Third / Sister Lovers

By the mid-'70s, Alex Chilton's glistening pure-pop group Big Star had hit the rocks, ignored by the public and beset by internal problems. Chilton, backed mostly by session musicians playing both rock and chamber-music instruments, responded with this wracked, bizarre collection of deeply personal songs, venting oblique visions of terror (the much-covered "Kanga Roo" and "Holocaust"), sarcastically envisioning an imaginary circle of supporters ("Thank You Friends"), and covering the odd rock & roll classic in his messed-up teen-idol voice. The album was eventually abandoned and released in unfinished form years later, but the weird gaps in its arrangements make it even stranger and more powerful. --Douglas Wolk