Customer Reviews

Chelsea Girl

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I'm not at all surprised by the occasional negative reviews of this release. Nico tends to polarize people. Even people who would never use the "can't sing a lick" argument against such contemporaries (and friends) of Nico such as Dylan, Leonard Cohen and (the maybe less than friendly) Lou Reed feel free to use it against her.

Ah, you say, but THEY wrote their own material. Well, so did Nico (almost exclusively after this album). And contrary to what some have written, Nico actually began writing on this record (forgive me for using old-fashioned terms like "record" and "album"). "It Was A Pleasure Then" was authored by Nico, John Cale and Lou Reed. Lyrically, it's a patent Nico song; the feedback accompaniment is classic Reed/Cale.

People can argue about the merits of Nico as a chanteuse, but that was only a role she played for a very short time. I happen to like her Sprechstimme vocals and do not consider them Warhol-esque camp (since she sounded the same on her earliest, pre-Velvets recordings "The Last Mile," and "I'm Not Sayin'"--yes the Gordon Lightfoot song--long before she ever met Andy and Co.)

The songs on this record, as well as the occasional cabaret-style foray into Dietrich territory in her later career ("My Funny Valentine" from "Camera Obscura") suggest that Nico could have been the heir to a German (not French) tradition previously represented by Lotte Lenya, Marlene Dietrich and Hildegard Knef (aka Hildegarde Neff). She embraced that tradition only briefly and somewhat ironically, and then moved beyond it, crossing the "frozen borderline" represented by her second solo lp "The Marble Index." That record is a world beyond "Chelsea Girl" and as far removed from Warhol campiness as is humanly possible.

Regardless of whether you find "Chelsea Girl" charming or whether you wonder how this "non-singer" ever landed a recording contract, you should realize that Nico went on to compose and perform (in collaboration with John Cale) some of the most provocative and downright scary music of the 60s, 70s and early 80s.

If you're intrigued at all by Nico, you may want to check out the video "Nico Icon" or one of the two books about her "Nico: the Life and Lies of an Icon" (the author's name escapes me at the moment) and/or "Nico: the End" by James Young.

Nico's impact can still be heard and felt today. The fact that this album was released in 1967 baffles me when you consider the sound of popular music of that time. Nico was a true original, and perhaps one of the first authentic "alternative" artists of our time. This album is beautiful, string-laden and passionate. Nico can make you feel blue without totally bringing you down. Her voice is what it is: imperfect, childlike and yet (most importantly) VERY MUCH HER OWN. Listen with an open mind, don't listen to the Nico nay sayers, and cut the girl a break: she was only trying to infuse some beauty into this ugly little world.

Okay, its a sad fact that most people in this world are not musically knowledgable or appreciative on a deep level. This is illustrated by the fact that, as reviewers have noted before, not nearly enough people have ever heard of Nico.
I will state this very plainly:
This album is the classic Nico album. It also contains the single most beautiful set of songs I have ever heard in my life. And this comes from someone who prides themself on having a broad and obscure musical taste. There is a certain Zen in this album that I just can't express. Especially on the understated "These Days". This song gives you the feeling that Nico is singing to you the exhausted lament of someone who has come back from the dead. Its haunting and priceless. As for Nico's voice being unusual, I would have to protest. People devour the albums of artists like Bjork and PJ Harvey, and to me their voices have a much more unnatural tonal quality.
I urge you to at least listen to this album. I know the Royal Tenenbaums really got Nico's music back out there, so I hope a lot of people can share in this rare experience.

With a voice like a slightly off harmonium (which she frequently played on her subsequent releases), Nico was a total original. After singing a few songs on the Velvet Underground's debut album as their Warhol-implanted chanteuse then getting ousted from the band, Nico recorded this, her debut solo album. The atmosphere throughout "Chelsea Girl" is haunting, mournful and a little mysterious, even when the lyrics of a given song are optimistic or hopeful. However, most of the material she works with here is quite morose. She covers one of Jackson Browne's saddest songs, "These Days", a truly depressive beauty. Stand-out tracks for me include the ode to Andy Warhol's Factory characters "Chelsea Girls" written by sometime lover Lou Reed and the ghostly "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce" by Tim Hardin. This song really gets to me as I know first-hand how the pain of drug addiction affects not just the user but also those close to the addict. The decision to include this song on the album is the very definition of 'ironic' since Nico's struggle with drugs is well documented.

Nico's later releases sound very different from this record as she finds her own voice as a composer and musician. Are they better than this album? I don't really think so. I think that they're all of a piece. But where this album's main instrumentation is guitar, strings and the occasional woodwind, Nico's later, more personal CDs use synthesizers, the aforementioned harmoniums and the like to convey her unique solo compositions. So she started out folky with this one and gradually becomes more avant garde as her career progressed.

