The third and final Big Star album of the 70s was called Third/Sister Lovers (1978) and has become something of a cult album with resounding reviews from the elitist critics but let's examine further. So here we go; we kick off with the depraved lyrics of Kizza Me with it's haywire guitars and tonking boogie woogie piano keys, swiftly followed by Thank You Friends where Alex Chilton's new Dylan styled detract from an elegant power pop number. Big Black Car carries a reverb washed bleakness in it's Marc Bolan style of lascivious phrasing and down in the doldrums beat, lyrics involving stars, droning acoustics and typically wilting melody; whilst it's use of a car as a tool of escape and safety reminds me lyrically of Gary Numan's Cars that would be released the following year. Jesus Christ is easily a latter day Byrds song with that Tom Petty/ Bruce Springsteen style of saxophone and 'call to the people' aura.
O Dana carries a groovy chorus and a Rolling Stones' type of songwriting with blues guitar and pounding piano keys boogieing along, while Holocaust scarcely sounds like its from the same record as O Dana. Holocaust starts with a cello brooding away alongside ambient guitar cries, gospel piano playing and plucked double bass. Kanga Roo follows on in unique style with a 12 string guitar clucking away to a volcanic electric guitar surging in and out all over the mix like Robert Fripp's work on David Bowie's Heroes. The guitar is so distorted it feedbacks and clicks and even takes on an otherworldly twang like Jimmy Page's violin bowed guitar work in Led Zeppelin epic, How Many More Times. A mellotron adds another smooth layer of ghostly white noise while a cowbell plumbs away and that decaying lead guitar screeches like a controlled bolt of static; oh and Alex Chilton is fantastic again slowly chipping away at your soul and effortlessly melding with each and every tune.
Stroke it Noel is a blessing in it's simple catchy verse underscored by strings upclose and a simple question; Do You Want to Dance. For You is a personal favourite for Jody Stephens' polished English tinged Baritone that sounds transcendent, You Can't Have Me carries a funky synth bass and a Keith Richards swagger, while Nightime is ethereal mix of flurrying strings, big timpani drums, hyper-spatial guitar reverb, simmering beauty, an Van Gogh lyricism. Blue Moon is not a cover of the famous 50s doo wop standard but a finger-picked ballad in the mood of Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, Take Care is a violin and accordion led folk dance but is quite forgettable at this stage of the album as it follows mostly the same pace and mood as probably about half of the tracks but with less memorable a chord progression. Nature Boy is a very slow piano piece with a Colin Blunstone and the Zombies sound but is too agonising and boring not to mention overwrought and too live as Chilton even sniggers at one point as "Bill's crutch fell against the drum" as we learn from the chatter at the end; hell it's a brilliant insight into the studio!
Stroke it Noel is a blessing in it's simple catchy verse underscored by strings upclose and a simple question; Do You Want to Dance. For You is a personal favourite for Jody Stephens' polished English tinged Baritone that sounds transcendent, You Can't Have Me carries a funky synth bass and a Keith Richards swagger, while Nightime is ethereal mix of flurrying strings, big timpani drums, hyper-spatial guitar reverb, simmering beauty, an Van Gogh lyricism. Blue Moon is not a cover of the famous 50s doo wop standard but a finger-picked ballad in the mood of Neil Young's After the Gold Rush, Take Care is a violin and accordion led folk dance but is quite forgettable at this stage of the album as it follows mostly the same pace and mood as probably about half of the tracks but with less memorable a chord progression. Nature Boy is a very slow piano piece with a Colin Blunstone and the Zombies sound but is too agonising and boring not to mention overwrought and too live as Chilton even sniggers at one point as "Bill's crutch fell against the drum" as we learn from the chatter at the end; hell it's a brilliant insight into the studio!
Till the End of the Day is a bland retread of the Kinks All Night and All of the Day, Dream Lover feels like a stronger song that it sounds here as a delivered as a slow moody piece, but the backing vocal harmonies in the background are the most honeyed since thier most popular song, Thirteen. It All ends on the bizarre steel drum Nillsson inspired romp as we get that very Harry Nillsson style of bawdy offbeat vaudeville rhythms and megaphone filtered distant vocals. They make many styles on this double album, sadly none of them their own and so it would've never changed their standing in the busy record buying marketplace of 78 as nothing more than a cult band with the singer from the Box Tops; sad but you know its also true!
Femme Fatale is possibly the best written with an astounding vocal melody and hollow female echoes giving this a lot of commercial possibility and stood out immediately on a packed double bill offering.
Femme Fatale is possibly the best written with an astounding vocal melody and hollow female echoes giving this a lot of commercial possibility and stood out immediately on a packed double bill offering.
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