embryo

My goodness, how much I hate this group!

Which philosophy?? Polygamy? Not doing a damn thing from morning till night except getting high and having sex? I appreciate their pacifist positions, I also appreciate their spiritual aspirations, but they had their own exaggerated behaviors too. I didn't say they were necessarily all stoners; that particular hippie was, but I said they all shared similar ideals (polygamy, drug use, living day by day,...). In hindsight, although those movements were important in the history not only of music, I believe that their philosophy, as fascinating as it is, wasn't that ethical or exemplary.

Assuming that syntax is not your strong suit, I agree with you. Good album, I think a 3.5 is just right. They’re not as fresh as they were in their early days, but there are some memorable tracks. Undoubtedly better than the mediocre successor "Prophecy"...

Happy for you... I repeat, in my opinion there are more important things than instrumental technique and, to stay on topic, not that the JA were super technical, quite the opposite... Then, assuming that personally I don't give a damn about morals, I find very little ethical even in the society of the JAs, hippies and the like. Just look at Woodstock, where there were men in their 50s and 60s sleeping with girls of 14 or 15, or Isle Of Wight: I'll always remember that stoned hippie who got his little son to smoke weed and take acid... He must have been 6 or 7 years old. Do you think these are ethical behaviors? And mind you, I didn't give two examples of isolated cases, they were all like that...

DaveJon, I don't think that the Velvet Underground had any shortcomings. Oh, are you upset about their instrumental technique? The VU paved the way for bands like Sonic Youth; for instance, their instrumental minimalism has been an example for many genres. And anyway, their work isn't an exaltation of negative values; it's more of a realistic depiction of the environment they were part of, namely, Andy Warhol's New York, drag queens, and heroin. Jefferson Airplane, for example, talked about free love not because they were naive utopists, but simply because that was the reality they came from. Similarly, the VU rightly spoke about their reality, which was totally different from that of flower power, even though it was contemporary. P.S. I made the comparison with the JA because it had already been referenced, and it doesn't seem out of place to me: they were two different bands that belonged to equally different cultural and social contexts... but both equally interesting.

I agree with easycure. The review isn't bad, but perhaps it's a bit too conventional in its attempt to contrast the Velvet Underground with the rest of the music scene in order to best highlight the qualities of the album.

Hendrix is THE GUITARIST. It's true that from a compositional standpoint he hasn't always reached great heights, but one should pray for him like a god. Moreover, this album is his best, so the songs don’t fall among the more lackluster compositions. Fuck that anonymous person who called this album shit. You don’t understand shit! Shame on you!

Good reception. Great album.

Votes

This has nothing to envy Superunknown. I find them equally beautiful, in fact, I might even prefer this one (not by much, though). Imprecise review.