This CD contains many lovely songs, Somewhere There's a Feather, Little Sister and many more. Sung by Nico whose distinctive and quite low voice is bliss to the ears.

Her style of music being unique and quite brilliant.

Nico is still mostly remembered for her tambourine-shaking days in the Velvet Underground, though she departed after only one album, and began a long and excellent career as a solo singer. And her first solo album, "Chelsea Girl," is a perfect example of Nico's dark, heavy, haunting songs.

Don't expect the same stuff as "Femme Fatale," though -- the Velvet Underground specialized in fuzzy art-rockers. By herself, Nico favored a more orchestral brand of pop. It kicks off wtith a delicate guitar solo, only to get submerged under a layer of violins. "Now that I'm almost not so very far behind/I want to know/do I stay or do I go..." she asks mournfully in the soaring opening song.

That mellow, classical style carries over the album, with some stately organ in "Little Sister" and the urgent, flitting flute melody of "Winter Song" and "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams." The one disappointment is the finale, "Eulogy To Lenny Bruce." In itself, it's not a bad song -- but the production is definitely off, making Nico sound like she's singing from inside a metal drum.

The late Nico was a love-her-or-hate-her singer, even in her days with the Velvet Underground, where people often demanded her presence after her departure. She was also not one for people who demand bubblegum-pop lyrics or wide-ranging vocals. Instead, she's for the open-minded, who are willing to check out something -- or someone -- a little different.

The voice is the most prominent difference: Nico's voice was deep, deadpan, flat, and had a heavy German accent. In other words, a disaster. Except that she was't -- instead, her voice has a kind of trembly, gothic beauty, and it suits the exceptionally sad songs that she tended to sing. No goofy I-love-him-so ballads here, but meditations on life, death and tragedy.

And the music is majestic enough to support those songs and that voice -- lots of flutes and violins, with guitar and piano backing them up. As a result, this brand of pop has aged better than most older music -- with its classical bent and European orchestral flavour, it sounds timeless. It could have as easily been recorded yesterday.

"Chelsea Girl" was the start of a beautiful solo career for Nico, cut short by her untimely death. But she left behind her a legacy of beautiful, mournful music.

i always thought nico was just a beautiful babe andy warhol had stuck the velvet underground with. as a marketing ploy, too spice them up with some sex appeal. that is, until i heard this album (cd) recently. it's a great, unique record. something very different. she sings contempoaray songs circa 1967 in a heavy german accent. songs by jackson browne, lou reed and bob dylan among others. strangely it works. brilliantly. it's sexy, mysterious, melancholy and timeless. it lingers in the mind. the haunting sense of both sadness and timelessness. almost mournful. quite an achievement for the beautiful babe andy stuck the velvets with. this is one of the best generally unknown great albums of the 1960s. i wasn't familiar with it and i grew up in the 60s and was a big velvet underground fan. check it out. you wont be sorry you did.

I have read a few reviews saying this album is not for everybody. Who is this album not for? Deaf people? This is a beautiful album and though it is not for every mood if anybody doesn't have a part in their soul that can appreciate this I would question how alive they are.

I simply cannot imagine another record with a similar intense sad atmosphere that is equally beautiful at the same time. For me this first Nico album always works best in autumn or winter. Whenever I hear this music, I see images of lonely foggy country landscapes, gently falling leaves and drizzling rain. In a way it makes me incredibly happy to listen to this music. If you like Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Fred Neil, Sandy Denny, then you will want to have this one. One of the ultimate melancholic masterpieces.

With a tremble in her gorgeously stoic voice, and a heart both heavy and whimsically searching, Nico burst onto the scene fully solo, yet somehow beneath the radar.

Though her later works would prove the true breadth of her special talents, there is something eerie, lovable, and unforgettable about these songs both passionate and subdued, in their smoothe flute/guitar/string arrangements, drumless, and utterly haunting.

Covering, as she would not often do again, the songs of others ranging from Loud Reed and John Cale, to Bob Dylan, to Jackson Browne, she intones visions of hesitation, hope, embracing of death, effortlessly, and as though each subject holds something within, just as sweet, uptempo, or downtrodden.

The longest tracks, the stark "It Was A Pleasure Then" and the sarcastic rendering of life among "superstars" in Andy Warhol's circle, "Chelsea Girls", are the first, sonically experimental, and somehow midevally beautiful and resonant both.

The last solemn track "Eulogy To Lenny Bruce" is a chilling and mournfully pensive look upon one of those whom Nico admired most for honesty.

And honest this record is.

So honestly, buy it. And then proceed to delve further into her magnificent vision.