The Velvet Underground and Nico LANDMARK: The Velvet Underground and Nico by: Ed Butler Tue:18-Dec-07 Label: Verve Year: 1967 WB rating 89 out of 100

Sometimes when a truly gifted songwriter tries to musically describe a highly unique experience the listener can actually feel like they're sharing the very same moment. Such a moment occurs on The Velvet Underground's record, The Velvet Underground and Nico. When singer Lou Reed sneers " Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man/When I put a spike into my vein/And I'll tell you, things aren't quite the same/When I'm lushing on my run/And I feel just like Jesus' son" on the blacker-than-black epic 'Heroin', it truly feels like the experience of a high-and-low that could be induced when taking that particular drug.

If there is one thing that defines this debut record, it is the incredible power, individuality and rawness of Reed's songwriting. On the aforementioned 'Heroin', both the scintillating sensations of a heroin high, along with the misery and self-disgust are brazenly laid on the table to a soundtrack that could hardly be more appropriate; the rhythm section, as the lyrics turn to another injection, speeds up, as Reed's voice gets more and more excited, until, suddenly, everything comes crashing down back to Earth and to a more manageable pace. It's incredible stuff.

Likewise, on the opener 'Sunday Morning' a gently tinkling toy piano and quietly bouncing bassline encapsulate the sensation of waking to a glorious sunrise, before strings wash over everything and Reed's voice is dunked in a bucket of reverberation, as he takes the opportunity to worry about what happened the night before, afraid to remember: "Sunday morning / And I'm falling / I've got a feeling / I don't want to know".

This record is a postmodern response to the lavish production of rock music today, particularly in its willful embrace of controversy. Most obvious is the inclusion of the ultra-contentious 'Heroin' and the 'peel back and see' phallus underneath the Andy Warhol banana cover. In another repudiation of the extravagance of current music (how long have The Beatles spent recording their upcoming album? And how much has it cost?), this entire record has been made for $3,000 and put to vinyl in one day in the studio.

This is rock and roll as high art, experimentation, catharsis, redemption, and celebration all rolled together. When it comes together properly on The Velvet Underground and Nico, it is utterly immaculate, from the truly bizarre guitar solo on 'Run Run Run', to the insane noodling/thrashing/beating jam session that is album closer 'European Son'. However, it doesn't necessarily all come together all the time. Strangely enough, seeing that the band decided to include their guest vocalist in the album title, it's the songs where the unique contralto comes in that the album becomes a little somnambulant – and not in that wonderful, breezy 'Sunday Morning' way, but genuinely sleep-inducing. This is most likely because she was invited to sing on the album not by the band, but by their patron Warhol.

This is unfortunate, because it's not often that a mere music writer is presented with the opportunity to use the word 'chanteuse' in a sentence, but a chanteuse Nico most definitely is. And the failure of the songs on which she appears doesn't feel like it is in any way her fault. Her voice, throaty and deep, is a sharp contrast to most female vocalists right now, and has a definite character and timbre that should sound brilliant. The problem lies in the effectiveness of Reed's visceral sneer. Every song sounds as if it was written with his particular vocal character stamped all over it.

And thank the lord for that, because on album highlight 'Venus in Furs', over a discordant guitar strum, Eastern drumming and a tortured violin, when Reed croons 'I am tired/I am weary', you know he damn well is. His voice is drenched in discontent and fierce cynicism, and it delivers a killer punch every time he opens his mouth.

Debut albums this assured and commanding appear only occasionally on the musical landscape, and this year, with so many of the industry's big names releasing much-anticipated recordings, it is to be hoped that this doesn't slip through the cracks – lest it become a record discovered by future generation who hopefully don't find the confronting subject matter and playful sexual ambiguity too controversial. Either way, there is little doubt that this is one record that will still find itself on the turntables of young music fans well into the future.