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

Comments

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored. And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...

The Bends - Radiohead

Year Released: 1995 Label: Parlophone Year Bought: 2000 Some records I'm going back to for the first time in a while. Others, like 'The Bends', are still in my regular rotation. What to say about this album? The crashing piano chords of opening track 'Planet Telex' give an immediate indication that this is not the same band that made 'Pablo Honey'. The album is a quantum leap from that record, which – while it has its fans, including me – is by-and-large the sound of just another guitar band. 'The Bends' is different. From the slowing-down-time intro of the title track, to the how-high-can-you-go guitars on 'Just', the album constantly delights. 'Fake Plastic Trees' is a magisterial effort, while 'Black Star' contains one of the great opening lines: "I get home from work and you're still standing in your dressing gown, well, what am I to do?" The recording process for this record was inspired by seeing Jeff Buck...

NME Awards 2004 - Various Artists

Released: 2004 Label: NME When I bought: 2004 In ye olde days before streaming, and even YouTube, it wasn't possible to hear within a matter of moments pretty much every song ever released. Therefore, compilations like this by the NME actually had a degree of value. Take 'Paperbag Writer' by Radiohead, a b-side from 'There There', the lead single from 2003's Hail to the Thief. I bought the album but not the single, so I'd never heard this tune. It's a brilliant track, with its electronic shuffle beat and muffled vocals making it sound like a left over from Kid A, or the starting point for Thom Yorke's debut solo album which would be released the following year. Likewise, 'See You Soon' by Coldplay. A true delight from a 1999 EP, with delicate guitar playing, scarce production, and honest vocal delivery. It's a reminder that once upon a time Chris Martin et al were able to operate with that oft-neglected trait: restraint. As a snapshot o...

All The Records I've Ever Owned

Search This Blog