So, so completely different
Then you have the back to back genius of "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll", and it's hard to see how this album could go wrong. All the noise of "White Light/White Heat" is gone, but from the beginning of "Who Loves The Sun" it's easy to see that worse things could happen.
"Cool It Down" does not disappoint, and along with the laid back "New Age" they show how great of a songwriter Lou Reed is. "Head Held High" is Lou Reed having a blast, complete with background handclaps. "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" reminds me of southern rock and roll, while "I Found A Reason" is as beautiful as The Beatles "Because". "Train Around The Bend" is decent rock and roll, while "Oh Sweet Nuthin" is an epic closing song similar to the Rolling Stones.
While "Loaded" is not their most experimental album (White Light/White Heat), their most beautiful album (Velvet Underground), or their best album (Velvet Underground and Nico), it is their most fun, and that's good enough.
Loaded
The shocking subject matter is still here, the shocking satire by way of catchy amazing pop tunes. The Velvet Underground-Loaded ****
Loaded was the groups first album after Cale decided to bail, and I must say for a band who just lost one of it's core and founding members, Loaded came out as a pretty solid album, even if it plays more like a Solo Lou Reed album than a Velvet Underground album. Reeds striped down rock n' roll is what makes the album, I'm sorry but it is. He wrote everything here with very little input from Maureen, and as for the rest they were more or less unimportant here. Don't misinterperet that sentence because I feel that they are all vital members but this really was Reeds album.
'Who Loves The Sun' opens the album and has the same feel as 'Candy Says' did for the self title album, though this is much, much better. The self wallowing lyrics make this one of the greatest love songs of all time. The Violent Femmes would be nothing with this track. 'Sweet Jane' and Rock & Roll' were both obviously VU classics, as was 'Head Held High. ' In fact 'Head Held High' sounds a lot like Reeds solo work from the 1990's. 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill' and 'I Found A Reason' however are less than stellar. The former is hokey and very childish feeling, and the latter could have been amazing had it not been for the annoying chorus.
On the whole the album is a very strong one. Many of the songs have gone on to become rock classics, and with the exception of two minor mishaps, the rest of the songs are great tracks as well. With the avant-garde Cale gone the band was able to focus on what they do best which was striped down rock with great poetic Reed lyrics. So no this is not THE best VU album it is still a most own.
Their worst, but better than most bands' best albums.....
But it is a Velvet Underground album, and when you compare it to their first three albums, it's not as good as they are. If this was an album by any other band, it would be considered a masterpiece. But on its own terms, it's still has many wonderful tracks in it, and it's a classic album. Just because it's not as good as the other three doesn't mean it should be dismissed, like some Velvet fans have done (and even Lou Reed has had mixed feelings about it). True, the band was disintegrating by this time. Maureen Mo Tucker wasn't on this album (even though she's listed in the credits), and she's missed. Billy Yule, Doug Yule's brother, plays on this album. He is a decent drummer, but he's no Maureen Tucker. Reed left just as they finished this album, and the back cover is really kind of an insult, only featuring Doug Yule at a piano in the studio. Reed said that the songs were remixed and restructured without his permission, etc. , etc. .
The album has some great material. Aside from the genuinely great Sweet Jane (finally in its uncut version) and the anthem Rock and Roll, there's also the opener Who Loves the Sun. It's one of my favorite Velvet songs, and Doug's vocal is wonderful. Yule gets a lot of flak from Velvet fans, but he had a lovely voice. This is a great rock record despite the turbulent production and debate over whether it's a real Velvet Underground album. I believe it is, despite it being their weakest, but then all of their albums were masterpieces prior to this, so that's a hell of a legacy to top. .
The Velvets say goodbye
In fact, Loaded sounds like nothing more or less than a bona fide pop album, with most of the usual trappings- there are plenty of catchy melodies, playful lyrics, and singalong vocals. The Velvet Underground's fourth album (and final studio recording with de facto leader Lou Reed) is a far cry from the wigged-out scumbucket art rock of their first two records, and almost as far removed from the spooky introspective pop of their third. The guitars are clean and punchy, without any of the feedback-mashing death dirges of old, while drummers Billy Yule, Doug Yule, Adrian Barber, and Tommy Castanero (who all took turns sitting in for the then-pregnant Maureen Tucker) replace the group's unsettlingly primal rhythms with a more standard, straight-ahead rock `n' roll sound. Meanwhile, Lou Reed's lyrics shift their focus away from detached urban nightmares and drug-addled apocalypse poetry. Instead, he sings about broken hearts, solitary rodeo performers, and aging actresses.
