‘The Velvet Underground’ is just so much better if you’re into their earlier stuff. It isn’t as weird but that doesn’t mean it is devolution; it’s optimistic because ‘White Light/White Heat’ was a delirious embrace of the blackness that ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ considered so beautifully and delicately. They come out of it not too badly. It’s unusual, I think, to hear something so good that isn’t a madness but a recovery from it and, if it’s turning out great albums and manic-depression don’t have to go together, things are looking up. It’s not like the Velvets were levelling out and finding their own feet because the Andy Warhol thing was done. By the time ‘WL/WH’ was happening Lou Reed was taking a *** load of drugs, ‘The Velvet Underground’ is an utterly convincing album, and while it might’ve been too normal if it stood alone, a sturdy, faith-filled album has some real authority when it’s from guys that just did an inescapably faithless thing a year earlier.
I’m glad graceful maturation might be possible. ‘Beginning To See The Light’ is rocking and exuberant and is not without excellent hollering – “there are problems in this time, but woo! None of them are mine!” and ‘That’s the Story of My Life’ is a gorgeously melted, fluttering thing. ‘The Velvet Underground’ is moving because it’s not gloomy but cool, you can be cheerful without being the sort of person that says ‘coolio’ or ‘fab’ - by not censoring the bad stuff but confronting it. They get this across concisely, comfort from an authority, and it’s affecting beyond anything, it’s what we’re always looking for.
The Velvet Underground & Nico thought love might be a lethal thing and ‘WL/WH’ was sure of it, but the Velvets dispense so much power now they’ve decided it’s good and most facets of contentment tumble in boisterously once you’ve got that. For us and them. They’re still scared but it’s very different, I think it’s a fear of 1968’s wretchedness and of committing to what they’ve got now because ‘WL/WH’, as dejected as it was, was liberating and defining. It’s hard to let that go. There’s a lingering shell-shock and ‘What Goes On’ is a tad hollow but that just makes their renewal all the more trustworthy.
I don’t feel this is as good as ‘White Light/White Heat’. ‘The Murder Mystery’ is a worse ‘Lady Godiva’s Operation’, a bit boring, and so maybe they’re not quite jovial yet because it’s dangling near ‘WL/WH’ but isn’t as spooky. As ‘Some Kinda Love’ makes its way through twangs and frisks a thing comes to mind, and then very quickly afterward another thing: that educative awfulness isn’t there, something’s been lost by all this, but never mind. Their discography, and my intimate and stout admiration, would be missing a chunk if ‘The Velvet Underground’ wasn’t there.
