ALBUM OF THE MOMENT:
The Velvet Underground & Nico by The Velvet Underground
In the Velvet Underground & Nico, Lou Reed has taken rock music and broken it down into its most basic form. What he leaves us with is a celebration of animal instinct and sick depravity that predates the punks. The music is intellectual and yet simplistic, unique and yet natural sounding, disturbing yet beautiful. The album begins with the hypnotically dreamy Sunday Morning and then comes the nihilistic and simplistic perfection of I’m Waiting For My Man, the beautiful and melancholic Femme Fatale, the demonic and glorious Venus In Furs, the inside-out blues of Run, Run, Run, the profoundly sad but oddly uplifting All Tomorrow’s Parties, the disturbing majesty of Heroin and then There She Goes Again and I’ll Be Your Mirror; the calm before the storm. When I first heard this album, during my Beatles phase*, I wasn’t so sure about it. Many of the songs seemed too simple and not all that infectious. Now I believe that the epitome of rock music isn’t the catchy, well-produced pop/rock tunes of Sgt Pepper’s but the musically simplistic and emotionally complex Velvet Underground & Nico. If Beethoven travelled to the future to see how music had progressed, this is the first album he should hear.**
Highlights: Sunday Morning I'm Waiting For My Man, Venus In Furs, All Tomorrow's Parties, Heroin
*Teehee!
**Or sit next to depending on when he time-travelled.
TRACK OF THE MOMENT:
The All Golden
Van Dyke Parks
Shouldn't you be practising for your assessment...? ;) Nice review, and nice track of the moment.
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