#1 Record/Radio City

It took several listens, but eventually I came to at least appreciate the melodies in Big Star's music, via songs like September Gurls, Thirteen, The Ballad Of El Goodo and Way Out West. Once I bought these two albums I became fully converted, in spite of my initial reservations about the (to my ears) clichéd American rock vocals. The melodies and harmonies are lush, the guitar playing is gorgeous and the production perfect. Vocals and lyrics are wide-eyed, constantly flirting with triteness, but in this setting this only adds to the emotional impact.

#1 Record is characterised by carefully constructed songs with beautiful interplay between acoustic and electric guitar lines and shared vocals between Bell and Chilton (standouts being The Ballad Of El Goodo, Thirteen and Give Me Another Chance), while Radio City is rawer with an increasingly wild but brilliant Chilton running the show - O My Soul sets the tone perfectly, being an ecstatic, sprawling romp, powered along (like much of the album) by thunderous drumming that fills any potential gap in the music seemingly by determination alone. September Gurls is a brilliant pop song, and at the other end of the spectrum, What's Going Ahn epitomises the fragility of the album - it so often sounds close to grinding to a self-destructive halt that it's quite a relief when it comes to a clattering end. If that sounds bad then don't worry, it's actually utterly fantastic. On the minus side, India Song (on #1 Record) sounds like they let the drummer do a song, and while there's no denying the whimsical nature of I'm In Love With A Girl, I'm afraid I find it unbearably twee.

Minor quibbles aside, it's all great. These two albums have a touch of magic that makes them more than the sum of their parts and has meant this CD has never been far from my stereo for the last 7 years or so. I'd recommend it to anybody.


A bargain for a power-pop masterpiece   October 16, 2002
 11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Might as well nail my colours to the mast from the outset - if these albums were released individually, #1 Record would merit four stars, Radio City five - both are quite simply the two of the most important, powerful, varied, challenging and dynamic power-pop records ever released. Ever. To be able to get two for the price of one is proof that despite the ever increasing cost of CDs and record company repackaging, reissuing, and general punter-fleecing, the occasional must-have can still creep out as a bargain.

There is a marked change in style between #1 Record and Radio City - #1 Record has the Beatles' Rubber Soul and Revolver as its template, not in the Beatles-by-numbers way of bands like Cotton Mather or Oasis, but as a starting point to launch off into a glossy, well-produced and melodic rock album that highlights both Chris Bell's beautiful songwriting ('Thirteen' is one of the great acoustic guitar songs of any era) and the vocal power of Alex Chilton. 'Feel' and 'In The Street' are examples of the power on this record, with the bass and drums crashing around while some pretty heavy guitar work duels with Chilton's occasionally helium-inspired vocal lines. What stops this album from being a bona fide classic is the verse-chorus-verse formula, and the three ending tracks that let the side down, meandering aimlessly in search of a focal point.

Radio City, on the other hand, was recorded after a brief break-up - Chris Bell having left the band. Despite the loss of his considerable songwriting talent, Big Star's three piece line-up (augmented by several session musicians) responded by recording a power-pop masterpiece. O My Soul pays homage to Chilton's time in the Box Tops, with a Motown groove shuffle nailing down a big dirty beast of a rock song. From here on in, the album takes you on a rollercoaster ride through the many varied emotions of a character as fragile as Chilton. From giddy highs (Back Of A Car) to despair (What's Goin Ahn), anger (Mod Lang), the power of the music sweeps you along with it, dragging you in it's guitar-driven slipstream. By the time you reach 'I'm In Love With A Girl', you feel exhausted, but you're ready to hit play again and enjoy it one more time - the mark of a classic album.

Radio City on its own is more than worth the money. The bonus of getting #1 Record on the same disc makes it an essential purchase.


FANTASTIC POWER-POP ALBUM BY OBSCURE MEMPHIS, TN BAND!!!   May 19, 2002
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Big Star's #1 Record/Radio City is comprised of the bands first two vinyl albums from 1972 and 1973 combined into one CD.

This is a fantastic album!!! Excluding the Beatles, Big Star is the greatest power-pop band ever!

Highlights of the album are: the nearly glam-rocking _Feel_; the laid back song with beautiful harmonies that is _The Ballad of El Goodo_; the very upbeat popish _In The Street_; the lovely accoustic ballad _Thirteen_; the swirling pop of _My Life Is Right_; _Try Again_ which is dominated by a George Harrison-like slide guitar; the jangly _Way Out West_ which sounds a lot like the future sound of R.E.M.; the beautiful, but halfway spooky ballad _You Get What You Deserve_; the heavy-metal pop of _Back Of A Car_; the dreamy/turned rough and tumble, sort of Pink Floyd meets the Who sounding _Daisy Glaze_; the very heavy pop of _She's A Mover_; and the crisp upbeat guitar pop of _September Gurls_.

If you love the Beatles and are unfamiliar with this, you should get it immediately! While they are influenced by the Beatles, they are not sound-alikes; but they are similar in style, and have a certain soul or feeling in their music that is absent from much of the power-pop that came after the Beatles.

A totally classic CD!


Like rock music used to be!   September 6, 2001
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

WOW! I used to pride myself on my knowledge of seventies rock but must admit that I'd never heard of Big Star until I heard a track on the radio a few weeks ago. My ears pricked up! An amalgam of Byrds, Beatles, Stones, Led Zep and Badfinger immersed in pop sensibility, how this work has lain undiscovered for so long is a mystery.

'The Ballad of El Goodo' alone is worth the purchase price. But had to take 1 star off for 'The India Song'!


Timeless Pop Masterpiece - Genius ahead of it's time   February 18, 2000
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

From the Led Zepplin style opener 'Feel' through the sublime 'Ballad Of El Goodo' to the classic 'September Gurls', an album of pure class. Fans of the Beatles, Byrds, Stones and all 'REAL' music will love this truly overlooked masterpiece.