Loaded

by

The Velvet Underground

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Revered or dispised by fans, I'm one of those who finds "Loaded" to be one of the masterpieces of its generation. Granted, Lou Reed abandoned all the things that made the old Velvet Underground what it was, but this is a good straightahead rock record, full of fantastic songwriting, sarcasm, and brilliance.

So what makes "Loaded" so good? Stunning songwriting ably supported by sympathetic musicians. Reed, at the height of his powers as a rock and roll composer pulled off at least two classic songs that have worked their way into the collective unconsciousness in "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll". These two pieces have been imitated so heavily and fiercely that they sound familiar the first time you hear them, and both of them have a little something, quite undefinable (Reed claims in the case of "Sweet Jane" that it's the extra chord that quickly sweeps by in the progression, I think it's an unnerving amount of passion in the vocal presonally) that makes them perfect.

The rest of the album doesn't quite live up to them, but it's full of superb songs, from the Beatlesque "Who Loves the Sun" to the sarcastic "New Age" and "Lonesome Cowboy Bill" to the the explosive "Held Held High" and the churning "Train Round the Bend". There are no real low points on the record, it's in fact all quite good. Highly recommended.

After headphoning the first VU album every morning for weeks this summer, I decided to get another from their catalog.

Sadly, Loaded does not get close to the brilliance of their debut. John Cale was apparently the guy who brought the "art" and experimentation to the party. His influence is sorely missed on this collection of straight forward rock and roll songs, as are the poetry of Reed's lyrics and subject matter from the first album. Gone as well are the weird, trance-inducing instrumental lines of songs like "Waiting for the Man" and "Venus in Furs". Reed ends up repeating the line of a chorus or the title of the song in more than one track.

The only reason this album gets 3 stars is that it contains a couple rock standards, Sweet Jane (which has a heavenly guitar intro that backs into the familiar strummed chords of the main riff), and Rock and Roll.