Artist: Nico
Album: Chelsea Girl
Year: 1967
A-ha! I think I can see exactly why Nico's Chelsea Girl is placed in this book where it is, right after Nina Simone's Wild Is the Wind and Astrud Gilberto's Beach Samba. Nico's voice is deep and plaintive, challenging the notion of what the female voice should sound like much like Nina Simone's, and like Gilberto, Nico is a non-native English speaker who sings in a somewhat affected manner.
Chelsea Girl is kind of the antithesis of what was going on in music at the time. It seems like the trend was kind of a kitchen-sink approach--layers of guitars, layers of vocals, oddball instrumentation, bands trying to outdo each other by expanding their sound. By comparison, Nico's Chelsea Girl is rather stark. It's just Nico singing, with her flat, deep voice, some acoustic guitars to set the rhythm, string accompaniment, and the occasional flute here and there. This isn't rock music at all, really. This style would later become known as chamber pop.
This is a remarkably pretty album with lots of replay value. I will say that the first two songs, "The Fairest of the Seasons" and "These Days" are the best of the set. They are both gorgeous, oddly affecting tunes written by Jackson Browne. Yes, the same guy who would go on to write such hits as "Doctor My Eyes" and "Somebody's Baby." He was Nico's boyfriend at the time and had a big influence upon the construction of this album. As did John Cale and Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground, who recruited Nico to sing for them on their debut album (which inevitably is forthcoming in this 1001 list).
"Chelsea Girls" and a cover of Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It with Mine" are great tunes on the album's second half, and there's not really a bad cut here. I will say that this is the kind of album you really have to be in the mood for to really enjoy. Luckily, I was in such a mood. This is probably somewhat of a polarizing album (either you can stand 40 minutes of Nico's voice or you can't stand one minute of it) but the vocals fit well with the music here, making for an enchanting listen.
Rating: Worth repeated listens
No comments:
Post a Comment