Imaginary Albums #9: The Velvet Underground

This Velvet Underground concoction, discussed at greater length previously, isn't terribly creative, but it's among the records (real or imaginary) I play most frequently. 

Around 1969, the Velvets recorded songs for a planned fourth album, to follow 1969's eponymous album and precede 1970's Loaded. But the record got shelved among label bullshit, finally emerging in 1985 as VU. That posthumous record, which culled some of the 1969 material and added a few unreleased tracks from the John Cale years, was at least as good as any of the four proper VU studio albums--maybe even better, walking between the understated beauty of Velvet Underground and the more mainstream-friendly rock of Loaded. 

A second album of additional leftovers was later released, albeit with fewer essential tracks.

My version of The Great Lost Album takes the bulk of those two albums, as well as a couple other outtakes that showed up on later reissues, and combines them into about an hour of music. Even more so than the original VU, I think this re-sequenced opus makes for a fifth proper studio album that stands on equal footing with the originals. Lou Reed was at his songwriting peak at the time (he ended up borrowing about half the 1969 tracks and rerecording them for his underrated first solo album, though in somewhat watered-down form), with tunes that range from undeniable classics to more challenging (but still listenable) unpolished gems.

You can hear it on Spotify: