The Velvet Underground, Another View (1986)

It was the last Velvet Underground album I owned on CD and the first I owned on vinyl. Funny that, I guess. I mean it’s not meant to be funny – as such. It’s just as it is. Kinda weird though, I spose. Anyway, it’s a good wee compilation – though not quite as great as VU, the earlier collection of outtakes and bits’n’pieces that didn’t go on to the original albums. I’ve always thought that these two compilations (VU/Another View) pretty much stack up with the Velvet Underground’s four original studio albums. They might lack the flow perhaps – and maybe this one (Another View) struggles a wee bit (VU is definitely every bit as good as the albums – I think it plays the best of any of their records in fact) but it’s a pretty good effort when the b-sides and outtakes and leftovers can stack up with the main event. Maybe that’s helped because there were only four albums of original material – and fifteen/sixteen years on when these comps were first released it was clear just how influential so much of the material had already been – and then as people have discovered them from there they have gone on to continue to see and hear and feel that influence. Magic really. It might not be the greatest VU material here but it’s still pretty fucking good.

Sample Track: We’re Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together

The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown