| 180-gram vinyl with gatefold sleeve. Quite possibly the most influential rock album of all time, despite its initial lackluster sales (it has often been said that 'they only sold a few thousand records, but everyone who bought one started a band'). The Velvet Underground & Nico has, in the 40+ years since it was first released, influenced the significant works in almost every sub-genre of rock from glam to punk to new wave to industrial noise to twee to indie-rock. But to focus only on its influence would be doing a great disservice to the music, this is one of the most varied, yet coherent, records in the whole pop spectrum and it was nothing short of a revelation in the field of by-the-numbers psych and folk-rock that was the norm in 1967. From the gentle pop opener of 'Sunday Morning' to the dissonance of closer 'European Son,' with stops at garage rock, R&B, and mellow love songs in between, The Velvet Underground & Nico is an all-time classic whose influence and power still can not be denied. |