Vintage Album Review: Big Star [A-]

Artist: Big Star

Album: #1 Record / Radio City (double album)

Released: 1972 / 1974

Label: Columbia Records

Genre: Power Pop

Purchase date: 22 Aug 2010

Format: AAC files

Source: iTunes

Founded Alex Chilton and Chris Bell, Big Star was a critically-acclaimed and hugely influential band from the early '70s that never really caught on with the public. Chilton, formerly of The Box Tops (known for their 1967 #1 hit "The Letter"), was the primary creative force of the band. Their sound combined British Invasion and American '60s rock with dark and introspective lyrics. The resulting power pop sound beguiled contemporary music critics, but their label mishandled concert promotion and record distribution, and the band never caught on with the public. A few weeks after their third album was released in late 1974, Bell was killed in a car crash.

Big Star was one of the bands to pioneer the power pop sound: driving guitar rock with tight harmony vocals and a pop sensibility. While they weren't successful commercially, Big Star was a huge influence on other bands. It was so much of an influence that at times Big Star's music sounds overly familiar, or even deriviative, of late-70s power pop, when in fact it was an originator.

I first heard of Big Star about a year ago, when the news broke of the unexpected death of Alex Chilton just before he was scheduled to perform Big Star songs at the 2010 South by Southwest music festival in Austin TX.

Key tracks on this double-album set are "The Ballad of El Goodo," In The Streets," and "When My Baby's Beside Me" from #1 Record, and "O My Soul," "September Gurls," and "I'm In Love With A Girl" from Radio City.

I do recommend that everyone check out this neglected corner of rock history.

Rating: A-

Listen to "September Gurls"

Album listing at Amazon

Album listing at eMusic

Review: The New Pornographers: Together [A-]

Artist: The New Pornographers

Album: Together

Released: May 2010

Label: Matador Records

Genre: power pop

Purchase date: 06 May 2010

Format: mp3 files

Source: eMusic

It's always a good year for music when The New Pornographers release an album. This has been one of my favorite bands for a few years now, so I downloaded their fifth album on its release date without hearing any of it. While I wasn't disappointed, Together finds this indie rock supergroup playing it safe and not messing with their formula: hooky, catchy melodies paired with very obscure lyrics (mostly penned by A.C. Newman). Newman is the main creative force behind New Pornographers. Neko Case provides lead vocals to many of the tracks, with Newman singing most of the other songs that he penned. Dan Bejar sings lead on the two tracks he contributed. The standouts tracks are "Crash Years" and "Your Hands."

While very good, this isn't the band's strongest effort. (That would be, in my opinion, 2003's Electric Version.) The songs sound a little too much like other New Pornographers songs (or A.C. Newman songs, for that matter), and the track sequence is a little disjointed. There also isn't a bowl-you-over-with-sheer-awesomeness track that all of their other albums seems to have. However, all-in-all, it's still a very good album-- just not their masterpiece. In a weaker year for music, this would probably still make my top 10 list, but 2010 has been an exceptional year, so they have a lot of competition in that regard.

Rating: A-

"Your Hands" official video

Album listing on Amazon

No longer available from eMusic

Album Review: Get Guilty by A.C. Newman

It's been a while since my last post. I've been listening to a lot of new music, and I'd like to share the highlights, so I'm going to start reviewing the albums I've bought this year that were released in 2009. I may throw in reviews for older music that I just discovered as well. We'll see where this takes us.

I'll start with the first 2009 release that I picked up: Get Guilty by New Pornographers frontman Carl Newman. Released back in January on the Matador label, this really seemed to be an overlooked gem. Newman's music is upbeat, hooky, catchy, power-pop with somewhat obscure but extremely clever lyrics. What sets Newman apart is emotional connection that his music can make with the listener. This stuff isn't background music: it demands that you pay attention to it, to the point that I'll find myself stopped in my tracks, listening with full attention with my eyes closed.

Stylistically, this album sounds a lot like his other band, the New Pornographers, and I mean that in the best way. Newman plays with the pop-style chord structure just enough to keep you guessing. He's also managed to pull in a whole lot of additional talent, starting with the opening anthem "There Are Maybe Ten or Twelve." The arrangements are full and lush, yet don't feel over-produced. All-in-all, this is a very good album. Highly recommended.

Rating: ***1/2

Purchase at eMusic

Purchase at Amazon