All 5 Velvet Underground Albums, Ranked

The Velvet Underground didn’t exist as a band for long, and throughout the few years they were around, band members left at a pretty consistent rate. Despite that, and despite only five studio albums (one of which is really a Velvet Underground album in name only), the band’s easily considered one of the best and most important in music history. They did things that other artists weren’t really doing all that much back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and even now, certain songs are genuinely quite odd and striking to listen to. It’s hard to pin the band down, or define them as belonging to a certain genre, because even saying The Velvet Underground was a rock band feels a bit misleading.

There’s a pretty good 2021 documentary just called The Velvet Underground that does more than scratch the surface, regarding the band’s history, influence, and overall vibe, but also, the music is the best place to start if you really want to dive in and try to piece things together. Or you can sit back and listen to a good deal of music that’s now well over half a century old, yet doesn’t feel aged, owing to how forward-thinking and unconventional so much of the band’s output was. What follows is a ranking of all five Velvet Underground albums, including that one which barely feels like a Velvet Underground album. Speaking of…

5

‘Squeeze’ (1973)

So, quick rundown: The Velvet Underground existed for a couple of years as a band made up of Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, John Cale, and Moe Tucker. Cale left after the second album came out, being replaced by Doug Yule, then Tucker wasn’t featured on albums #4 and #5, while Reed and Morrison also left the band following album #4. Nico was a vital part of the first album, but only the first album, and all the members of the classic/original lineup were gone by the time of the fifth album: Squeeze. It was mostly just Doug Yule, which does beg the question of whether Squeeze should even be considered a Velvet Underground album.

It’s got the band’s name on it, though, so it kind of counts. And it’s easily the weakest of the albums by The Velvet Underground, if you are willing to count it as one… it just keeps feeling weird, calling it a Velvet Underground album. The most you can say that’s nice, regarding this album, is that it’s possibly overlooked, or maybe over-hated just on account of it having the band’s name, but no original band members. It wouldn’t likely be remembered too positively or negatively, had it been released as a Doug Yule solo album. He does seem to struggle a little, without back-up, but it’s also not an enviable position for one to be in. Squeeze is a bit of a sad end to The Velvet Underground, and there really aren’t any highlights to be found on it. Some songs are listenable, and then some are really quite bad. That’s about it; that’s the range here. It’s better to just move on to the, well, better stuff.

4

‘Loaded’ (1970)

Compared to the first three albums, you could also consider Loaded a disappointment, but that’s more to do with the act of comparing it to three super unpredictable (and largely groundbreaking) masterpieces. John Cale is missed here a little more than he was on the band’s third album, because there was a consistency to that album’s melancholic and subdued feel, while Loaded does feel like it’s going for a bit more of a pop/rock thing, with sometimes mixed results. Yet on the positive side of things, when using a word like “mixed,” it does mean there are great tracks on here, with one of them, “Sweet Jane,” being a contender for the title of the band’s very best song.

Yes, it’s true. It sounds like hyperbole, and it’s not as challenging or out-there as other masterful Velvet Underground tracks, but it is an utterly irresistible and quite perfect pop/rock song. It being the second song means Loaded peaks early, and that effect is strengthened by the fact that highlights on the album also include track #1 (“Who Loves the Sun”) and track #3 (“Rock & Roll”). It’s slightly rockier territory from that point onward, at least until you get to the tenth and final song, “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’,” which is pretty great. And, to Yule’s credit, he did the lead vocals on both the opening and closing tracks of Loaded, so that supports the idea that he was a good contributor within the band (not as radical as John Cale, sure, but few people were around that time in music history).

3

‘White Light/White Heat’ (1968)

It would be wrong to call White Light/White Heat underrated, but it is the most challenging of the band’s three outright masterpieces. John Cale has been mentioned a few times already, and this is the band’s album where you feel his influence the most, because White Light/White Heat is kind of weird, to put it mildly. And the first album had its share of unusual tracks, of course, but nothing on the same level as “Sister Ray,” which is technically one of six songs on White Light/White Heat, yet its length of 17 minutes means it’s not far off taking up half the album (hell, there’s only one other song on the album’s second side: “I Heard Her Call My Name”).

“Sister Ray” is the elephant in the room. It is one of the wildest songs ever featured on an album by a genuinely famous (or eventually famous) artist/band. It’s just an instrumental freak-out for 17 minutes, with some bizarre (and sometimes hard to understand) lyrics delivered by Lou Reed, all being beyond chaotic and honestly quite frightening. It probably outdoes The Beatles’ “Revolution 9” for weirdness, just because it’s longer and perhaps even more intense. Anyway, the rest of White Light/White Heat is also strange and compelling, just a little less strange than “Sister Ray.” If the attempt, on this second album, was to make something even more gonzo and forward-thinking than the debut album with Nico, then The Velvet Underground – for better or worse – succeeded here.

2

‘The Velvet Underground’ (1969)

It might’ve seemed bold to name the third album The Velvet Underground, making this technically the band’s one self-titled album, all done after John Cale had left the band, but maybe it was more of an “Okay, now this is the new Velvet Underground and its sound” sort of thing. You do notice the lack of Cale, for better or worse, because there aren’t really any super wild songs here, with the possible exception of “The Murder Mystery.” That one’s experimental and strange, but it doesn’t sound as harsh or in-your-face as “Sister Ray,” nor the closing track on the band’s first album.

There’s generally more softness to The Velvet Underground, but that’s not to suggest it’s a slow or lifeless-feeling album. It’s more just that the ballads, and some of the more sentimental songs, really stand out here, with the likes of “Candy Says” and “Pale Blue Eyes” really exemplifying that. There’s also “After Hours,” which has lead vocals from Moe Tucker (the band’s drummer), and honestly, that song might well sound the most ahead of its time, just because you can link it to a specific time. Like, it really sounds like an indie pop/rock song that a 2010s artist might’ve recorded in a deliberately lo-fi way. It’s wild that it was on an album that came out in 1969. As for the album as a whole, it’s a consistent and pleasing listen throughout, and maybe the best entry point if you’re completely new to The Velvet Underground and want to start exploring their discography.

1

‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ (1967)

In hindsight, balance is what you get with The Velvet Underground & Nico, which was The Velvet Underground’s debut, and indeed an album done with Nico. There are more pleasant-sounding songs here in line with the third album, like “Sunday Morning,” “There She Goes Again,” and the honestly pretty underrated “All Tomorrow’s Parties.” Then, with the balancing act, you get some much harsher songs that feel in line with White Light/White Heat. The closing track in particular, called “European Son,” feels like something of a warm-up for the previously mentioned “Sister Ray,” or maybe even something of a warning (at nearly eight minutes in length, it feels long, but that’s still a while away from 17-minute territory).

Further, there are songs that are a bit harder to define, with something like “Heroin” being challenging because of the lyrical content more than the sound, while “Venus in Furs” is also intense lyrically, and then musically, it’s even harder to compare – or liken – to something else from around the same time. Maybe that’s the main thing: this doesn’t really sound like anything else from the 1960s, and is a key factor in The Velvet Underground & Nico enduring, and having received the kind of critical re-evaluation it has. To borrow a quote from Back to the Future, it might well be the defining “Guess you guys weren’t ready for that, but your kids are gonna love it” albums… not that there weren’t any fans of The Velvet Underground back in the late 1960s, but appreciation for them has certainly grown in the years – and decades – since their 1967 debut.