Every Velvet Underground Album Ranked From Worst to Best 

I love that the self-titled album is basically the exact opposite of the previous album. _White Light/White Heat_ sounds like cocaine overdose, whereas _The Velvet Underground_ sounds like a plain cigarett. No marijuana, no cocaine, just a plain old cigarett to cool you down after a hard days night. The ability to offer such variety between records is one reason why VU is a such great band.

Doug Yule wanted to release Squeeze as a solo album, but the record company insisted on it being released as the VU.

I personally think that white light and white heat is a 10/10 album too, this was the first Noise rock album ever released and it is legendary. Stuff like Black Midi, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth wouldn't exist without this album. I love the songwriting, the disgusting and feral jam and lyrics telling a orgy in the 19s(or 18s, i dont remember) in Sister Ray. The simple but amazing White Light White Heat, the macabre and sinister story in The Gift, and etc. I love all the songs on it, i respect your opinion, but that is a legendary record.

FUN FACT: The Rolling Stones were Velvet Underground fans. The Stones song "Stray Cat Blues" from the album Beggar's Banquet, released the year after The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat, has an intro that sounds just like the intro of "Heroin" and an outro that sounds just like "Sister Ray".

I get what you say about the noise on White Light/White Heat, but it's my favorite VU album nevertheless. I find it the purest expression of the band's concept, or at least of their rougher edge, and I just love "Here She Comes Now".

The sound on White Light / White Heat was not intentional. John Cale said in more than one occasion that they wanted the sound to be much crisper and detailed but for a number of reasons they couldn't achieve that. Cale was overall very disappointed with how WL/WH turned out, and I guess Lou was too. Also, Squeeze: I know the general perception now is that Yule took the legacy of a historic band and run away with it, but the truth is that back in the early 70s the VU didn't have much of a legacy - they were just a band that recently disbanded and whose music was going out of fashion, except for a few die-hards. Nothing like the perception of them we have now. Yule used the name to tour schools, universities, BBQ joints and pizza parlours, not exactly arenas and stadiums...

I was up so late finishing this video that I slept through the premiere. 🥲

The one thing to love about Squeeze is the album cover. Their first album was called Andy Warhol so it would be fitting that the final album’s cover would be The Empire State Building. If you’re familiar with Warhol’s work like I am, He made a movie called Empire back in 1964 which was nothing but the building for 8 hours straight so if you ask me. That’s a fitting way to close out the Velvet Underground legacy P.S. I think you should cover Bowie next P.P.S Venus in Furs is my personal favourite Velvet Underground song

Can we all just pretend that VU is the fifth velvet underground album instead of Squeeze? The world would be a better place, I promise you.

Did you make the video? Yes What did it cost Melon man's sanity

Mine is white light because of its crazy feeling towards noise while still making good pop songs

Thanks for making a video about my favourite band! If you're interested, what about doing David Bowie next?

The Velvet Underground & Nico is my favorite album of all time. I literally have a shrine to it on my window shelf made up of a poster of the album and the vinyl album itself propped up on that shelf. Every single track is a masterpiece and there are no skips for me. Every single track takes you into a whole different world and aspect of humanity itself, both light and dark, and it’s just the rebellious, subversive, raw, and viscerally human album that’s ever been made by anybody. I adore it! 💛🖤

I really think this channel is underappreciated. RU-vid recoemnded me your Pink Floyd video and I fell in love. I've watched your Beatles video too, and will in the future give Abbey Road a listen after your explanation of the Come Together intro. Thanks for all the good content, and may you be just as inspired to create even better stuff. Kind regards from Sweden!

the beatles

I've never heard of the velvet underground before but now I'm gonna go ahead and listen to a few albums.

The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light / White Heat are two of my absolute all time favourite albums ever recorded and represent some of the absolute peaks of art to me. Sister Ray and Heroin are both in my top 5 songs of all time. When I finally got around to the second half of their discography, I was considerably to disappointed that they decided to become a pop band after those two insane masterpieces, and found it quite difficult to really get into anything I was hearing.

You keep going on about Lou Reed, but I think John Cale is an undersung hero of the band as well. He had a huge hand in the sound aesthetic of the band instrumentally.

Hey man! Beatle guy here again 😂. I also love velvet underground too. On the 1969 album, I like the same five songs of it just like you.

Lady Godiva's Operation is so underrated, top 5 VU song for me. Also The Gift's instrumental is basically the coolest thing i have ever listened to in my entire life, and i listen to a lot of music; it is like ontologically cool, the definition of coolness.

The Velvet Underground is one of those bands who's discography is so good I would get pissed off at whatever you put on second to last

YES!!! Thank you so much for making a video on the Velvet Underground!!!

