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100

The Onion (A.V. Club)

With only three official albums to its name, Big Star doesn’t seem like a natural for the box-set treatment, but Keep An Eye On The Sky has plenty to offer both neophytes and longtime fans, dropping demos, alternate mixes, and selections from Bell and Chilton’s pre-Big Star work alongside album tracks and the two stunning sides of the only solo work Bell saw released before dying in a car accident in 1978.

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100

Entertainment Weekly

The spare demos, crystal-clear concert recordings, and handsomely produced liner notes are a fan's delight, but it's the three original albums included here--38 haunting ballads and fist-pumping anthems, some in unreleased mixes, each one a gem--that still shine brightest.

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100

Tiny Mix Tapes

The songs here represent more than just a band; they represent the myth, the sound of “beautiful losers,” as Buck describes them, making good on the promise their sound always presented.

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100

Mojo

This 4-CD box is the monument to both the cult and the art. And it's great. [Oct 2009, p.117]

Filter

This box mingles an abundance of demos, alternative takes and other previously unreleased iterations of Big Star tunes amid sparsely retained original album versions. [Fall 2009, p.92]

Pitchfork

These four discs ultimately do what any good box set should do: In tracing the band's trajectory from power-pop progenitors to post-pop tinkerers, Keep an Eye on the Sky presents a history of the band that could not be gleaned from the albums themselves, using finished studio tracks along with demos and rarities to give a fuller picture of the musicians, their dynamic, and their songs.

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All Music Guide

[They were a creature of the studio and it] resulted in alternate mixes and instrumental scraps, the stuff that enthralls fetishists, sometimes justifiably so. Those are the listeners who will find Keep an Eye on the Sky most rewarding, but anybody who has loved the band will find something to cherish here.

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No Ripcord

In summation, though, there is not much you could ask for in a Big Star box set that is not included here.

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Rolling Stone

Barring the discovery of more golden eggs, the four CDs of Keep an Eye on the Sky are the last word on Big Star's first, ultimately glorious lifetime.

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Billboard.com

Spanning the years 1968-75, this exquisitely designed four-disc boxed set gathers a treasure trove of rare gems.

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Austin Chronicle

Authoritatively illustrating why, the 4-CD Keep an Eye on the Sky might be considered compilation overload on this admittedly obscure Memphis quartet for the newcomer, but cultists and anyone interested in some of the purest guitar pop ever made will find lots and lots to love.

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Q Magazine

This exemplary boxset tells the whole, rather sorry saga of how a band who seemingly had everything going for them ended up with precisely nothing. [Oct 2009, p.122]

Uncut

These commercial frailties have come to be seen, quite rightly, as cultish strengths. But it all goes to make Keep An Eye On The Sky much more than a repository of extraordinary music; it acts as the most thorough and articulate explanation of why Big Star never became superstars.

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Dusted Magazine

Rhino’s new Big Star box set Keep an Eye on the Sky seems like it was put together as much to please Big Star fans as it was to introduce newcomers to the band.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Robert L. gave it a10:
This superbly compiled collection proves once and for all that Big Star truly were the most under-rated band in Rock history. The music here has endured throughout the decades thanks to it's timeless quality. An essential collection for any serious music fan.

Richard L. gave it a9:
this is the best box set i've ever listened to. if i had to choose a box set to play right before committing suicide, this would be it. i would slit my wrist with a smile on my face.

Tiago A. gave it a10:
It's amazing album.Everybody should hear this.

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Keep An Eye On The Sky

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