Mo Troper – “I Am The Cosmos” (Chris Bell Cover)

Mo Troper – “I Am The Cosmos” (Chris Bell Cover)

In 1974 and 1975, the late Big Star co-leader Chris Bell recorded a solo album that didn’t come out until long after his death. The 27-year-old Bell died in a 1978 car crash, and his only solo album I Am The Cosmos came out 14 years later. That album’s title track has become a kind of cult standard, covered by people like Beck, the Sidekicks, Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn, the Jayhawks, This Mortal Coil, and Big Star themselves. Today, Mo Troper has taken a stab at it.

Mo Troper, the prolific Portland-based power-pop auteur, has been making records for years, but he had a bit of a breakthrough earlier this year when he released his album MTV. Troper played all the instruments on his new cover of “I Am The Cosmos,” and he recorded and mixed it himself. Troper’s version is more ragged than the Chris Bell original, but it’s still got all that romantic yearning. Below, listen to Mo Troper’s cover and the Chris Bell original.

MTV is out now on Lame-O.

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