Solo Album From Big Star Co-Founder On Clear Vinyl LP!
Newly Remastered! Vinyl Cut at Ardent Studios in Memphis!
Chris Bell was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist born in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star, which recorded albums during the early 1970s.
I Am The Cosmos is his only solo album, having been recorded over a period of years during the mid-70s and eventually released in 1992, 14 years after his tragic death in an automobile accident at age 27. As with his work with Big Star, the album received highly favorable critical reviews. Giving the album an "A-", Robert Christgau wrote that it was "clear from Bell's very posthumous solo album . . . that Big Star was his idea."
According to Jason Ankeny of AllMusic, "Chris Bell was one of the unsung heroes of American pop music. Despite a life marked by tragedy and a career crippled by commercial indifference, the singer/songwriter's slim body of recorded work proved massively influential on the generations of indie rockers who emerged in his wake."
"Speed Of Sound" was used in the opening credits of the film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playist and was featured on a various artists compilation album compiled by The Flaming Lips. "I Am The Cosmos" has been played live by Big Star, Beck, The Posies, Gigolo Aunts, The Jayhawks, and The Drams, and has also been covered by This Mortal Coil, together with a version of "You And Your Sister". Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn recorded "I Am The Cosmos" for their 2009 collaboration, Break Up.
"Unreleased for over 15 years, I Am the Cosmos is nevertheless an enduring testament to the brilliance of Chris Bell; lyrically poignant and melodically stunning, this lone solo album is proof positive of his underappreciated pop mastery. While cuts like "Get Away," "I Got Kinda Lost," and "Fight at the Table" recall the glowing, energetic power pop of Bell's earlier work, the majority of the songs on I Am the Cosmos are more reflective and deeply personal; the title track is a harrowingly schizophrenic tale of romantic despair, while other cuts like the lurching "Better Save Yourself" and the lovely "Look Up" are infused with a spiritual power largely missing from his Big Star material. The album's highlight, "You and Your Sister" -- which features backing vocals from none other than Bell's Big Star mate Alex Chilton -- is simply one of the great unknown love songs in the pop canon, a luminous and fragile ballad almost otherworldly in its beauty." - Jason Ankeny, allmusic.com
"I Am the Cosmos is wonderful for many reasons: the hazy, slightly dreamlike feel of the recording and of Bell's vocals; his yearning, slightly damaged voice; the guitar solo, which, despite its simplicity, remains one of the best examples of that much-mocked ilk." - Peter Walker, The Guardian
"Bell is often painted as a doomed pop-poet, but he was much more than some stateside Nick Drake. True, Cosmos is steeped in agony and arpeggios, but it's punctuated by stormy rockers like "Make A Scene" and "I Got Kinda Lost," songs that would've been at home on Big Star's Radio City (or even a Real Kids anthology). At points, Bell seems to be trying his damnedest to beat the letdown and dread that was swallowing his life: The slapdash boogie and barrelhouse piano of "Fight At The Table" masks some weirdly sad lyrics, while "You And Your Sister"complete with wrenching backups from Chiltonis a brittle, off-kilter ballad that threatens to derail or dissolve at any moment. With Bell's echoing, exposed-nerve vocals and piercingly personal ruminations on matters celestial and sexual, Cosmos is John Lennon's Imagine from another dimension. In Rock And The Pop Narcotic, Joe Carducci calls Big Star's music "pop out of time"a phrase that fits Bell's solo work all too well." - Jason Heller, A.V. Club
"History would come to recognize it as his creative masterwork, but for Chris Bell "I Am the Cosmos" was less about making pop music than reaching a personal apotheosis. In its three minutes and 46 seconds lies an anguished epic, a profound expression that distills hope and fear, love and longing to their essence... massive in scope, achingly intimate in nature, a beautiful paradox thats only become more pronounced over time." - Bob Mehr, trunkworthy.com
Features:
Vinyl LP
First Pressing On Clear Vinyl
Remastered
Vinyl cut at Ardent Studios in Memphis
Limited time download card
Selections:
Side One:
1. I Am The Cosmos
2. Better Save Yourself
3. Speed Of Sound
4. Get Away
5. Make A Scene
Side Two:
1. Look Up
2. I Got Kinda Lost
3. There Was A Light
4. Fight At The Table
5. I Don't Know
6. Though I Know She Lies
7. You And Your Sister
Newly Remastered! Vinyl Cut at Ardent Studios in Memphis!
