mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
|
the velvet underground & nico white light/white heat the velvet underground
The Velvet Underground & Nico The Velvet Underground was formed in New York and is generally regarded as one of the most important bands from the 60’s. With their rather raw and stinging noise music they were treated as something artistically important and was said to create art, rather than ‘simple’ rock music. Maybe partly because of their collaboration with legendary artist Andy Warhol. I think that they gave us a pre-taste of punk, although somewhat adjusted to the pretentious spirit that was very much present in 1967. The group never reached the same commercial success or public acceptance as groups such as the Beatles, because even if the Velvet Underground was very much a product of their time, they questioned it and contradicted it. The flower power-vibrations from San Francisco was the main thing in the media, Velvet Underground’s lyrics (Lou Reed) brought up the darker sides of drug abuse instead of glorifying it. It’s all here on their debut album. The album contains some extremely good songs, including “Sunday Morning”, “I’m Waiting For The Man” and maybe their most well known song, “Heroin”. Besides those songs, there are not much to fall in love with, although a lot to respect. “Femme Fatale” and “There She Goes Again” are nearly as enjoyable as the mentioned highlights, and welcomed interruptions in this messy collection of songs. The rather stiff and monotonous rhythm section can seduce the listener into trance, but even more often be equally boring as exciting. They walk a thin line and doesn’t quite manage to stay on track. The band’s supposedly artistically meaningful noise and attempt to be intellectual superior ends up sounding like organized chaos and anarchism with a fascist feel.
White Light/White Heat Second time around and German vocalist Nico from the debut is out of the picture and so is Andy Warhol. Even if The Velvet Underground & Nico was sometimes a pretty raw listen, White Light/White Heat is even less polished and only the title track sounds about the same as the first record. The rest is far from impressive. Sure it might have taken guts to release an album like this in 1967, but the question remains: why? It’s poorly recorded, obviously on purpose, which makes most of the instruments suffer from an unhealthy and disturbing distortion and the album is really monotonous. The album has potential, but everything is ruined by noise and Lou Reed’s maniacal and insane guitar playing that’s all over the place. “I Heard Her Call My Name” defines that problem and it’s a painful listen. The album is some sort of dark New York-version of psychedelia mixed with punk. The steady rhythm in closing “Sister Ray” will grab you after a while, and I can imagine dancing stoned out of your head to this during a club concert in 1967 was the most exciting thing ever. However, on record, in your living room, the guitar feedback and factory noises are hardly justified. And why did they think it was necessary to keep doing it for more than 17 minutes? If only focused and compressed, it could have been the highlight of the album. Now it only drags and gives the listener a headache. I realize that the band partly did it to provoke the establishment and was meant to cause some reactions, but that only increases the pretentiousness that shadows the album. I mean, some spoken short story over boring rhythms in “The Gift” is the ultimate wet dream of the beatnik poets, but it is stupid. And the moral of the story is to not send yourself by mail if you can’t afford to travel in a traditional way? You might hurt yourself! I say that you will most likely hurt yourself even more if you buy this album. Even though Andy Warhol is gone, the Velvet Underground tries to be even more artistic and rebellious. The result is bordering to pathetic and it gets the 5/10 rating for historical importance and the fact that it took guts from both artists and record company to release an album this bad.
The Velvet Underground A much mellower album than the predecessor and the lyrics seemingly deals with depression and personal problems in a much more classic and traditional way instead of being night dark and artistically cynical. Not that I mind dark cynicism, but the new approach is reflected in the music. It’s a step back to the music on the debut album, with ballads similar to “Sunday Morning” and “Femme Fatale”. Only with Lou Reed singing instead of Nico. The rockers are somewhat cleaner than on White Light/White Heat and are much easier to access. The departure of John Cale certainly is one of the reasons for the lesser influence of the avantgarde-culture and The Velvet Underground sounds more like a Lou Reed-solo album than a group effort. The rockers might lack that extra bite and are a bit stiff, yet the manage to be catchy and grabbing. The ballads, however, cuts like knives and make up wounds of misery, loneliness and desperation. “Pale Blue Eyes” has one of the most gentle melodies Reed ever wrote, and the obvious despondence in Reed’s vocal performance makes it affecting to the extreme. The same despondence is present in “Jesus”, which is highlighted by some nice guitar notes here and there and great, emotional singing from Reed. “Candy Says” is just one of many ‘Says’ songs Reed would write, and just like all of them, “Candy Says” is beautiful in a frail and dark way. The only misstep on the album is “The Murder Mystery” which finds the band reliving old, pretentious sins. Fortunately there are more than enough good songs to make up for it. Drummer Maureen Tucker handles the vocals on closing “After Hours”, and whilst she hardly posses any greater strength as a singer, it is pretty charming in its own way. From an experimental and challenge point of view, The Velvet Underground is not an exciting listening, but it is their arguably best album from any other view. Tender melodies, emotional lyrics and generally strong performances serves as the foundation for one of the best efforts Reed ever been involved in.
|