After The Velvet Underground cut three albums for the jazz-oriented Verve label that earned them lots of notoriety but negligible sales, the group signed with industry powerhouse Atlantic Records in 1970.
Label head Ahmet Ertegun supposedly asked Lou Reed to avoid sex and drugs in his songs, and instead focus on making an album "loaded with hits." Loaded was the result. It was the group's swan song, with Reed leaving the group shortly before its release. With John Cale long gone from the band, Doug Yule highly prominent (he sings lead on four of the ten tracks), and Maureen Tucker absent on maternity leave, this is hardly a purist's Velvet Underground album. Still, AllMusic gives the album 5 Stars and Pitchfork calls it a "perfect rock 'n' roll record — 40 minutes long, five songs to a side, and not a single wasted note."
Loaded is the sort of proper album that feels like a greatest hits collection, with each track thoroughly inhabiting and mastering a dominant rock archetype. Although the songs "Sweet Jane" and "Rock & Roll" distinguished the band as a "seminal proto-punk" act, "The trifecta of 'Who Loves the Sun,' 'Sweet Jane' and 'Rock & Roll' is among the best three-song openings on any rock and roll record," wrote Paste contributor Jeff Gonick.
Tracklist:
1. Who Loves the Sun
2. Sweet Jane
3. Rock & Roll
4. Cool It Down
5. New Age
6. Head Held High
7. Lonesome Cowboy Bill
8. I Found a Reason
9. Train Round the Bend
10. Oh! Sweet Nuthin'
Recording information:
Title: Loaded
Artist: Velvet Underground
Genre: Pop-Rock
Media: 1x Hybrid SACD Stereo , Remastered, . Playable on SACD player or standard CD player. Mastered directly from the original analog tape to direct-stream-digital. Mastered @ Sterling Sound.
Label: Analogue Productions
Cat#: CAPA034SA
Released: 16.12.2024 in US
Original release: 1970 by Cotillion SD 9034
EAN: 0753088753466
Discogs rel.#: 32614713
