1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 100. Nico – Chelsea Girl (1967)

 

Well done, if you're reading this, on making it to the hundredth album. As I've mentioned a few times prior, feel free to comment with your experiences or opinions on any of the albums on this list.

Although this is a Nico solo album, there’s a lot of involvement from her former Velvet Underground bandmates Lou Reed and John Cale, who wrote some of the tracks (arguably the best ones) and play backing. Nico apparently wanted drums, of which there are none, and hated that the arrangers added strings and flute overdubs to her recording.

I’m kind of inclined to agree with her on this, the strings and flute make the music softer and a little bit bland, her raw (and sometimes a bit flat, to be honest) voice was better suited with the Velvet Underground sound, the overdubs want to turn her into an Ella Fitzgerald kind of vocalist, and she’s not.

The first two tracks – The Fairest Of The Season and These Days are pretty good, sounding a little like a Nick Drake with their opening guitar arpeggios and wistful theme. Winter Song is very folky – here’s where the flute really gets intrusive I think, as it does on Chelsea Girls, where the parade of different oddall socialite characters shows the clear Lou Reed influences, and it feels like it ought to have been arranged with Velvet Underground backing rather than the strings/flute nonsense. Yes, I’m really agreeing with Nico about the arrangement.

With her German accent, and the fact that being slightly deaf she found it hard to hit a note accurately, her voice is quite distinctive and not the most melodic in the world, but really she’s not much different to, say Leonard Cohen or Reed himself. This is another album I had to go back to listen to because my notes weren’t up to snuff, and it’s better the second time through. I think all the truly good ones take a few listens to really “get”.

I was going to say that we're now 10% of the way through, but actually the list I'm using compiles all of the editions of the 1001 Albums, and is actually closer to 1080. Ah well. Onwards.

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