Ilash
07-19-2006, 05:52 AM
I recently picked up three of the bands' main albums: The Velvet Underground and Nico, their self titled album and loaded and while I like them a lot, I don't really like them for most of the reasons other people do. Actually, in many respects, the stuff that I outright dislike are the very things that made them beloved to guys like Lester Bangs.
What I'm pretty much indifferent on:
1. The lyrics - They were very, very groundbreaking for the time but as I've said before I'm not much of a lyrics man so this doesn't really sway me one way or another.
2. Nico on their debut - I was pretty worried about her Germanic singing but as it turns out she's not bad at all. I wouldn't run out and buy her albums but she doesn't hurt the album at all.
What I liked/ loved
1. More than anything else, the Velvets should be remembered as the group who made art out of monotony. Just about all of their songs, be they the more normal ones or their more "experimental" ones had very repetitive melodies and were performed in a sort of disspassionate, removed manner. This would have been the kiss of death for the band if not for one thing: the atmosphere. I just LOVE the lazy, hypnotic and ultimately pretty decadent (I guess that's the best word for it) atmosphere that these guys created, an atmosphere that others have tried to emulate but as far as I can tell, no one has ever come close to the Velvets on this area.
2. While they may be monotonous, droning and repetitive, a good portion of the band's melodies were simply exceptional, especially on their self-titled album. Their ballads were frequently beautiful while their "normal" rockers and pop songs were catchy as hell (and again, enhanced tremendously by the atmosphere). Candy Says, Femme Fatale, Pale Blue Eyes, Sweet Jane, After Hours, New Age - these are simply fantastic songs.
What I really, really don't like:
Now, here's the rub. Everyone seems to love the band for their exceptional noise making abilities and garagey sound. Not me though. The noise just strikes me as being, at best, redundant and, at worst, disruptive and pointless. Take Heroin, for example. Now here's a song that really puts the band's signature atmosphere creating abilities to good use and for the vast majority of the song I'm completely enthralled by it. It's a pity then that towards the end of the song, the hypnotic feel is completely broken by this screeching distortion which feels like it's their primarily to ruin the effect. Now, I understand why the distortion is their thematically (the heroin starts reeking havok on the guy's system) but I don't like it musically and if I don't like it on this song, where it basically fits, you could imagine what I feel about it on some of the other songs on the album. Noise for noise's sake just ain't my cup of meat. Also, the very underproduced sound sometimes sounds great (Waiting for the Man) but often it sounds like my speakers have blown (they haven't) and it's rather distracting though I do admit, this is a relatively minor problem.
Hey, that all referred to their first (and presumably second) album, didn't it? Honestly, I actually have very little problem with their self titled album (The Murder Mystery hurts the flow a bit but it is a pretty interesting song nonetheless), which is easily my favourite of the three and as for Loaded, well, that mainly suffers from inconsistent songwriting.
So what do you guys think about my take on this obviously beloved band? Agree? Dissagree? Both?
What I'm pretty much indifferent on:
1. The lyrics - They were very, very groundbreaking for the time but as I've said before I'm not much of a lyrics man so this doesn't really sway me one way or another.
2. Nico on their debut - I was pretty worried about her Germanic singing but as it turns out she's not bad at all. I wouldn't run out and buy her albums but she doesn't hurt the album at all.
What I liked/ loved
1. More than anything else, the Velvets should be remembered as the group who made art out of monotony. Just about all of their songs, be they the more normal ones or their more "experimental" ones had very repetitive melodies and were performed in a sort of disspassionate, removed manner. This would have been the kiss of death for the band if not for one thing: the atmosphere. I just LOVE the lazy, hypnotic and ultimately pretty decadent (I guess that's the best word for it) atmosphere that these guys created, an atmosphere that others have tried to emulate but as far as I can tell, no one has ever come close to the Velvets on this area.
2. While they may be monotonous, droning and repetitive, a good portion of the band's melodies were simply exceptional, especially on their self-titled album. Their ballads were frequently beautiful while their "normal" rockers and pop songs were catchy as hell (and again, enhanced tremendously by the atmosphere). Candy Says, Femme Fatale, Pale Blue Eyes, Sweet Jane, After Hours, New Age - these are simply fantastic songs.
What I really, really don't like:
Now, here's the rub. Everyone seems to love the band for their exceptional noise making abilities and garagey sound. Not me though. The noise just strikes me as being, at best, redundant and, at worst, disruptive and pointless. Take Heroin, for example. Now here's a song that really puts the band's signature atmosphere creating abilities to good use and for the vast majority of the song I'm completely enthralled by it. It's a pity then that towards the end of the song, the hypnotic feel is completely broken by this screeching distortion which feels like it's their primarily to ruin the effect. Now, I understand why the distortion is their thematically (the heroin starts reeking havok on the guy's system) but I don't like it musically and if I don't like it on this song, where it basically fits, you could imagine what I feel about it on some of the other songs on the album. Noise for noise's sake just ain't my cup of meat. Also, the very underproduced sound sometimes sounds great (Waiting for the Man) but often it sounds like my speakers have blown (they haven't) and it's rather distracting though I do admit, this is a relatively minor problem.
Hey, that all referred to their first (and presumably second) album, didn't it? Honestly, I actually have very little problem with their self titled album (The Murder Mystery hurts the flow a bit but it is a pretty interesting song nonetheless), which is easily my favourite of the three and as for Loaded, well, that mainly suffers from inconsistent songwriting.
So what do you guys think about my take on this obviously beloved band? Agree? Dissagree? Both?