Big Star - Nothing Can Hurt Me - Music & Performance - CD

After years in the making, the story of Big Star will finally hit the big screen in the forthcoming feature-length documentary, BIG STAR: NOTHING CAN HURT ME (Magnolia Pictures). The Omnivore Recordings soundtrack captures the essence of the documentary and plays like audio version of the film. It is comprised of all previously unissued versions of classic Big Star, Chris Bell and Alex Chilton songs, and includes demos, plus alternate original and new mixes made especially for the film.

Originally released as a limited-edition double-LP for Record Store Day 2013, the soundtrack to the Big Star documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me certainly does appeal to vinyl-besotted pop fanatics. Not one of these 20 songs are present in their familiar, original mixes: there's an occasional demo, many rough mixes from the time, and plenty of movie mixes dating from 2012, the year Nothing Can Hurt Me started screening at various film festivals across the United States. There are a couple of non-canonical rarities here -- the minor-key dirge "Better Save Yourself" and Alex Chilton's delicate acoustic "All We Ever Got from Them Was Pain" -- but this album is all about subtle differences from the well-known, well-loved mixes. To Big Star obsessives -- who are unapologetically the audience for this collection -- there are enough slight, interesting alterations from the known to make this worthwhile: certain vocals are unpolished, some guitars are pushed to the front of the mix, a few sections feel slightly extended, chatter is added to the beginning of Chris Bell's "I Am the Cosmos," which is given a slightly bigger, cinematic mix. Nothing changes or illuminates history but it's just enough to thrill diehards, the kind of fan who knows the original by heart so any deviation will be noted and appreciated. Maybe it's not enough to warrant an enthusiastic recommendation, but it's easy enough to discern whether this is an album you should hear: if this collection of alternate mixes and variations sounds like something you need to hear, it is; if it sounds like a mere curiosity, that is also true. Know yourself well enough to know which camp you belong. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Performer	Big Star
Music genre	Rock
Music subgenre	CD - ROCK
Music release type	Release
Media format	CD
Original release date	2020
Edition	Standard
Language	English
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Series title	Big Star - Nothing Can Hurt Me [COMPACT DISCS]
Track listing	O My Soul, Give Me Another Chance, In the Street, When My Baby's Beside Me, Studio Banter, Try Again, My Life Is Right, The Ballad of El Goodo, Feel, Don't Lie to Me, Way Out West, Thirteen, You Get What You Deserve, Holocaust, Kanga Roo, Stroke It Noel, Big Black Car, Better Save Yourself, I Am the Cosmos, All We Ever Got from Them Was Pain, September Gurls
Record label	Omnivore Recordings
Songwriter	Big Star
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N