travispickle
Well-Known Member
I first heard this album in my teens too. Like a lot of music I got into in my teens, I discovered VU via Bowie - ditto Iggy, the stooges, scott walker and sundry other stuff as well.
For me, if you were a teenager into alternative pop/rock/indie, especiallyl if you were a mad Bowie head, you had to contend with the Velvets; you had to deal with this album in particular. As @dudley said earlier, so much has been written and said about this album that it's hard to be objective about it anymore, but it was interesting listening to it again for TAC as it's an album I'd never have cause to listen to usually.
It's not a great album. It's certainly very flawed but it captures a certain quality that makes it very appealing. Yes you could say dark, nihilistic, depressing, confused - perfect music for youngsters who feel the world doesn't understand them!
I think @Cornu Ammonis mentioned this too but musically, I love the juxtaposition of Reed's poppy, melodic sensibility with Cale's off kilter avant-drone. So many of the songs are so catchy but also have this very "off" quality. The guitar tunings for one thing. Are they deliberately detuned, in weird keys or just out of tune? A lot of the songs have that drone idea going through them as well and coupled with Nico's deadpan drawl, you can see how this record appeals to disaffected teens generation after generation. It's like a go-to bible for "How to do Indie" or "How to be punk" - this is really where it all started.
Personally I'd have jettisoned Run Run Run and the last two songs. Everything else, for me, is golden. Though my personal VU favourite is their third album.
For me, if you were a teenager into alternative pop/rock/indie, especiallyl if you were a mad Bowie head, you had to contend with the Velvets; you had to deal with this album in particular. As @dudley said earlier, so much has been written and said about this album that it's hard to be objective about it anymore, but it was interesting listening to it again for TAC as it's an album I'd never have cause to listen to usually.
It's not a great album. It's certainly very flawed but it captures a certain quality that makes it very appealing. Yes you could say dark, nihilistic, depressing, confused - perfect music for youngsters who feel the world doesn't understand them!
I think @Cornu Ammonis mentioned this too but musically, I love the juxtaposition of Reed's poppy, melodic sensibility with Cale's off kilter avant-drone. So many of the songs are so catchy but also have this very "off" quality. The guitar tunings for one thing. Are they deliberately detuned, in weird keys or just out of tune? A lot of the songs have that drone idea going through them as well and coupled with Nico's deadpan drawl, you can see how this record appeals to disaffected teens generation after generation. It's like a go-to bible for "How to do Indie" or "How to be punk" - this is really where it all started.
Personally I'd have jettisoned Run Run Run and the last two songs. Everything else, for me, is golden. Though my personal VU favourite is their third album.