Third / Sister Lovers [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Big Star | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 21, 1992)
• Original Release Date: 1978
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Rykodisc
• ASIN: B0000009OB
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,220 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #17 in Music > Indie Music > Pop > Pop Rock
  • #33 in Music > Indie Music > Pop > General
  • #43 in Music > Rock > Power Pop

Track Listings

1. Kizza Me

2. Thank You Friends

3. Big Black Car

4. Jesus Christ

5. Femme Fatale

6. O, Dana

7. Holocaust

8. Kangaroo

9. Stroke It Noel

10. For You

11. You Can't Have Me

12. Nightime

13. Blue Moon

14. Take Care

15. Nature Boy

16. Till The End Of The Day

17. Dream Lover

18. Downs

19. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

By the mid-'70s, Alex Chilton's glistening pure-pop group Big Star had hit the rocks, ignored by the public and beset by internal problems. Chilton, backed mostly by session musicians playing both rock and chamber-music instruments, responded with this wracked, bizarre collection of deeply personal songs, venting oblique visions of terror (the much-covered "Kanga Roo" and "Holocaust"), sarcastically envisioning an imaginary circle of supporters ("Thank You Friends"), and covering the odd rock & roll classic in his messed-up teen-idol voice. The album was eventually abandoned and released in unfinished form years later, but the weird gaps in its arrangements make it even stranger and more powerful. --Douglas Wolk

Product Description

Audio CD ,

See all Editorial Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The kids just don't understand... August 6, 2002

By Lypo Suck

Format:Audio CD

I was first introduced to Big Star unknowingly via the gorgeous (though admittedly lugubrious) covers of "Kangaroo" and "Holocaust" done on the first This Mortal Coil album. I was 14 (the year was 1988) when I discovered that album, and being immersed in late 70s and 80s new wave and goth and all that 4ad stuff, I hadn't a clue nor a care about who the hell Alex Chilton was. All I knew was that these were beautiful covers of songs I naively presumed to be dated folk or something, and that these covers must have improved greatly upon the obscure originals.

Fast forward to college, mid-90s: a friend stumbles on a copy of the Ryko "Sister Lovers" reissue and puts "Kangaroo" on a mix tape for me. I immediately assumed it was a cover that some contemporary indie band had done recently. Interesting and oddly familiar. Then my friend tells me it's Big Star, that this was the original version, and that it was recorded in 1974. Needless to say, my jaw dropped to the floor. This song sounded NOTHING at all like anything written or recorded in 1974. The feedback, the ultra-clear, wet, reverbed-out production, the singing, etc, ... A lot of revolutionary artists were making ground-breaking records in '74, from John Cale to Roxy Music to Brian Eno to Can to Faust, but none of it really anticipated this particular sound that so many bands would ape (sometimes without realizing it) in the 80s and 90s.

I soon got a copy of "Sister Lovers" and was immediately blown away by the seminal songwriting and arrangements. It was clear that bands like the Cocteau Twins took something from mellow, gorgeous, melancholic, atmospheric tunes like "Big Black Car," "Take Care," and "Holocaust." It was also clear that "Stroke it Noel" and "For You" perfected what many call "baroque pop": pop songs centered around chamber-like, stringed arrangements, they pushed "Smile"-era Beach Boys and Love's "Forever Changes" into a whole new territory. Echo & the Bunnymen's classic "Ocean Rain" might not have been quite the same without this.

The atmosphere and overall mood, the sometimes incomplete arrangements, the desperate, sometimes bitter and sardonic vocals, suggested the sound of a band falling apart (which indeed was happening at the time). The use of space, reverb, and spare, sometimes jagged and jarring arrangements and mood swings, the sense of anger and defeat, all worked its way into so many 80s new wave/post-punk records, one couldn't begin to keep track. From Echo and The Bunnymen to the Go-Betweens, from the Replacements to Sonic Youth, few records have influenced such a wide array of artists.

What's even more fascinating about this album is how timeless it sounds. When you listen to those other "ahead of their time" records, like "Pet Sounds," "Forever Changes," "Another Green World," "VU w/ Nico," etc, it's pretty easy to tell which decades they were recorded in. But with "Sister Lovers," the sound isn't derivative of anything that was happening during its time of creation. If I knew nothing about Big Star and I simply heard "Sister Lovers" w/ out any band photos or anything lying around for contexxt, I swear I might've placed it somewhere in the 80s or 90s. That, my friend, is what I would call "timeless".

The hooks, the atmosphere, the anguish, the tension, it's all here in unrivaled glory. What's even more remarkable is how different this was from the first two Big Star releases, which were filled with tight, English-sounding, fairly conventional pop songs with straight-forward arrangements and sounds. (Those two albums, as important as they are in their own respective ways, do happen to sound a bit dated). This is an album that grows on you with repeated listens. An album where new surprises continue to reveal themselves even after you've owned it for several years. As a collection of haunting, pretty, offbeat pop, or a blueprint for countless bands and movements to come, this album cannot be overlooked.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars wow! July 12, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

I'm actually not sure if I want to recommend this album to anyone. The songs contained herein are the most powerful and tragic songs can get. Anyone who feels that their music does not do enough for them emotionally should buy this record. Big Star had two members when this album was made, and the music was essentially made by Alex Chilton and the producer Jim Dickinson. Rykodisc's release of this never-before completelyt seen album was a godsend. I know you probably think I'm crazy now, because you have probably listened to the audio tracks at Amazon and found them atonal and pathetic, but it is definitely true that one must listen to this album over and over to really get it. The album starts off happy with "Kizza Me" and "Thank You Friends" but soon enough plunges into realms of music which haven't been explored before or since. "Holocaust" is disasterously perfect, and "Blue Moon" (not a cover, an original) is the most moving song I have ever heard. The odd lyrics I can not interpret or even sometimes hear, but I wish I had written them anyway. The instruments also chime in perfectly to match the moods, from the beautiful strings in "Strike It Noel" to the chorus in "Thank You Friends" to the instrumental at the beginning of "Jesus Christ". Music for my darkest hour.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the most significantly personal album ever recorded August 24, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

third/sister lovers is a beautiful and brilliant, unforgettable record but it's so much more than that. excepting nick drake's pink moon and lennon's "primal scream" lp, no recording has ever captured the deterioration of hope and optimism and the cancer of fatalism like this one has.

on its own, sister lovers is full of haunting and lovely material like "blue moon," "dream lover," and "nighttime" but when listened in context, keeping in mind the innocence and youthfulness of #1 record and the "we won't give up" mentality that permeates radio city, only then does this record reveal its harrowing true colors.

take chilton's "car" songs as an example. #1 record gives us "in the street," a youth anthem in which the characters spend much of their time happily driving around town in someone's car. radio city sees this changing for the worse with "back of a car," in which the "music's too loud" and the fun is dissipating fast as the innocence and youth seeps away. here, on sister lovers, there's "big black car," painful in its sorrow and melancholy, talking about driving around as if it's only a memory in the mind of someone who can no longer enjoy any facet of life, not even that which used to give so much; "nothing can hurt me" he says, but we don't believe him, "driving's a gas, it aint gonna last."

in context, third/sister lovers may very well be the most incredible document of giving up since the advent of sound. equally jaw-dropping and miraculous as #1 record and radio city. everything you've heard about big star is an understatement.