Big Star:
#1 Record/Radio City

Perhaps the most criminally overlooked band in all of rock lives on...I, for one, feel their relavance continues to gain ground and these two albums are the Sgt. Peppers, or Pet Sounds, of the the so called "Power Pop" (a name that does no one any favors) genre.

It was said that The Velvet Underground never sold many records, but everyone that bought one started a band. That, of course, is a gross overstatement, but it remains an undeniable fact that some bands cast a shadow of which sales bears little correlation. Big Star is such a band. Great music takes on its own life and Big Star's was some of the best ever recorded so the importance of this warrants both the remastered reissue as well as the Rhino box set. Given more support they may have reached commercial success at the time, but I'm just thankful we have the great work here and never tire of it. A timelss classic that I simply cannot recommend enough!

I checked out these albums, waiting to be blown away based on Big Star's reputation. And I wasn't. Because...they just weren't strong *albums*. There were a handful of catchy songs. Basically the ones that have been covered a lot over the years, like Thirteen, September Gurls, etc, were the best, and the others were mostly weak. So, a singles band then? So why are the albums heralded as classics?

I can appreciate that Big Star were doing something different for their time (although I noticed the first track on #1 Record sounds like it fits right in with non-power-pop 70's rock acts). But I'm still disappointed after expecting to discover genuine lost classics...albums that I could love from beginning to end.

Don't really understand why they're quite so beloved. Maybe just because they filled a void at the time and were the first power-pop band that kids back then heard? One of those...you had to be there...things? I think some of these fans have surpassed the band that influenced them. Although they might not appreciate me dissing Big Star and saying this... Teenage Fanclub's much better. No filler there.