White Light/White Heat

One of those polarizing albums where I feel somehow in both camps, feels bizarre to give it a 3* but I feel like if I listened to it a year down the line it might be a 2*, or a 4*, or even a 1* or 5*

The Velvet Underground may be an innovative band with exciting concepts. Apparently, my understanding of music isn't sufficient enough to appreciate this album. I won't listen to it again. 1/5

Another one from Velvet Underground that was really far ahead of it's time, or maybe the drugs in the late 60s were just really strong. Or maybe it was just the copious amount of drugs ingested that needs to be taken into consideration. The retrospective reviews being so much more positive than the reviews of the time makes sense though - this would have been absolutely bonkers for an audience in 1968. Like their first record, this one has to be a love it or hate it thing. But I feel like this is an album that a lot of early punk rockers listened to and were inspired to pick up an instrument. I think I Like Velvet Underground an Nico a little better but this is up there. I'd call it like a 3.9/5

This is really interesting one to review and sadly last VU album for me on the list. After the banana, this is definitely my favourite album of theirs. Incredibly groundbreaking work of art. I already rated it at least 4.5 on RYM and was pondering between 4 and 5 stars but I think it deserves 5, just for the incredible krautrock like groove in Sister Ray. Some shocking stuff here too and highly experimental in nature so yeah I get it - it won't be for everyone but this music requires patience and open mind

Tja, det vildeste ved det her album er nok, at det er fra 1968. Samme år som The Incredible String Band og Johnny Cash i Folsom Prison, som begge allerede har været på listen. Det her er jo så markant anderledes, at det føles som fra en helt anden tidsalder. Men den tidsalder er så også veloverstået nu IMHO.

2.3

When I reviewed 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘦𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘵 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 & 𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘰, I joked that it might be unlistenable for some people. 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵/𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘵 somehow manages to be even less accessible. If you made it through the debut, this album is ready to push you even further.

The record embraces noise, distortion, and chaos in a way that was almost unimaginable in 1968. At the same time, The Velvet Underground continue writing about subjects that few rock bands were willing to touch, including drugs, homosexuality, and gender nonconformity. It’s an uncompromising album in every sense.

And then there’s 𝗦𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗮𝘆. The story of its recording session has become part of rock folklore, and the track itself fully lives up to its reputation — an extended, noisy jam that seems determined to test the listener’s tolerance for chaos.

It certainly isn’t an album I’d recommend to everyone, but I can’t help admiring just how fearless and uncompromising it is. Nearly six decades later, it still sounds like a record that refuses to play by anyone else’s rules.

Wow, this is a long album of kinda boring songs.

3.5
Very weird, not necessarily in a bad way, i was hooked throughout and I get why these guys had such an influence. But also I don't think I'd really want to listen again

Oddly boring while trying hard to be interesting. Too much bluster with not enough substance.

Ah, now you can have your Beatles: the Velvets are the late-60s music that I like best. This whole thing is a beautiful, chaotic mess, a lot like my favorite tracks on the banana album (Black Angel's Death Song, etc). I'm sure people have said that "Sister Ray" goes on a bit long; well, ok it does go on a bit long. But I think it's an appropriate ending to this remarkable album.

You gotta feel a little bad for Waldo, though.

5 stars

Tried to get into it, and there were some riffs and vocal hooks I digged. But as a whole, it's just not that enjoyable.

A much noisier, and probably much more immediately challenging listen than the debut, but I love it all the more for it!

It sounds like a riot unfolding in a cellar with the doors bolted shut, and the speaker volume knobs turned up to the max and snapped off. Largely gone are the "pop" aesthetics of the debut, instead being replaced by an avant-garde, proto-punk assault, owing to its heavy utilisation of distortion as layers of atonal cacophony and a show of rejection.

The title track nestles with a nauseating, pounding rhythmic sprint, whilst the bookend "Sister Ray" is the album's centerpiece, and a masterclass in controlled chaos, as a 17 minute improvised jam. The organ and guitars are constantly duking it out with one another to be the dominant force whilst a hypnotic drum beat underlines all of it. Easy to see how it would have inspired forms of noise rock and even industrial music.

While White Light / White Heat may not be as shocking as the debut, it is certainly more upsetting. I can't even really pinpoint why, but there is something that feels viscerally off here that can't be accounted for by the guitar and cello squeals alone, though they do help. The debut's darkest, most pounding songs, the ones that feel like a heart attack, were counterbalanced by some genuine, if cold beauty. But here, that beauty only really presents itself on the still slightly uneasy Here She Comes Now. And the rest of this album is more punishing than even the most intense moments on the debut. I Heard Her Call My Name and the title track both kind of feel like watching a garage rock performance where the singer ODs on stage. It is just rock music, but it manages to feel unsafe. The Gift is an intense jam in one ear, and a recitation of a dark, if kind of funny short story in the other. I don't know, it just conjures something really off. And Lady Godiva's Operation is, to my knowledge, the first of many songs penned by Lou Reed that are explicitly and empathetically about trans women. The empathy here is a little more distant, but Lady Godiva's operation manages to so honestly capture a certain, trans specific medical anxiety that kind of hits close to home for me that I found the song to be *remarkably* upsetting. The last song here is certainly not least. Sister Ray is a 17 minute long noise rock convulsion. It actually elevates your heart rate and was quite possibly the most difficult song in all of rock music at release. And really, to get more challenging at the time in the rest of the musical world, you would have had to explore a certain kind of particularly punishing jazz record. By the way, it's worth noting that this was inspired by Ornette Coleman; it sounds like it. If you look into how this was recorded at all, you'll pretty quickly find a short list of producers who swore off recording for the band because they insisted on redlining their pedals, absolutely shredding the sound of this thing. And that makes sense, to make something this fucked up, you pretty much *have* to break something. I listen to a lot of noise rock, but there is something special here; White Light / White Heat sounds genuinely sick. There is something convincingly wrong here, and the experience of listening to it is completely unique.

I don't really know this album and I've been told it's not their best but I liked it nevertheless. Lot of talk about sucking on dingdongs and finding mainlines. They knew what they liked and they weren't afraid to let you know.

In a way a quantum leap from their debut, showcasing a leaner sound and the use of distortion and feedback in pursuit of art rock. Ultimately perhaps the songs are not as strong as on their debut (although sister ray’s swallowing up half the record may make that points moot?) but it’s a powerful and important artefact.

I don't love everything the VU did but this is great in all it's fuzzed out and unpolished glory.

Inventor of noise rock some 20 years before the matter. Not an album to really listen to all that often, it's quite grating and songs like Waldo's Gift lose their novelty when listened to more often. Still one I always like to return to, Lady Godiva is my favorite here and I think a lot of the non Sister Ray songs on here are pretty underrated. The hardest but probably most rewarding Velvet Underground album to listen to, even if it's still pretty tame by todays standards.

Tough one for voting. It sounds terrible, However you can hear the influence on others. Covers of these tracks sound better than the originals. A reluctant 2*.

Super different and fun to listen to.

Music for pretentious and manipulative men. And it doesn’t even sound good.