Big Star

We listened to part of a Big Star song on Thursday, and unfortunately I was not in class on Wednesday to watch the documentary, so I am not very familiar with this band. I decided to look up some of their  music when I got home the other day and discovered this song, called "Kangaroo." This definitely falls into the "really sad and dark" phase of their career that you described to me. I would try and describe the way this song sounds, but I feel like the indie music website Stereogum does a much better job --

"The most bracing and outsized measure taken on an album of profoundly avant gestures, 'Kangaroo' is the musical centerpiece and a culmination of Chilton’s ever more radical vision for Big Star’s final album. Over the course of it’s cathartic three minutes and 46 seconds, Chilton sings in a pleading, plaintive tone to a would-be paramour — sounding deeply disoriented and not a little strung out. As the weirdest of all love songs unfolds amidst a sea of buzzing feedback and distortion, Stephens’s drums drop in and out unexpectedly, and Chilton’s guitar sounds nearly Eastern at times. The melody is lovely but elliptical and difficult to pinpoint, the overall effect not so much a pop song as a man simply unloading his addled head onto the tape. “Kangaroo” is as beautifully damaged as rock and roll gets, and sets a template for the experimentation of countless great pop acts going forward."

I plan on watching the documentary on Netflix on my own time, one day...... but for now, I will be enjoying this song: