The Velvet Underground & Nico

Fairly simplistic school-band standard songs. Not helped by listening on headphones as the mix isn't great so there is a lot of singing in one ear and guitar in the other. My assumption is that this album is on the 1001 list because they were an influencial band. However as a standalone album, although interesting, it's something I won't be listening to again.

I know people love this album, but it just doesn’t speak to me.

While Sunday morning is a great song, I've never been especially impressed with the rest of the album. Nico is underutilized, and Lou Reed, while a talented musician, is not a vocalist or lyricist I prefer. Not bad overall but not amazing. 3/5

Ooooooh. Tricky one this isn't it? Definitely feels like one of those albums that snooty muso-types throw at you for "you're not trying hard enough" if you say you don't like. As if effort was something to be admired when listening to music.

Almost got 3 stars because of the stunning "Venus in Furs" but I had to take it away again for the total mess that is "European Son"

Overrated.

I do like the first few opening tracks, but then the album quickly drifts up it's own arse. Nico's droney vocals annoy me. The experimentation goes bonkers. Lou Reed carries what he can.

Can't help but think Andy Warhol's peelable banana artwork concept gave the perception of greater musical value than it actually has.

I don't hate it, I just don't see it as the masterpiece it's often lauded to be.

It is some groovy 70's music. It can get a bit jangly for my tastes later in the album, but for the most part I thoroughly enjoy it.

Almost everything that sounds obviously influenced by this doesn't live up to its inventiveness and variety. Sure plenty have copped the proto indie sounds of I'll Be Your Mirror or There She Goes Again but not many can match the other worldliness of Venus In Furs or All Tomorrow's Parties.

I can still hear new things despite a gazillion previous listens. E.g. I hadn't noticed before how much of a Dylan pastiche Black Angel Death Song is if you remove John Cale's viola.

Ok so I genuinely like this album. Yes, it is probably overrated. I think it's either a love it or hate it record, probably like most anything that Lou Reed has his hands in. I mean if it was largely paid for by Andy Warhol, you must know that it's going to be pretty weird. And I like that. Especially for the time, this was way out of left field. It maybe doesn't hold up as well today, but it still is miles ahead of a lot of records that came from the late 60s. I think this is certainly one of the albums that 'you are just supposed to like' and I don't really see it that way. I can see why it has its detractors. But for me, it's great and I listen to it fairly often. 4/5

I don't get on with The Velvet Underground. Of course I know Warhol's iconic banana. I also hear the influence of The Velvet Underground on other bands and music that I love. Nevertheless, I am always unfamiliar with this band. And it's the same with this album. I listened with interest in some places. But the album didn't interest me enough to make me want to listen to it again. 3/5

Quality album, up there for me. Ok so Nico’s voice get grate a bit but when the rest of the songs are as good as they are that can be overlooked.

Yeah I don’t really get this at all. Supposedly one of the most influential albums ever and I just thought it was boring, incohesive and kind of annoying at times. Also, not sure you should have equal credit on an album in which you sung 3 songs (referring to Nico ofc). I did find some tracks quite pleasant (Sunday morning, Venus in Furs) but overall this is pretty damn overrated.

Me and the Velvet Underground never vibed. I like John Cale and Lou Reed by themselves (or together on that Andy Warhol album, that should be on here it’s cute) but something about this album feels hollow. It’s good, I like it, but a lot of the songs kinda drag. I like Sunday Morning! I like Heroin! That’s kinda all that stuck with me though. The rest is almost like…there. It faded in the background very quick.

The Velvet Underground & Nico is an album that suffers from the exact opposite problem of The Fall's The Infotainment Scan (an album i did earlier in this project) whilst the latter album was pretty good musically (with the occasional hiccups) but lacking when it came to vocals. This album is pretty good vocally throughout the majority of the album but is lacking musically. The instruments have the issue of sounding very poorly recorded and that often tends to make them get annoying after a while. This album deserves a 2.5.
Best Song: Sunday Morning
Worst Song: European Son
Side note: I do think the album art having the banana be peelable is a pretty neat idea.

