Stephen Grimstead, Editor
The Velvet Underground, Loaded (Fully Loaded Edition) (Rhino)
BY 1970,
THE NEW YORK CITY BAND the Velvet Underground had fallen apart. Lou Reed
-- singer/songwriter, and the group's major creative force abruptly left
the band to pursue a solo career. The highly gifted Welsh bassist John Cale
had left several years earlier, and by the time the band went into the studio
to record Loaded in April of 1970, they were disillusioned with their
lack of commercial and critical success. As a sort of last shot at fame,
they wrote and recorded 10 tunes that were solid, mainstream pop material,
an album that songwriter Reed said was "loaded with hits." The
band didn't survive to see the album released -- Reed quit a month before
Loaded hit the stores in September 1970.
Of VU's four albums (this does not include material released after their breakup and their reunion tour of several years ago), Loaded is usually considered the group's weakest outing. This may be true, but it's an album infused with commercial zing that doesn't compromise an inch in integrity or musical vision. As guitarist Sterling Morrison said years later, Loaded showed that the Velvet Underground "could have, all along, made truly commercial-sounding records." As such, it is markedly different from their earlier material, which was noted for lyrics that dealt with death, drug addiction, and other dark themes.
Rhino's reissue of Loaded includes the original 10 tunes, paired with an alternate set of previously unreleased versions of the same 10 tunes. On top of that, these two CDs also include 13 other tunes, for a total of 33 songs, 17 of which were previously unreleased. The original versions of "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll" show up here. The alternate takes show works in progress, often featuring sloppier, looser versions of tunes, and many of the outtakes that didn't make it onto the 1970 version of Loaded would later show up on Lou Reed's solo albums, including "Satellite of Love," "Ride Into the Sun," and "Ocean."
Loaded is a classic pop album, full of well-crafted tunes, catchy hooks, and memorable vocalizations. It was quite unlike their earlier material, and perhaps unfairly criticized for that. No one was ready to accept the Velvet Underground as pop songmeisters. Too bad, because they did it well, as this "fully loaded" version of Loaded indicates. -- Gene Hyde
A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW IN a music museum somewhere (no, not in Memphis), sandwiched between two little glass cases respectively labeled "Grunge" and -- if the hype is to be believed, and let's hope it comes up terribly mistaken -- "Electronica," there will be a display marked "Indie Rock." In it you won't find records by Superchunk, Ween, or even Sebadoh. Nope. There'll be nothing in it but a big stack of Pavement. For better or worse, they epitomize the tropes of self-conscious, coyly uncommitted, smarty-pants white-guy-guitar-rock to such an extent that the band is a lock to live on as the genre's archetypal representatives.
After 1995's oft-criticized Wowee Zowee, this might have been for the worse. Brighten The Corners, however, improves the outlook quite a bit. Frontman Steve Malkmus still can't sing, but his lyrics have at least receded from that point of extreme aloofness where everyone stops caring. Those lyrics are often astute and self-deprecatingly clever, such as when he warbles, "A voice coach taught me to sing, he couldn't teach me to love." Although comparing Pavement to other bands has been a minor industry in the rock press, Corners may force a change in the touchstone standard. Their songs now seem to have more in common with those of the Violent Femmes ("Embassy Row") or Robyn Hitchcock ("We Are Underused") than with the willful nonsense of the Fall. Just check out the riff on the masses in the lead track, "Stereo": "and we're counting up the instants that we saved, entire nation so depraved, from the cheap seats see us wave to the camera" Much better than bashing on the Stone Temple Pilots or Smashing Pumpkins. That's Weezer's job now.
And it feels like an album too, which is refreshing, after their shot at the mainstream on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and their fractured refusal of it on Wowee Zowee. Perhaps the cool reception of the latter took some of the pressure off, making way for their best outing since Slanted and Enchanted. -- Jim Hanas