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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The history of alternative rock music starts here..., 6 Dec 2002
While many people believe this album to be the most influential album ever (it is by the way), they rarely concentrate their praise on anything else. Granted, while it is hard to imagine Smashing Pumpkins, Jesus & Mary Chain, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emporor!, My Bloody Valentine, (countless others) making the extraordinary albums they did without this album existing, it is also worth noting that this album is still ahead of the times. 35 years on, it still astonishes for its audacity, its experimentation with sound and its originality. Sunday Morning's hushed druggie fall out ambience, Waiting For The Man's pure rock 'n' roll innovation and stark imagery, Venus In Fur's hypnotic and off-kilter swirl of detuned guitars and viola, Heroin's distressing seven minute caustic attack on addiction, the nausea inducing musical headf**k of the closing European Son. It all adds up to an amazing listening experience. You hear the history of almost all alternative music in the 48 minutes and six seconds this album contains. This deserves to be considered the starting point for anyone interested in alternative music, and anyone considering should stop considering and start purchasing!
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Louie Louie, 12 Nov 2001
By A Customer
The Velvet Underground were as important a band as the Beatles, simple as. This frazzled debut is not quite as atonishing as their undoubted masterpiece White Light/White Heat, but the sheer weight of songs as good as Sunday Morning and Venus In Furs really do knock you for six. The haunting vocals by Nico can be extremely good (All Tomorrows Parties), or can grate a little (I'll Be Your Mirror). But Lou and John steal the thunder on the album.This is an album of moments; Cale plays piano on I'm Waiting For My Man, and still hasn't bettered it in his long winding solo career. Reed does his drunken hick impression on European Son (in both singing and playing). Morrison and Tucker are the pounding rhythm section that gives the album it's fire. But the whole thing is eclipsed by the stark, scary and downright brilliant solo confession by Lou Reed, Heroin. The song will never, in my opinion, be beaten; it really did show McCartney how to tell one of those short stories he was so fond of in a 'pop' song (well, um...it's sort of pop...), showed Lennon how to explore the psychadelic soundscape, and invented, er, stoner rock. The NME recently called them the "parallel universe Beatles", and this is certainly true. Had it not been for their highly contraversial nature of their songs, they would have been equally as big. But that's what makes them so special. As fame and money eluded them, Reed spiralled deeper into sonic experiment. What came next was the brightest and best chapter for the Velvet Underground, but not the last...
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
audio heroin!, 18 Jan 2004
By A Customer
i'm not going to go on about how wonderful the velvet underground were/are, influential, blah, blah, blah...every good word you hear is true, but it gets really boring after the first 100 reviews saying so. the purpose of this is to help you decide whether not you want to buy the cd, and the best way to do that is to describe the material featured on it, not give you a lecture. so:
1.'sunday morning' is a very dreamy, lazy pop song. ethereal. heavenly. soft, sweet and slow. the twinkling bells just top it all off gorgeously.
2.'waiting for the man' is a bit of a shock! very upbeat rock with relentless, pounding piano notes, twangy guitar lines and lou reed drawling monotonously. this tale of drug dealing gives us the first hint that we are in for something slightly off-center.
3.the first song featuring (pretentiously-titled german 'chanteuse') nico, 'femme fatale' is a soothing, gently poppy mid-tempo song.
4.screaming viola, heartbeat-style drums and scary lyrics make the 5-minute s&m national anthem 'venus in furs' a claustrophobic, haunting masterpiece.
5.lou reed clearly shows his bob dylan influences in the bluesy 60s rocker 'run run run'. this track has some great slightly-distorted, out of tune guitar solos. does sound a bit dated.
6.'all tomorrows parties' is a very slow dirge with a thudding beat. nico repeats lyrics of a vain, lonely girl in her bored, accented monotone. jangly keyboards and more twangy guitar.
7.when i was reading reviews of this cd, i got so sick of seeing people write half a page on how great 'heroin' is. so here's my 5-word verdict: classic. buy just for this.
8.'there she goes again' is a poppy, uptempo song with a great guitar riff. the song goes very wild at the end!
9.last nico song 'i'll be your mirror' is a tender, slow poppy song, similar to 'femme fatale'.
10.the velvets have completely lost their patience with being entertaining for these last 2 numbers. 'the black angel's death song' has some wild, fast and screeching viola with lou reed reciting his nonsensical, beat-poetry lyrics. let it grow.
11.'european son' starts off by decieving you into thinking that this will be another upbeat blues/rock/pop song, which, for the first minute, it is. we then hear the sound of a chair being dragged along the floor and a glass shatters. this signals the breakneck instrumental battle and wall of feedback that engulfs the listener for the next 6 minutes.
so there you have it. the best description i can muster. no cliche line like 'if you're a velvet underground fan...' 'if you're a newcomer...' if the album described above sounds like your type of thing, you go and buy now and experience some of the most amazing, influential and ahead-of-it's-time music ever made. if it doesn't, you leave well alone and go back to your cuddly, fluffy little cotton wool world and your safe, bland, boring top 40 cds.
i will say one thing as a closer, tho'- 'the velvet underground and nico' has nothing on the next album 'white light/white heat'...........
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