Ik snap wel dat het er in staat hoor. Er staan best interessante creaties tussen. Je moet wel van de speelsheid van jaren '60 houden. Om bij de jaren '60 te blijven. Femme Fatale zoekt de Beatles op, Heroin vindt Dylan. Dat slik ik allemaal al moeilijk. Maar het ergste zijn de piepende/krassende geluiden. Het is een studio-album. Het lijkt allemaal opzet. Maar dan ben je toch als een een voorloper van de punk jouw eigen muziek aan het vernachelen.

The VU may be the most overrated band of all time. “Venus in Furs” is a jam though and I also like “Sunday Morning”.

Dark hipster psychedelia, it still sounds alive and urgent. I'm Waiting for My Man and Run Run Run are incredible high energy rock songs, all propulsive rhythms and distorted guitars, and actual hooks. The best bits are stripped back and spare without any studio frills or production wizardry, when it sounds like a band in a room playing themselves into a increasingly frenetic trance drawing on a whole repertoire of ragas and drones and changes and a pharmacy full of downers. The viola does so much work here, like on Heroin where it adds a layer of tense anxiety buzzing along barely in one channel, a bare bones vamp that itself descends into screeching noise as the songs climax. Lou Reed's gift for disarmingly sweet melody means there's a bright core to everything, shining through the darkness and chaos. To balance out the descent into madness, there are perfectly crafted little loungey bubblegum songs, Femme Fatale, Sunday Morning, I'll Be Your Mirror - sweet and jangly and atmospheric, ironically naive but bittersweet pop gems undercut by Nico's flat dettached deadpan delivery.

Oh Nico. Why do you sound like you've smoked a thousand cigarettes and like you're faking your German accent? I like that your Wikipedia page mentions a quote from a music reviewer saying your voice "sounds like a cello getting up in the morning." Highly accurate description. What did Andy Warhol hear in your voice? How the fuck were you friends with Jim Morrison? I guess you get a lot of opportunities when you're a beautiful woman and nobody really cares that you sound like a cheese grater attempting to shred melted Muenster (get it? Cause she's German...and because I wasn't sure if Muenster cheese was actually from Germany and looked it up, now I know it is an American cheese made by German immigrants to be similar to Munster cheese which originated in France).

Anyway enough about Nico because she actually isn't featured heavily on this album. She doesn't even ruin the songs she sings. She lends a strangeness to the album and after having heard her songs a few times, one might even start to enjoy them and find comfort in them. Here I go again writing about Nico.

Ok, the rest of the album isn't bad. I enjoyed Sunday Morning, I'm Waiting for the Man, the titular Venus in Furs, Heroin, and even the Nico lead I'll be Your Mirror. It's a strange album with strange singers and strange musicians and strange banana pop art that sounds kind of basic but in a good way.

Every home should have one.

I liked it a lot, but I’m just at a 4.

Ultimately, I do think that lived up to the hype – it really picked up after the first 2 tracks, and I thought most of the album afterward was pretty damn good. It’s not like, world-changing to me or anything; I’m sure it hit a lot harder in 1968, since these tricks have since been done to death by a number of bands, but this is pretty fucking innovative for its time.

Heroin, is of course, the standout track; that thumping drum that acts as a heartbeat, the swirling instrumentation growing into a full blown cacophonic panic, while the vocals go on without a care – it’s crazy to make that in 1968. I do think the last track kinda falls flat, but in a way, I like that it does; a very untraditional closing track for a very untraditional album for its time.

I don’t have extremely glowing praise, mainly because I still think I need to dive deeper into the lyrics, but I did really end up liking this. It’s a very strong 4, and it could be a 5 with time for me.

When I first decided to do this challenge, there were a few albums that I knew, without a doubt, that they would be on the list no matter who wrote the book. This on is pretty close to the top of those choices. This is an amazing album that is not just good, but is also very influential. Very happy to listen to it yet again.