Top video and commentary. Fun too !

we have been waiting….and it has arrived….thank you

White Light is definitely my favorite, I kinda had to learn to love it but once it fully clicked I knew I could never go back. Some of the most powerful grooves I’ve ever heard (especially The Gift and I Heard Her Call My Name)

15 seconds into watching this and it's already your best video

The way you described After Hours is so freaking accurate bro....

your videos keep getting better and better like how

Really good video🙂Your videos just getting better and better

Great editing and love the clips of the snow. Video felt cozy

Hey I love your videos man you should do all the phideaux albums ranked from worst to best 😁😁😁

Squeeze is an absolute misnomer, but it is actually a good album. It’s not The Velvet Underground, it’s Doug Yule, and he HAD to release it under that label. It’s a fun album to listen to, and I enjoy it.

Now rank Ringo albums

You could do one of pink floyd or queen. Great vid btw love the edits :)

I don’t think most people consider Yule as an ‘original member’

7:16 “a-peel”

I've always been huge on White Light/White Heat. I seem to recall reading in Rolling Stone, back in the 70's, that the guitar solo from "I Heard He Call My Name" actually caused some kind of nerve damage when played at loud volumes (along with the solo in "Sympathy For The Devil" by the Stones). VU with Nico does come in a close second as that album is brilliant.

You need to listen to the Velvet underground live version of what goes on. Best 8 minutes of music there is

Great video man! Keep up the good work and ur channel is bound to blow up at some point

Also Venus and furs is the first song I’ve heard from velvet underground and it got me into the band

For the 3rd album, I would include What Goes On in your collection of great songs from that album. I love that song so much lol Edit: Nevermind the whole album is great

the amazing part of their later years were that lou wrote the songs, and doug sung them. lou said that doug didn't understand a word of what he was singing, but he still sang "candy says" "who loves the sun" "new age" andall the others with all the passion he had for what he did.

You should do one for the sparks.

I'm gonna have to listen to more VU, I've only gone through their self titled one's so far. Thankfully the banana one clicked with me on my 2nd listen, not like you're several month thing Also do you have an updated beatles ranking? Of the one's I listened to I've got 1. Abby Road 2. White album 3. Magical Mystery Tour 4. Seargant Pepper 5. Rubber Soul 6. Revolver (this is almost just the order of release), my 4-6 rankings constantly change though

Do all the rolling stones albums

Can you do Queen next

based after hours enjoyer

John Cale said something like the love that went into the banana album didn't go into White Light/White Heat. But in a sense it is their purest album because the true velvets to a lot of people are just the four of them. No Andy Warhol and no Nico. They pushed a lot and experimented. Admittedly quite a few of those failed or "failed." But then with Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy has failures on it too or "failures" but again, they're still good and fun. My favorite is the banana album but runner-up might have to be VU actually even though the coy liner notes say it isn't their "lost great album" or whatever. Yes it is! You get Doug Yule and you get John Cale. The songs are solid and honestly it just works. Most of those songs migrated to Lou Reed solo albums but those songs were universally better by The Velvet Underground on this album. The company cleared the rest of its vaults on the highly inferior Another View which I would warn anybody about before picking it up.

If you like U2 you should rank their albums, great video btw

Good job of rating The Velvet Underground albums. I am pretty much in agreement with you on the rating scale.

This is just a few albums that I might suggest, not for a vid or anything, just for ur enjoyment, they’re just really good in my opinion. 1-parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme, (Simon and Garfunkel) the way this album blends music and poetry to one medium rivals Lou Reeds transformer and that’s really saying something. 2-American woman(the guess who) a brash, mixture of rock, psychedelic sound and anti-American beauty 3-the dreaming(Kate bush) the weirdest music ever, incredibly bold, weirder than any iggy or Lou you’ll ever hear, and twice as haunting. Raw power(iggy and the stooges) full and complete submission to the animalistic beast within us all, a storm made perfect by its imperfections. Cheap thrills(big brother and the holding company) you probably already know it, but it’s worth mentioning as it’s by far the best description of what the middle sixties where about, better than any history book. Anyway that’s all

Dude your channel is CRIMINALLY underrated

loaded and the banana album are my favouritee very good 👍

"Beginning to See the Light" doesn't speak to you? "How does FEEEEEEEL to be LUH-UH-UH-VED..." I hope you find the love in your live that will make this song resonate for you.

You have a very sweet voice 😉

So yeah...Im a White Light/White Heat guy. But then I'd say Loaded second. Self titled 69 third. With "and Nico" last actually. Love all of them though. And no I haven't listened to Squeeze, and won't for exactly the given reasons. Actually got into the Velvets in high school after a Lit teacher played Murder Mystery for the class. Self titled 69 was the first CD I ever bought. Thanks for the video! What do you think of the cover album that just came out? I was surprised which ones I liked the best. Stipe's "Sunday Morning" and Vile's "Run Run Run" really stood out. Not really a fan of either artist so my wife was shocked to hear me go on about those. St Vincent's "All Tomorrows Parties" took me aback a bit on first listen, but now it may be my favorite.

The intro was so cool

Loaded was my first VU record, and while I did like a lot of the tunes on it, it wasn't until their debut that made me fall in love with them. I do slightly think its worse than Squeeze since that album does carry that experimentation that Loaded was missing, but all of VU's albums are better than whats honestly being released today

Could you do a Ranking of the Rolling Stones? Pretty please :D

Finally glad to see someone who doesn’t wildly overrate Velvet Underground and wildly underrate Loaded. I think because that third album has such high highs some people act like it’s much better than it actually is.

i can't believe you didn't even mention sister ray when talking about white light/white heat :(

I do love white light white heat

Ian Paice on "Squeeze" is a deep mystery bc Deep Purple was at the top of their game those days and Paice was very far from a struggling unemployed musician.

