1. MichaelK

   10

   Like most great albums, this one takes more than one listening to get it. It seems funny how some poeple don't think this sounds like Big Star but say how good they think 3rd is, which sounds less like Big Star than In Space. If only every reunited band could sound this good.… Expand

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2. BradfordJ

   10

   the history of rock in one album: beatles, beach boys, kinks, booker t & the mgs, chuck berry, box tops, big star...they're all hear!

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3. EliasC

   5

   The best thing here is a cover: the Olympics's '66 "Mine Exclusively." And it fades out way too soon, whereas the risibly incompetent "Love Revolution" (I could play bass better than whoever's on this track) goes on for, I dunno, several minutes. Something is just wrong with this record conceptually and aurally, which is odd when you remember that the first two Big Star albums are some of the best-sounding music ever recorded. I've never quite understood why Chilton and Stephens picked the Posies guys to flesh out the group. The Posies do their thing well, but I for one find them derivative and bit, ah, wet. Given the fact that Chilton's best stuff since the late '70s has more to do with soul music than with powerpop, it's puzzling why Alex didn't choose to work with someone like Teenie Hodges instead of Auer and Stringfellow. Far too much has been made of Big Star's failure to achieve commercial success, and I for one have little use for the so-called powerpop genre. Get rid of all of it except maybe a few Raspberries singles, a couple of the best Badfinger tunes, the first two Big Star albums and the first two Marshall Crenshaw albums, and I'd be content. Too, I think Big Star's audience has always been a bit in the dark about what their music really "means"--like a lot of stuff, what they were all about had more to do with groove, tempo and so forth than jangle, great songs (which they mostly didn't write) and the whole powerpop orthodoxy. And I think Chilton's solo work is underrated--"Like Flies on Sherbert" is a masterpiece. It's just that many powerpop fans can't get over the Beatles, and they don't get that Chilton has always been a chameleon with more affinity for r&b than with whatever powerpop is. "In Space" illustrates this quite well--the stuff that's "melodic" pretty much sucks, and the only reason I can find to listen to it is groove and the way the songs are played (Stephens is a great drummer, and Chilton, while the most mannered of great rock guitarists, can still get it). What's missing is a context in which they can do it. Bad idea to ever revive the group--I'd just as soon listen to the reformed Box Tops.… Expand

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