Customer Reviews

I Am the Cosmos

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'll start off by saying i'm glad that at least 14 other people own this record. Music this good does not deserve to be so obscure but alas... The other thing I must say is that I want more. I want more original Big Star stuff, more Chris Bell stuff but that's only a wish. This album of mostly unreleased material is all that's left of Chris Bell music-wise and it's a shame. Recorded in pieces between his departure from Big Star and his death in 1978, this album is full of hook laden power pop and emotional accoustic and mid tempo songs. To me,the album's best track is "I Got Kinda Lost". If life was fair this would have been a hit-it's one of my favorite songs recorded during the 70's. It's an urgent song that nearly jumps out at you and it all comes together in such an amazing way. Another great "rocker" is "I don't know why". Stick with me on this but it's a song Aerosmith COULD have recorded somewhere around this time (it even has a cowbell). Of course, being inferior in every way, they never found a way to create a song this interesting or flat out good. The heavier songs are a nice fit against the reflective,slower songs. "Though I Know She Lies" is just stone beautiful. It's like a number of the songs on this album and in the Big Star catalog (both with and without Bell), they have a sadness built into them. The tittle track, "There Was A Light", "You And Your Sister" and "Better Save Yourself" all share it. They are all great songs but also bittersweet. "Better Save Yourself" in particular is so sad that it would have been perfect for Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers. The slower songs are peppered with insightful lyrics and good music plus Bell's passionate (if high pitched) vocals. The album has a few weak tracks but as they say, the weakest moments here are are better than most others best stuff. That said,I think this album is better than any Alex Chilton solo album(not including Third)-it's more focused and inspired. I don't care about which one was the better artist really, I'm just glad I became fans of both. Chris Bell IS the best singer/songwriter you've new heard of. As others have said-the liner notes by his brother David are about the best around. Read with dismay about how a man this talented ended up managing his father's restarant shortly before he died. Discover I Am The Cosmos. (p.s I'm sorry I mentioned Aerosmith)

For fans of Big Star, Chris Bell's `I Am the Cosmos' is a must have. Bell writes sugar-sweet love songs (Speed of Sound, You and Your Sister, Thought I Knew Her) with infatuating melodies that stand well against the best of Paul McCartney. Love lost is seldom heard with such despair. Of particular interest, `I Am the Cosmos' overwrites a beautiful melody with some ripping guitar chords emphasizing the composition's aura of futility.

The rockers (Get Away, Make a Scene, I Don't Know) remind me not so much of Big Star, but of John Lennon's rebellious Plastic Ono Band period: fiery but chaotic.

Those familiar with Big Star songs such as `The Ballad of El Goodo,' My Life Is Right,' Try Again' and `Give Me Another Chance' shouldn't be surprised with Bell's spiritual affirmations. `Better Save Yourself,' Look Up,' and `There Was a Light' clearly seek the heavens for inspiration.

I wouldn't rate `I Am the Cosmos' on par with Big Star's first two albums, but Chris Bell's influence on the band's majestic sound is profound.

Chris Bell was always the underappreciated half of Big Star - while critics and fans raved over Alex Chilton's intense, brooding pop songs (deservedly so), Chris Bell was somewhat lost in the shuffle. His songs are often chilling and desperate in the same mold as Chilton, but his voice is not quite as powerful or accessible as Chilton's - which never detracts from the songs. This CD is a worthy companion to the essential Big Star albums, and fortunately is widely available. Nothing here approaches the anthemic status of "In The Street" - Bell's one contribution to mainstream culture, from That 70's Show - but the more low key songs make this work well as a cohesive record.

Best Tracks:
"I Am The Cosmos" - Soul-searching, lonesome, and an all time power pop classic. Would have sounded just as good on Third/Sister Lovers.
"Speed Of Sound" - Runs a little long, but this emotionally fragile tune is one of the best on the CD.
"You And Your Sister" - Chilton's backing vocals and the sweeping arrangement make this one of the greatest love songs nobody has ever heard. Truly a keeper, in any of the 3 versions that appear here (they aren't TOO different, but all worthy).
"There Was A Light" - I'd describe this as George Harrison and Mitch Easter jamming on a soul-pop theme.

Chris Bell (along with Alex Chilton) formed the critically praised, but commercially unsuccessful, group Big Star in the early 70's. Bell left the group during the recording of their 2nd album. He recorded many demos for a planned solo album that never saw release during Bell's lifetime (he died in a 1979 motorcycle accident). This CD brings together Bell's recordings with touching liner notes by his brother. "I Am The Cosmos" is the song that gets most of the praise and it certainly is a powerful piece of work, but my personal favorites are "Look Up", a beautiful and highly spiritual ballad, and "You And Your Sister" an acoustic pop masterpiece which reunites Bell and Chilton. Bell also proves he can rock on "Got Kinda Lost" and "Fight At The Table". The remainder of the songs are competent, but meander a bit in places, which is what causes me to give a 4-star rather than a 5-star rating. Nevertheless, while many rockers tend to get vastly over-rated in death (Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Tupac Shakur to name a few) Chris Bell remains virtually unknown except to a fortunate few. I strongly recommend that you purchase this CD. I am confidant that your purchase will make you a member of the small, but expanding, circle of Chris Bell fans!