WL/WH at #4 is ridiculous lol

Noise rock rarely works for me so I happen to agree with ranking WL/WH lower. I have it above Loaded just cause I think it’s more interesting but it’s certainly not pleasant. I don’t care if this doesn’t make me cool. I like plenty of avant garde and experimental music generally but that one doesn’t do a whole lot for me. The two self titled albums are fantastic though. The debut balances their experimentation with the excellent more straight forward songs.

how can such a good channel has only 5.000 subscribers

My favorite band ever

I personally think that white light/white heat is the most underrated album of all time, it’s def in my top 10. I get not liking it though. Their first 3 albums are perfect so the order doesn’t matter that much. I like loaded but it gets overshadowed, despite it being a solid 9/10

Epic

VU and Another View should count

Let's gooo

You said you were going to celebrate all of their albums. Well, The albums "VU" and "Another view" are not just compilation albums, it's all previously unreleased. So I would have included those. P.S. There is only one album titled "The Velvet Underground". The other one is titled "The velvet Underground and Nico".

sister ray is like the hardest song ever made, feel free to hear

1:13 damn, what is this? Queen?

You Should do Talking Heads

So aesthetic

Rank Lou Reed albums please, according to you. Thanks

White light = #4, while Loaded = #2? Dude...

Doug Yule actually wanted Squeeze to be a solo LP, but the label wouldn't let him. Also the manager ousted Moe Tucker too.

make a rank of frank zappa pleaseeee

I agree with everything said

Where's ringo??? :O

do bowie next

Oh man white light white heat is my favorite though

Doug wasnt even an original band member. Honestly i think theres a couple tracks that are okay on squeeze. And i was young when i first heard it so i thought lou was still singing on it lol. All their other albums are basically masterpieces to me.

Whats the intro song?

Pease Iam begging for some help ..Whats the song in the beginning ??.. Thank you .

Algorithm recommended you to me out of the blue. Think I'll follow your work henceforth. Your use of video game music helps, lol. Interesting ranking to all the albums. I don't think there's any doubt Squeeze is the worst one, because it's not a real VU record. It was hard enough without John, but without Lou, forget about it. It's not the worst thing in the world, but definitely feels like bargain bin forgettable early 70s folk rock. Doug Yule (and Lou Reed) got royally screwed over by the evil manager Steve Sesnick, so I can't be too hard on Doug, and at the very least, he and Lou later made up and they played more music together. Sadly, Doug wasn't invited to the VU reunion in the 90s, though... Loaded is my least favorite proper VU record. It's trying too hard to be commercial, to be successful. Moe Tucker was on maternity leave and didn't play drums. The more traditional drumming, I believe made the record more commercially viable, but her simple playing was a necessary, important element to the group. Everyone later said they should have waited for her. Not to mention, Sterling really got pushed into the background and I think mentally checked out. I just don't like that many songs on the record - really just the ones Doug sings on, like Who Loves the Sun. Sweet Jane is also good. The Velvet Underground, or the 3rd album, or the "grey" album is excellent. Very, very calm, stripped down soft rock, a wonderful change of pace after the unfettered lunacy of the previous album. Candy Says, What Goes On, Pale Blue Eyes, I'm Set Free, and After Hours are unbelievable. This is the record that should have broke the band into the main stream. Finally, I keep going back and forth between which is my favorite VU record, VU and Nico or White Light White Heat. They're both nearly perfect records, in my opinion. I love the madness of White Light White Heat, Sister Ray, and I Heard Her Call My Name, while Here She Comes, Lady Godiva's Operation, and The Gift all serve as nice, darkly comic contrasts. But VU and Nico has greater sonic and thematic range which I think objectively makes it the better record. I could gush for days about almost every song on that one, the only exception being the feedback-heavy European Son, however it is Venus in Furs which is probably one of, if not the greatest individual songs of the 20th century. I have never heard something as hypnotic and original as that song, never ever. It singlehandedly changed my life as a young tween forever. For that, I think I gotta give it to VU and Nico. I think in 2021, if you're green to experimental, innovative music, all of these albums take some time to grow on you, each in their own way. But the effort is worth it. Each album, except for Squeeze, is more rewarding with each successive listen. The Velvet Underground are one of the best bands of all time, easy.

Ok

What goes on and Murder Mysteries are the best of VU, but then again, I'm one of those that put WL/WH at #1

what about lulu?

How do you get fan art to be featured?

I would love too see A Mothers of invention/Frank Zappa video

Finally.

Please need the name of the song in the intro

My personal favourite is white light because it’s just so crustaceous and brown

Great video, Try U2 and Led Zeppelin

My favourite velvet underground album is velvet underground 1969

Good

you should re-rank your Beatles ranking