It's just the wasted years so long ago ...
Pieter | Johannesburg | 07/27/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"There are two distinct styles on Nico's 1967 debut album. The first resembles a form of folkie chamber music and the second an unplugged type of Velvets art-rock. John Cale, Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison play on the album and wrote or co-wrote many of the songs. Their intriguing instrumental textures imbue Nico's morbid vocals with deeper dimensions. An air of melancholy permeates both song styles whilst the second type has an added undertone of unease.
Tracks like The Fairest of the Seasons with its gentle orchestral backing, Cale & Reed's haunting Little Sister and Reed & Morrison's Chelsea Girls with their delicate arrangements have the folkie feel of some of Marianne Faithfull's 1960s work and also bring to mind the orchestral folk of Nick Drake, no doubt because John Cale worked with both and Drake also used cello and flute. Tim Hardin's moving Eulogy to Lenny Bruce belongs here as too.
John Cale's Winter Song falls somewhere between the two styles whilst the complex arrangement of Lou Reed's Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams reflects the song's striking, often disturbing imagery. The most experimental track, It Was A Pleasure Then - co-written by Nico - is perhaps closest to the early Velvet Underground in its feedback squalls, dissonance and edgy sound effects.
The appeal of Chelsea Girls is difficult to define, especially for fans of the VU and the later solo work of Cale & Reed. The thematic matrix and the acoustic backing - including piano, strings & guitar - accentuate the mournful magic of Nico's German accent and aloof delivery. Two very different but interesting albums are The End and Drama of Exile. I highly recommend the biography by James Young, Nico, Songs They Never Play on the Radio.
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