Saturday, September 16, 2006

91. Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground And Nico





Track Listing

1. Sunday Morning
2. I'm Waiting For The Man
3. Femme Fatale
4. Venus In Furs
5. Run Run Run
6. All Tomorrow's Parties
7. Heroin
8. There She Goes Again
9. I'll Be Your Mirror
10. Black Angel's Death Song
11. European Son

Review

Wow, Nico brings her Albatross talents to yet another great record. Actually Nico just plays a bit part here and you really don't miss her that much. Lou Reed's delivery and writing as well as the music itself is what really matters here. Don't let yourself be deceived by the iconic cover art and stuff, that's just misdirection.

So, is this Velvet Underground at their best? Not really, they did produce great stuff later in White Light/ White Heat particularly, and we won't have to wait much to get that album here.

So... if you don't know tyhis get to know it and know that I love it... even when it goes all weird in Heroin and European Son it makes sense, I mean particularly in Heroin the song mimics a rush perfectly from the quiet to the rush to the chaos... Maybe I'm talking shit. I had a mug of bubbly... Yesh! That's how classy I am... so goodnight and good luck... I'm going to kiss the boots of shiny, shiny leather... if only.

Stream it from Napster or buy it at UK or US... which I know you won't seeing as I haven't made a penny from you stingy fuckheads and I need money to spend it on booze and drugs... thanks!

Track Highlights

1. Venus In Furs
2. Heroin
3. I'm Waiting For The Man
4. All Tomorrow's Parties

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia


Why do I do this to myself? I should be in bed, I should....

1 comment:

Music 101 said...

When your are playing a record, and you shout out “for the love of god will this crap ever end?” – your listening to a really bad album. That is exactly what I screamed out around track 9 of this record as it played. The fact that I read where this is considered to be one of the most influential records ever made – makes me question everyone’s sanity. This is just a bad record. Dreadful. Awful.
It reportedly took over a decade for the album's sales to crack six figures. I feel sorry for those record buyers.
Recorded in 1966 during Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event tour, “The Velvet Underground & Nico” is full of out of tune ramblings, disjointed melodies, bad lyrics and out of tune singing on EVERY single song. The album I reviewed of Nico’s and this record are equally as bad. By the way – this record features Nico as well!! Doing some reading on the record I came across this statement: “While the significance of Nico's contributions have been debated over the years, and if Andy Warhol's presence as ‘producer’ was primarily a matter of signing the checks, his notoriety allowed The Velvet Underground to record their material without compromise, which would have been impossible under most other circumstances.” Interesting – but what a shame it sucks so bad.
Though largely ignored upon release, (it’s chart peak was at #171) for some reason that I will NEVER understand the record has since become one of the most influential and critically acclaimed rock albums in history. It appears at number 13 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time as well as being added to the 2006 National Recording Registry by the Librarian of Congress. In April 2003, Spin put the album at the number one spot of their "Top Fifteen Most Influential Albums of All Time" list (though the list excluded albums by the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Elvis and The Rolling Stones). In 1997, Velvet Underground & Nico was named the 22nd greatest album of all time in a Music of the Millennium poll conducted in the United Kingdom by HMV Group, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In his 1995 book, "The Alternative Music Almanac", Alan Cross placed the album in the #1 spot on the list of '10 Classic Alternative Albums'. In 2006, Q magazine readers voted it into 42nd place in the "2006 Q Magazine Readers' 100 Greatest Albums Ever" poll, while The Observer placed it at number 1 in a list of "50 Albums That Changed Music" in the July of that year. Also in 2006, the album was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time. It is, however, not recommended as it is just terrible.