The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground

When mooching aimlessly around my local CD/Music shop, I spotted the grainy haze around a black and white photograph of some super intellectual dudes lounging meaningfully on a couch. It was a Velvet Underground album. I conjured with the name in my head for a brief moment. I was immediately tempted to grab it eagerly and buy it. Trying to pass it over to the cashier behind the counter without letting go of the item out of my hot, sweaty hands would be a testing challenge. This was a band that, for me, had had a ghostly air around them. Lou Reed was, as I imagined, an ordinary bloke, a bit like James Taylor I had thought, perhaps in a cardigan ...

I am a huge fan of "The Velvet Underground" and I decided that I would do an album review to go along with my "The Velvet Underground in general" review. I decided on this album because it’s from a later period from the Andy Warhol and Exploding Plastic Inevitable era. This was the first album with Doug Yule who replaced John Cale. This album is very clean and poppy compared to the screeching experimental sounds of "The Velvet Underground and Nico" (1966). This album was released in 1969. A Brief History "The Velvet Underground" formed in 1965 and the line up consisted of Lou Reed, John Cale, ...

Bit of a tricky one to write about this- I haven't owned it for the past six months since most of my collection walked courtesy of some lovely friendly Leeds folk. However, just to show what an indelible impression it made on me, here's my review... This is the Velvets' third album and probably their prettiest. Lou Reed actually sounds happy in parts and the whole thing sounds less self-consciously warped, less dependent on the heroin and methedrine fuelled art punk energy of the first two (perhaps because John Cale had been kicked out by this time). It has a much cleaner sound than either of their previous albums. Running through the songs.... ...