7. Big StarThird

Big Star’s production values for me are unparalleled, Jim Dickinson is like an amazing genius, I like the sounds of the acoustic guitars specifically on all three of their records. It’s better than Led Zeppelin, it’s the best acoustic guitar sound I’ve ever heard. That album in particular is a strange sad point in the band’s career, they were really split up. Jim Dickinson kind of finished it, Chris Bell who did a lot of the arrangements was in an insane asylum I think, and Alex Chilton who I consider one of the best songwriters of all time was also suffering from alcohol and drug abuse, but ‘Kangaroo’ is to me one of the most beautiful songs ever written. It’s symphonic without using a symphony and kind of grandiose, but as it grows it dies on the vine in this really visceral way. Personally it evokes a nostalgia. I never lived through that album but I can picture myself in adolescence at a smoky party, feeling really anti-social, falling in love with a stranger through people-watching, that sort of thing.