Big Star - In Space

Song recommendation?

I'm really into "Makeoever" and for some reason "Love Revolution" but the latter is pretty corny with the Black Panther-esque shoutings but it works for some reason.

the one I like most is a cover, of the Olympics. "Mine Exclusively." There's a good T.Rex/Chuck Berry song, "A Whole New Thing." A decent Beach Boys rip. "Love Revolution" is pretty awful, actually--whoever played bass on that hasn't, uh, ever listened to or played soul music, it's some of the most unprofessional musicianship I've ever heard on a major release.

I've had this for a while, and played it several times, for other people too, and the abiding impression all of us have gotten is that it sounds unfinished somehow. The songs are pretty non-existent, too, so all that I hear is that they still have a style. Another confounding and frustrating Alex Chilton effort.

I have to say that I too was pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect much, but I think that while it may not sound like a continuation of the Big Star sound (as much as that is possible thirty years later), it has a similar charm to it.

so when is this supposed to come out?

I'm fairly dissapointed, and for most parts agree with edd s hurt. It sounds so bleak, so one-dimensional. Not uninspired, but it sounds like they can't do any better, which I still refuse to believe. For only a sparse moment it's charming (Love Revolution is thematicly bland maybe, but the music rocks), or gives you that Big Star (tm) smile you're used to from their 70s records. In short: It sounds like so many 'reunion-albums' from bands. Nothing new, but not even near the old.

My heart is breaking, because I know Edd and Gerard are right.

I'll still embrace it with fresh ears, though.

it's slated for 9/27, after initially being announced for 8/30.

I will toot my own horn and say I have a long piece on both the Big Star bio by Rob Jovanovic (which hits the end of this month) and the record set to run in Nashville Scene on 9/1 (unless it gets bumped back, which I don't think is gonna happen). I try to put the whole thang into perspective, having been a fan of BS and Alex and the whole Memphis powerpop scene for so long. I do think the bio is a good piece of work, altho there's a certain perspective lacking, and which you'll find in books by not coincidentally Memphians like Robert Gordon and Michael Bane. I hope it'll be a piece that will avoid most if not all the usual clichés that we've all endured.

The other really interesting thing (to me) is the seeming lack on Ryko's part to send anything out on this record (at least to me; I've had this piece assigned since mid-July). No press kit, no communication from Ryko NY whatsoever (altho the local Nashville Ryko rep did provide me with the actual release date). I had to jump thru hoops to get a promo copy, lucky I have some decent connections. This seems really weird to me--and listening to the record I can't help but think that they're worried about it, somehow, like they think it's gonna really stiff...

Not in the UK. From what I've heard about it (haven't had one yet, but 'unresolved' seems to be the consensus) it should be filling the second hand stores already.

Hmmm. I'm pleasantly surprised. It's sloppy and shambolic, but there are some pleasant moments. Everyone takes turn at leads, which provides some enjoyment.

Definitely leans towards the power pop end of the spectrum (save the Olympics cover and "Love Revolution". The Not Lame dudes will go nuts for this.

So I'm guessing it sounds nothing like "Like Flies on Sherbert"?

I wish. . .

No, more like a glue-sniffing Teenage Fanclub.

The critical hate for Like Flies on Sherbert has always perplexed me...

How could anyone hate Like Flies on Sherbert? It's like the Lost Weekend, Leaving Las Vegas, Reefer Madness and Trainspotting all lined up into one glorious snort off of a hooker's rack!

In case I was being misunderstood, I meant that I wished this new record would sound more like 'Like Flies' than the bar-rock that Chilton has been doing for most of the past two decades.

So I'm guessing it sounds nothing like "Like Flies on Sherbert"?
I wish. . .

-- I.M. (soundslike198...), August 19th, 2005.

----------------------------------------------------

No, more like a glue-sniffing Teenage Fanclub.
-- Brooker Buckingham (brooker...), August 19th, 2005.

And therein lies the problem.

it's a perplexing record...they don't sound like fucking Teenaged Fanclub. I don't think the songs are any good is the thing--they're really almost admirable in that they're truly non-songs. this record is all about Jody Stephens, it's a rhythm-section record. which puts it in line with the other big star albums, sorta, since once you strip away all the nonessential "jangle" "Byrds-derived" crap that stupid band like Teenaged Fanclub were emulating, you're left with a rhythm-section dynamic....welcome to Memphis, pallie. So I do like that aspect of the new one...and shit, they're old now, those Posies were always halfway good but a little...weak...ho hum.

this record is totally awful.

There's nothing wrong with Teenage Fanclub. From Grand Prix on, I would say they became one of the finest power pop bands on the planet. Ever. Save for Howdy, which just didn't have the songs.

In fact, song for song, the new Fanclub is orders of magnitude better than this Big Star.

And the songs Auer on Stringfellow are singing lead on, plus the second song with Chilton on lead, are all very much in the TF-jangle vein.

love revolution is a big fat stinker

its not going to win any new fans. i know why i like it and its because its big star. sank to the bottom of my pile, sad about that.

ah, I don't mind some of the Teenage Fanclub stuff. for my taste, what makes Big Star's stuff better than most powerpop is, as I say, the rhythmic savvy. All loping and understated and Stax-y. I just don't think TF is really anything other than a gloss on something that was done better before, and Big Star, in my book, beats the fucking Beatles hands-down. I feel the same way about the Posies--OK, not great, they play all right. Altho their new album sounds real L.A.-ed like they' ve picked up some Steely Dan/Jack Nitzsche chords along the way.

Edd, you're right.

Teenage Fanclub couldn't swing if they were hanging from a rope.

Jody Stephens definitely has that savvy.

Always liked the idea of the Posies more than I actually liked their music. I suppose there are some moments on Dear 23 and Frosting On The Beater that stand out.

Big Star is definitely in my top 5 fave bands ever. I've heard their three albums countless times over the past 17 years, and I still hear new things everytime. So much more than a pop band. Chairoscuro, so to speak. Songs dappled with darkness AND light.

They had me for the first half of the record (which is pleasant at best), but the rest is pretty difficult to get through. The biggest disappointment is the lack of any devastating songs. If anything, it sounds like they're having fun.

i agree! I dig the first half of the record, but it dissolves into kinda mindless vamping starting with "love revolution." i do think the whole album is enjoyable, in that Alex Chilton trademark 'i am barely trying' sort of way, which is charming up to a point. not a patch on the original albums of course, but who would ever expect something like that?