No. 456: Third/Sister Lovers

Band: Big Star
Album: Third/Sister Lovers
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Big Star's final record isn't really a full record, per se. Rather, it's the equivalent of Alex Chilton's doodles. There are a few great tracks.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Again, it's more of a sketchpad than an album.
Best song: "Nighttime," "Holocaust," "Dream Lover" and "Kanga Roo" are all very good songs. "Jesus Christ" isn't terrible.
Worst song: Much of the rest of the record is just blah.
Is it awesome?: Nope.

It seems, for bands that aren't deemed by Rolling Stone as super-duper important, the magazine jams the records together. All but one of the Roxy Music albums occur within 20 positions of one another. All three Big Star records come within 50 positions. Maybe not.

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"Third/Sister Lovers" isn't great. It's got a few very good songs, but it's mostly just the dissolution of the band put to a record. Chilton's delusions of grandeur appear to be the larger theme of the album, as experiments abound.

"Kanga Roo," "Nighttime" and "Jesus Christ" all hit, while "Take Care" and "O, Dana" don't really. The guitar sound isn't as clean as Chilton's power pop from the first two Big Star records. His voice isn't nearly a soft, either.

For the most part, it full of songs better fit to a rarities compilation.