Chris Bell was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist born in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star, which recorded albums during the early 1970s.
I Am The Cosmos is his only solo album, having been recorded over a period of years during the mid-70s and eventually released in 1992, 14 years after his tragic death in an automobile accident at age 27. As with his work with Big Star, the album received highly favorable critical reviews. Giving the album an "A-", Robert Christgau wrote that it was "clear from Bell's very posthumous solo album . . . that Big Star was his idea."
According to Jason Ankeny of AllMusic, "Chris Bell was one of the unsung heroes of American pop music. Despite a life marked by tragedy and a career crippled by commercial indifference, the singer/songwriter's slim body of recorded work proved massively influential on the generations of indie rockers who emerged in his wake."
"Speed Of Sound" was used in the opening credits of the film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playist and was featured on a various artists compilation album compiled by The Flaming Lips. "I Am The Cosmos" has been played live by Big Star, Beck, The Posies, Gigolo Aunts, The Jayhawks, and The Drams, and has also been covered by This Mortal Coil, together with a version of "You And Your Sister". Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn recorded "I Am The Cosmos" for their 2009 collaboration, Break Up.
"Unreleased for over 15 years, I Am the Cosmos is nevertheless an enduring testament to the brilliance of Chris Bell; lyrically poignant and melodically stunning, this lone solo album is proof positive of his underappreciated pop mastery. While cuts like "Get Away," "I Got Kinda Lost," and "Fight at the Table" recall the glowing, energetic power pop of Bell's earlier work, the majority of the songs on I Am the Cosmos are more reflective and deeply personal; the title track is a harrowingly schizophrenic tale of romantic despair, while other cuts like the lurching "Better Save Yourself" and the lovely "Look Up" are infused with a spiritual power largely missing from his Big Star material. The album's highlight, "You and Your Sister" -- which features backing vocals from none other than Bell's Big Star mate Alex Chilton -- is simply one of the great unknown love songs in the pop canon, a luminous and fragile ballad almost otherworldly in its beauty." - Jason Ankeny, allmusic.com
"I Am the Cosmos is wonderful for many reasons: the hazy, slightly dreamlike feel of the recording and of Bell's vocals; his yearning, slightly damaged voice; the guitar solo, which, despite its simplicity, remains one of the best examples of that much-mocked ilk." - Peter Walker, The Guardian
"Bell is often painted as a doomed pop-poet, but he was much more than some stateside Nick Drake. True, Cosmos is steeped in agony and arpeggios, but it's punctuated by stormy rockers like "Make A Scene" and "I Got Kinda Lost," songs that would've been at home on Big Star's Radio City (or even a Real Kids anthology). At points, Bell seems to be trying his damnedest to beat the letdown and dread that was swallowing his life: The slapdash boogie and barrelhouse piano of "Fight At The Table" masks some weirdly sad lyrics, while "You And Your Sister"complete with wrenching backups from Chiltonis a brittle, off-kilter ballad that threatens to derail or dissolve at any moment. With Bell's echoing, exposed-nerve vocals and piercingly personal ruminations on matters celestial and sexual, Cosmos is John Lennon's Imagine from another dimension. In Rock And The Pop Narcotic, Joe Carducci calls Big Star's music "pop out of time"a phrase that fits Bell's solo work all too well." - Jason Heller, A.V. Club
"History would come to recognize it as his creative masterwork, but for Chris Bell "I Am the Cosmos" was less about making pop music than reaching a personal apotheosis. In its three minutes and 46 seconds lies an anguished epic, a profound expression that distills hope and fear, love and longing to their essence... massive in scope, achingly intimate in nature, a beautiful paradox thats only become more pronounced over time." - Bob Mehr, trunkworthy.com
Features:
Vinyl LP
First Pressing On Clear Vinyl
Remastered
Vinyl cut at Ardent Studios in Memphis
Limited time download card
Selections:
Side One:
1. I Am The Cosmos
2. Better Save Yourself
3. Speed Of Sound
4. Get Away
5. Make A Scene
Side Two:
1. Look Up
2. I Got Kinda Lost
3. There Was A Light
4. Fight At The Table
5. I Don't Know
6. Though I Know She Lies
7. You And Your Sister
