", "The Ballad of El Goodo", "Thirteen", "Try Again"

Radio City (1974) - 92%
This album, produced after a little bit of a split in which the band lost rocker Chris Bell, shows Chilton stepping up and, strangely, really finding his own blend of Bell's blues-rock and his jangle-pop (which, on #1 Record, were pretty distinct). On Radio City he's found a way to keep the great hooks of #1 Record's best tracks and to imbue them with a sort of rhythmic urgency that persists throughout the whole album.

- Highlights: "O My Soul", "Life Is White", "Way Out West", "What's Going Ahn", "You Get What You Deserve", "September Gurls"

Third (1977) - 72%
People seem to look at this album as Big Star's Pink Moon: a raw, bare, sparse goodbye after a brief career of under-appreciation. The comparison is totally sensible, but while on Drake's farewell he breathes intimacy into a set of brilliant songs by presenting them completely naked of any embellishments, Chilton's just finds him falling apart at the seams. Very few of the songs on this album strike me as anything more than a very talented songwriter expressing his frustration by intentionally sounding sloppy. And even though a couple of tracks pull off the heaving, emotional shtick, I'm not convinced.

Highlights: "Holocaust", "Nighttime", "Kanga Roo"