1987's High Priest was Alex Chilton's first full-length studio album since the fascinatingly disastrous Like Flies on Sherbert in 1979. While it certainly wasn't the return to pure-pop form some fans were hoping for from the former leader of Big Star, it at least showed Chilton to be in firm command of his faculties again, and fronting a solid band of Memphis/New Orleans studio heavyweights. High Priest boasted only four original songs from Chilton, the best being the mildly sleazy "Thing for You" (though the just-plain-weird "Dalai Lama" has a certain perverse charm), but he dug up a handful of worthwhile covers, including the good-and-greasy "Make a Little Love" and a fine, obscure Carole King number, "Let Me Get Close to You." While Chilton's vocals betray a certain inscrutable irony, he's in fine voice throughout, and his wildly underrated guitar work is very much in evidence. Alex Chilton's three significant releases for the now-defunct indie label Big Time Records — High Priest, Feudalist Tarts, and No Sex — are combined on one cost-efficient CD. 1985's Feudalist Tarts was a six-song EP that represented Chilton's return to the recording studio after a six-year layoff from music; while his vocals sound a bit tentative in spots and the session is divided half-and-half between scruffy originals and vintage soul covers, Chilton's performance is generally game (especially his guitar playing), and the horn-driven arrangements show the strong influence of the musical heritage of his adopted home town, New Orleans. 1987's High Priest found Chilton in stronger form as a performer, with his vocals boasting a renewed confidence, but the 12-song set only featured four Chilton originals, a disturbing development from one of American pop's most interesting songwriters. Still, the album is generally a lot of fun, and Chilton cuts a fine groove on R&B classics like "Take It Off" and "Make a Little Love." Finally, the No Sex single featured two — yes, two! — strong original numbers from Chilton, "No Sex" (about the after-effects of the AIDS epidemic) and "Underclass" (about the state of his career). The material on these three records has been released on CD in a number of forms, but this disc is certainly the best and most logical presentation of this music, and it's worth searching out.
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