Big Star - #1 Record/Radio CIty

This CD collects early 70's Memphis Power Poppers' Big Star's first two albums on one CD. 72 minutes of jangling guitars and gorgeous vocal harmonies. Big Star took their influences from classic British 60's pop such as The Who, The Beatles and The Kinks and distilled it into a collection of Byrdsian 3 minute pop songs mostly about cars and girls. Big Star are one of those bands like The Velvet Underground where not that many people have heard them, but all those that did were inspired to form bands themselves. They're a big influence on bands like Teenage Fanclub, Weezer, The Flaming Lips and The Replacements (Who named a song after vocalist/guitarist Alex Chilton).

Big Star are another of those bands that are like an instant cheer up button (well, these two albums were, not so much on "Third/Sister Lovers"but we'll get to that later on). You may well have heard "Thirteen", (a fantastic song which always sounds a bit dodgy until you realise it's sung from the perspective of Alex Chilton when he was thirteen, not Jimmy Saville) and  "September Gurls" is also fairly well known, ut my favourite song on the album is "In The Street"...