Album of the Day

A talented songwriter, performer and producer, Chris Bell co-founded power pop legends Big Star and was struggling to emerge as a solo artist when he was killed in a car accident in 1978, two days after Christmas. The recordings he made before that finally saw release on Rykodisc in 1992 as I AM THE COSMOS, a haunting and beautiful work even if Bell never got the chance to put the finishing touches on some songs. Rhino's Deluxe Edition of the album contains a remastered version of the original on one disc, plus a second disc of 15 tracks recorded between 1970 and 1976 - all but two of them previously unreleased. If Alex Chilton got much of the attention in Big Star, Chris Bell was an equally gifted musician, a fact made even clearer with  I AM THE COSMOS - DELUXE EDITION.