Long Player: Those with nothing to lose can be honest

Readers of this column might wonder why I often bang on about disturbing, depressing works that barely caused a blip on the radar at the time of their release.

The simplest answer: an artist with nothing to lose can afford to be honest.

Alex Chilton had nothing to lose when he returned to Memphis, Tennessee's Ardent Studios in 1974 to make a series of recordings.

Previous albums #1 Record (1972) and Radio City (1974) from his power-pop band Big Star had not sold well, due in the main to tragically incompetent distribution.

His creative partnership with singer/guitarist Chris Bell had crumbled at the first hurdle; drummer Jody Stephens was the only other Big Star regular to remain aboard the fast-sinking ship.

Drugs and weirdness had played their parts in this dysfunctional band whose sound couldn't easily be pigeonholed.

Blending melodic pop with a dash of soul, R&B and heavy rock, Big Star had proved too slippery a customer for the post-'60s crowd.

Big Star's Third (also known as Sister Lovers) wouldn't see the light of day until 1978 - it was initially deemed lacking in commercial content. Various versions have since been issued, the best of which is the 1992 Rykodisc edition that features the songs Chilton wanted released, in the order he preferred.

Eccentric arrangements and half-finished ideas abound, though this all adds to the album's cracked personality.Elements of Velvet Underground-like experimentation can be heard alongside the lyrical, hook-laden pop that Big Star once relied on.

There's even a touch of Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs about Chilton's distracted, melancholic vocals. While muscular tracks such as Kizza Me, Thank You Friends and You Can't Have Me present the most lucid moments, it is the sprawling, darker ballads that make Third eerily compelling. In Big Black Car, Holocaust and Kangaroo, Chilton's confessional honesty is almost too much to bear.