In most cases, adding in an unrelated EP, a second unrelated three-song EP, and a couple of random live tracks to an artist's album would make for a disorganized and confusing set, but
Alex Chilton's 1979 album
Like Flies on Sherbert was already a chaotic mess by most people's standards in the first place, so adding in the
Feudalist Tarts EP from 1985 and the three songs from 1986's
No Sex 12" EP from 1986 plus live versions of
"The Letter" and
"No Sex" simply expands the chaos to something closer to epic proportions. In retrospect,
Flies isn't quite the car wreck it once appeared to be, and this two-disc package from
Last Call has a strange coherence to it, full of loose, ragged deconstructive
noise experiments, gutbucket
R&B, and deliberately torpedoed
pop and
country songs. All of this is a far cry from the impressive
power pop of
Big Star, to be sure, but
Flies and its various trailing EPs still seem to have a sense of purpose, even if that sense may have only been clear to
Chilton. If love of
Chilton's
Big Star work brings you to this, well, be prepared to be shocked, but give it all a second listen. Songs like
"My Rival" and its mirror cousin,
"Like Flies on Sherbert," have fascinatingly bristling junkyard exteriors that mask a powerfully inverted
pop sense, while tracks like
"Boogie Shoes" and
"Lost My Job" have a refreshing
country-
R&B shuffle feel, and
"No Sex" may well be the most direct and honest song about sex in the postmodern world ever recorded. None of this is
pop music trying to get over -- which is what one is used to -- but is instead
pop music trying to get away from any perceived boundaries. What photo best captures the look and feel of the aftermath of a huge blowout party, one that is clear, in focus, and perfectly posed, or one that is blurred at the edges, tilted off axis, and has no obvious center point? The party's over,
Chilton seems to be saying, and I don't have to look pretty anymore. ~ Steve Leggett
