Review Summary: A controversial record, but often too underrated.
Since this album is pretty delicate to review - no wonder nobody has done it before - I'll do my best to be as objective as possible, considering first of all the historical facts that lead to this critical point for VU "posthumous" career.
After
White Light/White Heat John Cale was kicked off the band by Lou Reed, who hired Doug Yule, referring to him as a more skilled bass player and a decent singer, who he was, indeed. He could work in fact more like a jolly for the band, since he could play basically any instrument.
This was "the beginning of a new age": the next two works would be in fact more rock-orientated than the early noise-rock experiences, also including slow ballads: some of them sung by Yule himself.
After the last album in 1970, Reed had no intention to keep on with the show, strongly willing to go solo and finally become a real rock star, a goal that couldn't be possibly reached under the Velvet Underground's name. So he eventually left the band some months later in 1971. One by one all the original members followed his example and Yule tried to finish the scarcely successful "Loaded tour" with another backing band under the false name of Velvet Underground, which unofficially was no more.
In 1973 the label asked Yule to record one last album and then finally end the Velvet Underground chapter, leaving him the job to compose, write and play all the songs on his own.
The commercial result was catastrophic. After a short time the album was withdrawn from the market and hidden forever in the shade of shame, hoping that everybody would forget about it. This made it very difficult for me to find until I saw it in a record store in Dublin.
You can easily discover from the internet that no CD copy of this was produced, just a few cheap vinyls.
I'm pretty confident that only a little percentage of the people who rated this album on this site has actually ever listened to it, not only because it's pretty tough to own, but also because I reckon there is some kind of prejudice that made them press 'Awful 1.0'.
I see the point that this isn't the Velvet Underground, but probably if this were a Doug Yule solo album it would be more appreciated than it is now.
Nothing was invented or experimented while writing this record, but the stuff is not bad: the songs are catchy - sometimes too catchy, I agree - but relatively short and pleasant to listen to. Some of them are average pop songs, but there are also some great rock'n'roll ballads such as
Little Jack, the opening track, which is arguably the best song on this record. After a first good impression, the albums gets worse and tracks like
Wordless and
Friends are poor, the latter is what I'd define "New Age" ugly sister.
The rest of the album is overall accessible, but such an easy-listening music can be repetitive sometimes.
Dopey Joe is very enjoyable and contains also a saxophone accompaniment, just as
Send No Letter, which is very rocky and positive.
Crash,
Mean Old Man and
Louise can be summarised as average Beatles-like songs, nothing exceptional but nothing that bad either.
Caroline, whose refrains cries "Sweet, sweet Caroline", reminds me of a surf rock track and the more interesting
She'll Make You Cry could seem banal, but it is somehow communicative and has a nice guitar solo in the middle.
The vocals are weak sometimes but they're Yule's peculiarity: they made him so different from Lou, whose voice was rough and warm, and the contrast seemed to work well in
Loaded, but now that Yule is alone they are too frail to be left on their own.
In conclusion...
In 1992 the former guitarist Sterling Morrison suggested Reed and Cale to call Yule for the first and the last reunion tour, but they solemnly refused because of what he had done with the name of their band, insulting the original members.
At this point I would just remember you that when Mr. Reed left the band wasn't quite acting for the band's sake, just for his own interests.
In conclusion, both Reed and Yule made a mistake back then, for which the latter paid a higher price, not being able to build a proper solo career in the future.
His work is too underrated in my opinion and since it's no such thing as awful, I'd give this
3/5, for there's nothing wrong with it musically speaking and this is what matters, despite the fact that it is not a VU album.
Recommended songs
Little Jack
Dopey Joe
She'll Make You Cry
