I Am the Cosmos is the only solo album by the American musician Chris Bell, posthumously released in 1992 by Rykodisc. It was produced by Bell and recorded in the 1970s. Bell had previously been a member of Big Star. Many of the songs reflected his embrace of Christianity. In 2009, the album was remastered and re-released in a deluxe two-CD version by Rhino Handmade with alternate versions and additional tracks, and three songs by Bell's pre-Big Star groups, Icewater and Rock City. Some copies included a bonus 7" single of "I Am the Cosmos"/"You and Your Sister", a replica of the original single. The booklet notes for the album were written by Bell's brother David, who also took the photographs used on the cover and in the CD booklet. The cover features a picture that was taken near Nendaz in Switzerland, it shows the opposite side of the valley with Ardon and the south flank of the snowy massif of Les Diablerets in the back. The 2017 Omnivore Recordings edition comprises 35 tracks, including eight previously unreleased tracks and two that appear on CD for the first time. Three pre-Big Star tunes that appeared on the 2009 edition are omitted; these are now found on Omnivore's Looking Forward: The Roots of Big Star (also 2017).

Critical reception

Newsday wrote that "the playing on Bell's tracks is often hit or miss, the production erratic enough to qualify as something of a comfortable kids' vanity recording... But Bell clearly had talent, and just as clearly lacked the self-confidence to develop it." The Los Angeles Times concluded that "the singer-songwriter's obsession with the spirit of the Beatles seems so complete that he all but turns himself over completely to that spirit." The Orlando Sentinel deemed the album "lovely and terribly sad with a Badfinger-esque structure." Trouser Press likewise labeled it "a beautiful and disturbing Syd Barrett-by-way-of-Badfinger album of erratic, haunted pop music".

Track listing

All songs written by Chris Bell.

Rykodisc CD, 1992

Bonus tracks

Rhino Handmade 2CD, 2009 (bonus tracks)

Omnivore 2CD, 2017

Disc 1 Disc 2

Personnel

[Details from the 2009 edition]