I'd give it three stars out of five. I think the album opens really strong, so strong that the rest of the disc is a bit of a letdown-- "Dony" is just a great pop song, the way the hook isn't between-the-eyes obvious but says it all just the same. And "Lady Sweet" is as good a Chris Bell song as you're going to get without him being around (though I'm guessing the Posies wrote that one on their own). As a lot of people have said, from there it's close to what you'd expect on a typical Chilton solo album-- I can live without the Beach Boys pastiche and the instrumental. Love Revolution is a nice idea but it goes on too long and occurs too early on the album. I do think it livens up on Mine Exclusively (shows off their vocal blend real well) and I think Makeover is weird enough to work.

As a whole it's a fun, summery disc, no embarrassment, and I'll probably enjoy it over the years. But the first couule songs at least indicate to me that it could've been something more profound if they'd pushed a little harder.

on a related note...Did anyone else hear or like the Box Tops album from a few years back?

Funny, i almost made some crack about "now we wait for a Box Tops reunion" in my post, when i remembered, the Box Tops HAVE played around. Hadn't heard of a recent-ish disc, though! Poking around on the internet, i'm guessing it's "Tear Off!" from 1998? Any good??? Sigh. I'm gonna have to track it down

Hey Chris,

Just got it yesterday. After a couple of listens I think it's pretty good - better than I thought it would be. It's certainly not Radio City but it sure is great hearing Jody sing again.

BTW - I'm going to see the Posies tomorrow night so I guess I'll be seeing half of Big Star.

It has definitely grown on me. I too like Alex's stuff from all phases of his career -- Like Flies on Sherbert being a particular fave -- so it not being a "Big Star" record, and containing musical elements of Alex's much longer post-Star career is not surprising. A very egalitarian effort, eh?

Hafta second that on Jody singing. Really nice!

Spoke to Jon Auer last night at the Posies show. He opined that he was the only one of the four actually trying to make a "real" Big Star disc. Dunno about that - I think Jody's songs are great.

Veering off topic as these things tend to do, I just saw the Posies myself last night.
One of the best shows I've seen since... well, the dB's shows in Chicago.
I was given the honor of playing/holding Jon's guitar during some mid-song running around in the audience, then got to witness him smash the guitar to bits on their last song (either for pure showmanship or out of frustration that one or more of the strings broke... probably both).

Anyway... Big Star.
I like it. But needless to say, it's not REALLY Big Star. And so it doesn't REALLY sound like a Big Star album. Of course every band is going to be a product of the musicians involed, and considering the musicians involved in this case that's a good thing.