Seems like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it? I mean, wouldn't this kind of thing just completely strip the band of its essence? Well, here's the thing- no matter how far they ventured into the world of sonic art, the Velvets were always a rock `n' roll band at heart. Even their most unearthly sound explorations (think "Heroin," "Sister Ray," and "The Murder Mystery") had their feet firmly planted in three chords and a charging rhythm. The group's art wouldn't have meant jack squat if it wasn't backed by great songwriting, and that's exactly what made their sound work. Loaded simply strips Lou's songs and the band's performance to its very essence.
On the album's best moments, the listener is brought face to face with Lou Reed's unique genius. "Sweet Jane" is one of the great three (well, to be fair, four) chord rockers, an instantly memorable pop masterpiece with lyrics that reveal Reed's fondness for affectionate, offbeat character studies. "Rock `n' Roll" is a fitting tribute to the uplifting power of. . . well, rock `n' roll. "Who Loves The Sun" is slice of sweet melancholy with dreamy vocals and poetically bitter lyrics, while "Train Round The Bend" is a rollicking R&b-tinged pounder. "Cool It Down" is slinky and superbly strange, while "New Age" is a subtly rocking ballad with some truly poetic lyrics. The album closes out with the epic, beautiful "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'," whose gospelly refrain oughtta reverberate in your head for the rest of time.
But this still does have its weaker moments. "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" is, as others have noted, more annoying than anything else. Its lyrics are gratingly childish, while its (admittedly exuberant) melody wears thin pretty quickly. "I Found A Reason" is an overly stylized doo-wop throwback, complete with a spoken bridge and wordless backup vocals. It could have been a good song, but it simply sounds clichéd and underwritten. Finally, "Head Held High" is little more than an excuse for Reed to shout his head of in a most irritating manner.
Aside from these unfortunate missteps, Loaded is a wonderful album- it's a shame that Reed left the band in disgust soon after this was recorded. The Velvet Underground released one more album after Reed's departure (1973's Squeeze, which really was a VU album in name only, and is now out of print) before quietly disappearing. The rest is history.
Loaded : Completing the Velvet Underground's Legacy
Released in September 1970, one month after Lou Reed calls it quits and begans solo work. Loaded, is the Velvet Underground's fourth and final studio recording. Maureen Tucker is absent from 'Loaded' out on maternity leave. "Oh Mo, where did you go?" - The VU really should have waited.
By now, new bassist Doug Yule took over as lead vocalist on far too many tracks. Yes, the band was on the edge of breaking up.
Despite all of this, as always The Velvets still produce a fantastic album.
'Loaded' is the VU's most commercially accessible and the band finally signed onto a major label. Although like their earlier lps - 'Loaded' didn't sell very well.
This last album does contain some really wonderful tunes. Includes : the fun, rollicking track "Rock & Roll" and "Sweet Jane" - the guitar bursts on "Head Held High" although it may sound like a repetitive generic rock song by many. My personal favorite track, the opener : "Who Loves the Sun"-
Although much more direct and different then earlier outputs, which of course can be a good thing. This album features one of the VU's biggest stinkers = "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" a country hillbilly type of Rock sound that Lou Reed never should have attempted.
-Loaded- does complete the Velvet Underground's Rock legacy. An end to a highly influential rock band as Reed and Morrison experimented with alternate tunings and fuzzy noise later copied by future bands. -
Such followers (many are favorites of mine) who were influenced by the Velvet Underground include CAN, Television, The Fall, the Dream Syndicate, Pavement, R. E. M. and continuing the New York no-wave tradition: Sonic Youth.
You can see a complete list of all The Velvet Underground discography, or go back to the The Velvet Underground tabs
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