Customer Reviews

Classic Years

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here--finally--is a terrific and long-overdue collection from one of the great icons and musical innovators: Nico. Because long before there was Madonna, Natalie Merchant, Debbie Harry and even Yoko Ono, there was Nico. Her icy, resonant vocals are still, for me, the best thing about 1967's groundbreaking album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. Gifted with a chilling vibrato, Nico delivers brilliant interpretations of some of Lou Reed's finest lyrics: "I'll be your mirror, reflect what you are, in case you don't know, I'll...." When Nico sings that second "I'll", my heart breaks, every time. Similarly, on her first single, a cover of Gordon Lightfoot's "I'm Not Saying" (produced by then-Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham), Nico sings: "I'm not saying I'll be true, but I'll try". And again, it's that one last word, "try", that puts me in touch with an overwhelming sense of sadness.

The incredible longing in Nico's singing apparently reflects a void that she could never fill. Her strange life of opportunities seized and lost (rehashed in the oddly-worded liner notes), comes through loud and clear in the early music she sang and, later, the music she wrote. Early pop stylings give way to songs like the haunting "Chelsea Girls"--a collaboration with Velvets alumni Reed and John Cale. Cale would go on to produce many of Nico's subsequent recordings, and working with him, and later with Roxy Music's Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera, Nico originated and crafted an idiosyncratic brand of diva music, which often took its form in deconstructed tone poems of regret and longing. Could anyone, other than Nico, have made a song entitled "Janitor of Lunacy" so beautiful in its yearning? Could anyone else deliver a version of the Doors' "The End" that actually goes further than the original in evoking stark, flat-out fear? Doubtful.

In short, if you are a sensate, feeling human being, you will be moved to your core by Nico's music, which is thoughtfully presented in this wonderful compilation. Be brave, and be good to yourself: enjoy and embrace your feelings--both good and bad--with Nico.

"An IBM computer doing an impression of Greta Garbo," this is how Andy Warhol once described the voice of his then protegé, Nico.

Ever since, the range of comparisons has known no end. "Who?" some younger people may ask (and I am 25!) when hearing about her for the first time. Certainly, when one mentions Lou Reed or Warhol, a face lits up with recognition and say "oh, I see." But they don't.

This compilation may well be the first to reach the mainstream in a long while, to put them in contact with one of rock and roll's most unsung heroines.

Featuring such classics as "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll be your mirror" (both penned by Reed), this CD tracks the first few years of Nico's career, covering her transformation from the first of the supermodels (which she was) to the mother of goth-rock.

Either as a blond, eurodecadent ice maiden or a wild-eyed, hennaed vesper, the many faces of Nico surge through the songs here presented to show a dark chest of wonders.

And try to keep your eyes dry and your heart free of that sweet ache of longing and loss when you listen to the beautiful, a capella version of "Nibelungen".

A grand surprise.

This collection of Nico's work is excellent, spanning the breadth and length of her career. The collection starts with her earliest work, upbeat folk-rock songs (tracks 1 and 2), progresses through her Velvet Underground period (tracks 3 through 5), through Chelsea Girls (tracks 6 through 9), and then through her gothic phase (tracks 10 through 19). There are a few songs that should be here that aren't, such as "Das Lied Der Deutchen" (the German National Anthem), "Mutterlein", and "The Falconer." And the longer version of "All Tomorrow's Parties" in "The Velvet Underground and Nico" (5,55 minutes versus 2,52 here) is obviously better. But still, this is a great collection for Nico fans.

This is really one of the most AMAZING collection of songs that I've ever heard. My first introduction to Nico? Yes. I am so impressed with this music, Nico's voice, the atmosphere these records create, the song structures, the total package. This is well deserving of these 5 stars - these songs are great. Stop reading and buy this cd, you are in for a great suprise.

I am glad That Nico finally got a "greatest collection" album. Even her earliest singles from 1965 are awesome ("I'm not saying" "Last Mile" ). I really love tyhe music that she creates. She is in a way like a poet, because her lyrics are so powerful and revealing.

Ok, this is a good collection of songs. I would have like to see, however, some more tracks on here. The songs here are great (sans the "Im Not Saying" and "Last Mile" single which is good but forgettable) but what about "Facing the Wind", "Julius Ceasar", "Evening of Light", "Roses in the Snow", "The Falconer", "Mutterlein", "It Has Not Taken Long", "Innocent and Vain", and "We've Got the Gold". Well you know what I'm saying. Go by this as it is a great collection of music, it's just that there is so much more than this.

Nico, the German chanteuse, recorded with now considered seminal rock faves, Velvet Underground in the late 1960's and had the deep uninterested vocals that seem so decadent and thrilling in the re-evaluation. At the time, she was. at best, thought of as an Andy Warhol experiment and tossed aside like all tomorrows parties.
This CD is a fine rebuke to those who confuse her life with her art.
Her breathy, dramatic readings, (can't quite call it singing), are evocative and sensuous in a way that would influence such fans as Jane Oliver, latter day Marianne Faithfull, and Diana Krall.
Best on this CD is the Jackson Browne "These Days", the VU clips, and the few songs from her weirdly romantic solo LP, "Chelsea Girl", esp. the Lou Reed title song.

Imagine the center of the song is a singer who cannot sing. Not an insurmountable obstacle, but one requiring special sensitivity in material and production. Often it's here and worth the effort to listen - a sound rarified and lunar.

Inelegant and primitive, Nico sounds best when supported by baroquefolk violins. (There's no dialectic when the VU backs her.) She gets an oblique, decomposing cabaret vibe going - it's despairing but never pretentious.

Marlene Dietrich doing Tom Waits - only much more glacial.

"She is beautiful, and in a world where so much can easily be possessed on a whim or for a promise, she is unpossessable. She has a clear, pure ring, a trueness, like an arrow that has hit an inner mark and can't be wedged loose." -pat patterson

"Nico was a new type of female superstar. Baby Jane and Edie were both outgoing, American, social, bright, excited, chatty, whereas Nico was weird and untalkative. You'd ask her something and she'd maybe answer you five minutes later. When people described her, they used words like memento mori or macabre. She wasn't the type to get up on the table and dance, the way Edie and Baby Jane might; in fact, she'd rather hide under the table than dance on it. She was mysterious and European, a real moon goddess type."-warhol

this compilation is half light, half dark, with most of the dark being original songs written by nico. i prefer the earlier songs, as im sure you will.

Nico's albums sound like absolutely nothing released in the last 25 years. For the critics I rebut, that few if any artists of the time were even remotely as Original and Authentic as NICO. Buy her individuals albums, rather than this dim-witted posthumous sampler.