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The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground

Released: 1967

Label: Verve Records (this CD, Polydor)

When I bought: Received as a present in 2010

What is there left to say about an album that is so revered it has an almost mythical status?

Famously low-selling on its initial 1967 release – although every one who bought a copy went on to form a band, according to Brian Eno - the record pretty much invented art-rock.

Produced by Andy Warhol, who of course did the art work, without this record there wouldn't have been Bowie, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Strokes etc etc etc.

It's a cult classic, but does it still hold up?

Track opener 'Sunday Morning' is perhaps one of the most beautiful and delicate beginnings to any album ever, and provides a contrast to the album closer 'European Son', which ends the record with a cacophony of a-tonal guitars. These two tracks really show the album for what it is: the come up and the come down. The party and the hangover.

There are songs on this album that lesser bands have built whole careers on, such as 'I'm Waiting For The Man', 'Femme Fatale', and 'Venus in Furs'.

For an album that is such a Year Zero for many musicians and fans, there are some tracks which show there was life before Velvet Underground. 'Run, Run, Run' is pure Bob Dylan, while 'I'll Be Your Mirror' is a beautiful '60s pop song that could have been a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary.

The best song on the album for me is 'Heroin' which at 7:10 doesn't outstay it's welcome, unlike 'All Tomorrow's Parties', which at 5:58 does.

The album does sound dated, but at the same time forward-thinking. You can sense that Velvet Underground are trying to push the boundaries of what it meant to be in a band in the late 60s.

I didn't have this album until 2010, when a boss of mine bought me it as Christmas present after I mentioned I'd never listened to it (the boss later tried to fire me. So it goes). As you can tell, I don't have a huge emotional attachment to it. Maybe because I've heard so many watered down versions of it over the years by bands desperately trying to sound like they were in Warhol's factory in the 60s. It sort of created a distance. Listening back though, I wish I had paid more attention to it when I was younger as there are some really beautiful moments on it.

8/10

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