Many of the songs on this record will remind you of Big Star. But, you can tell from listening to Bell's style that he was every bit as important a member of the band as Alex Chilton. Chilton is often seen as the spotlight, but Bell's songs shone just as brightly. Here on this album, there are no Big Star songs, just Chris Bell solo. And we lost a great one when we lost him.

When I was a teenager (in the early '90s), I first heard the album "Blood" from This Mortal Coil. On it, they cover "You and Your Sister" from this album. I saw that it was written by Chris Bell, but I had yet to learn about Big Star. Eventually my fanaticism with Paul Westerberg led me to Alex Chilton and company. I listed to that song over and over again.

Now with this Chris Bell release, I can listen to three different versions of it! And each one is worthwhile. No overkill, no filler, this is a solid record.

As much as Alex Chilton, it was band founder and creator Chris Bell that made the 70's cult favorites Big Star tick, with his wonderfully meaty rock hooks and somewhat angst-rideen lyrics. His contributions to their "#1 Record" were gloriously pure Brit-pop songs a la the Kinks, that were updated to fit the mold of Big Star. Alas, Bell's stay in the band would not last long, as Chilton began to assert his dominance. Big Star would be permanently altered by Bell's leaving. So would Bell.

The songs that make up Bell's amazing "I Am the Cosmos" lp are an interesting mix of the glorious and those that needed to be tweaked and polished- much like Big Star itself. Bell's post Big Star life was that of a depressed and confused man. Some have speculated that Bell's sexual orientation was of concern to him in terms of trying to be a macho Brit-pop rocker. Whatever the case, Bell was a man trying to find his own place and voice.

These songs reflect his introspective nature well, and while some are more polished than otehrs, the FEEL that the album exudes is palpable. The mix of folksy style tunes with pop tunes that are descendent of those of Badfinger or the Zombies, is balanced well. The sad part is that Bell could have made these tunes 100% gems had be had the chance to do so. Perhaps he would have re-written some of the keys so that he could lower his range some (the monotomy of his high-pitched voice wears on one over time).

Complete with the brilliant "I Don't Know," and the tasty "I Get Kinda Lost," Bell's lp is a lost gem for the ages. Alas, so is Bell, who died in a car accident. It's hard to know how far Bell would have gone in his career had he lived, but if these songs are of any indication, he would have done well, even if he remained unknown.

A brilliant gem.

I wanna say right off the bat that "I Am the Cosmos" seems like one of the few truly great rock and roll albums, but also that it's greatness has only a little to do with it's songs as pure pop confection. Don't get me wrong, they're mostly great songs. The thing that really gets me, though, is the incredible sense of yearning, desperation and sadness the songs convey. In part it has to do with the thin production and Bell's high, wispy vocals, but deeper down the whole record has an indefinable redemptive urge that I just can't quantify. It's the opposite of Big Star's other 'sucicide' record, the unfinished Sister Lovers. Where Chilton's opus of despair rakes the bottom of the barrel with the squalid, ironic hatred of all the best gutterjunkie rawk'n'roll, I Am the Cosmos strives for, and fails to achieve spiritual transcendance. The failure and the acknowledgement of failure is what gives it power. There aren't many rock and roll records that mine such wretched emotional terrain with so little schtick and pose. Like, Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left, or Roky Ericson's "You Don't Love Me Yet", I Am the Cosmos is really just the sound of one soul letting you in on what it feels like to hurt - to hurt selfishly, ceaselessly and absolutely. It doesn't say "lemme tell you 'bout the pain"; it seems to almost unconciously bleed the pain in from around the edges. That's where the record's sealed, obsessive brit-pop aspirations come in. It's ostensibly a pop record, and a pretty one at that. It's not supposed to be a painful wallow in the sewers of the soul... I dunno who was Big Star's better songwriter and I don't know that it much matters. What I do know is that Bell's record, in all it's sad, hermetic madness, is one of rock's true masterpieces.

Regardless of all the praise and superalatives after the demise of Bigstar. Which are long overdue. I feel that Chris Bell doesn't get his get his fair share of credit for shaping the sound and vision of Bigstar. I thank both he and Alex for bringing us Radiocity and #1 Record and don't think Chris didn't have anything to do with Radiocity; his fingerprints are all over that album.
With that being said; for those who aren't sure about buying "I'am the Cosmos" buy it and listen. Chris Bell is truly an Artist and a man in pain. Thes songs are wonderful and I highly RECOMMEND THIS *****. Chris you are the cosmos.

Chris Bell's music magic lives on after he does. It's like a missing part of Big Star...the music is all there but there is a sadness. "Though I know she lies" is a great listen. And the David Bell's story is something all Big Star fans should have to read and remember.

This disc is worth the price of purchase for the liner notes compiled by Chris' brother David alone. The music, of course, is excellent.

As with the three Big Star re-issues which came out at about the same time as this album, you could comfortably curl up with the liner notes to this CD and a cup of coffee and drop out for the evening. The story is tragic - and leaves you wishing for more. Unfortunately, this is undoubtedly all you're going to get.

Perhaps that is why I continue to return to this album, when all the others fade, years after finding it. I even re-read the liner notes.

No other album in my collection sustains itself like this one.