CHRIS BELL- I AM THE COSMOS

For a long time Big Star were a band who's appeal I just didn't understand. Countless 'most under-appreciated bands of all-time' lists, constantly mentioned amongst great ahead-of-their-time bands like MC5 and New York Dolls and still on Allmusic's genre listing of proto-punk?

Upon first hearing 'Feel' I was immediately disappointed. I wanted everything I'd read, not the sugary 70's pop I was given. Needless to say, I left Big Star alone for a long time. Some years later I was getting into Cheap Trick pretty heavily and decided Big Star were worth a revisit. Oh what a fool I was for sleeping on them all those years. Some of the best pop-music ever committed to record.

So, a couple of months ago I saw that 4 Men With Beards had reissued this album by Chris Bell, one half of Big Star's chief songwriting-duo, that I had never heard of. Knowing that label's pretty reliable selection in the material they see fit to reissue, I opted to make a spur-of-the-moment purchase and I was not disappointed.

Much in the same way that Big Star's last original album Third was a sharp left-turn into sadsville, I Am The Cosmos is basically a heroin-soaked car ride to the edge of a cliff in the middle of the night. Bible in hand, of course. Bell would die shortly after the majority of these songs were completed, while driving home from the restaurant he worked at...

HERE