Artist: The Velvet Underground
Album: The Velvet Underground
Year: 1969
1969's The Velvet Underground represents the band's first release without avant-garde musician John Cale, and for that reason it stands as the band's most "normal" release. Granted, a normal VU album would be considered offbeat by most band's standards. This is a much more quiet, contemplative affair.
I wonder what it would have been like to hear this album in 1969, as a teenager who had loved the band's first two albums--both of which featured their fair share of sheer noise and uncompromising experimentation. I'd imagine I'd have been pretty pissed off that my favorite band had jumped the shark and largely abandoned what had made them so original and subversive. But then hopefully I would have given it a second listen, and a third, and a fourth, and many more, with each listen revealing more charms and nuances.
This is a really pretty album with lots of good songs, and the band doesn't forget to rock out a little bit on songs like "What Goes On" and "Beginning to See the Light." "Jesus" and "Pale Blue Eyes" are gorgeous songs that stand among the band's best. The real centerpiece here is the 9-minute epic "Murder Mystery" where half the band spews lyrics into the left speaker, the other half into the right. It's a delightful oddity on an album where the band mostly plays it straight, so it comes as a nice surprise. I think Pavement would totally rip this song off 20+ years later on Slanted & Enchanted's "Conduit for Sale." There's definitely some similarities between the two bands. The closer "After Hours" gives drummer Maureen Tucker lead vocal duties, and it's totally charming (in the vein of Canadian indie rock goddess Julie Doiron, or Yo La Tengo's Georgia Kaplan).
Even though this one is quite different from the VU's earlier, more varied and experimental releases, this is just as masterful.
Rating: Worth repeated listens
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