The Velvet Underground - Squeeze (LP)
- LP
- 1 piece(s)
- 1973
- 11 tracks
- 33 min
- proto-punk
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4.0
Average of 8 reviews
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I suppose I'll be the pioneer in reviewing this one. I've just acquired a copy of this 49-year-old album, and it's surprisingly crisp and clear. Being a massive Velvet Underground enthusiast, I'm thrilled to have it in my collection. I'd suggest grabbing a copy now while it's still fairly affordable, especially if you're a completist. However, I wouldn't recommend the music itself, nor would I truly consider it a Velvet Underground record, as none of the original members are involved. It's more of a novelty, really.
Doug Yule absolutely should be praised for what he did for the VU. This record ain't no real VU album, but if Doug, John Cale, and Mo got back together as the VU, that'd be a sweet final middle finger to old Louie!😂
This is a fantastic record pressing, I can't praise it highly enough. It includes a great article from 1971, featuring insights from Doug Yule. It's an absolutely captivating snapshot of a peculiar era for The VU/Doug Yule.
I suppose I'll be the pioneer in reviewing this one. I recently acquired a copy of this 49-year-old album, and it sounds amazingly crisp and clear. Being a massive Velvet Underground enthusiast, I'm thrilled to have it in my collection. I'd suggest grabbing a copy now while it's still fairly affordable, especially if you're a completist. However, I wouldn't recommend the music itself, nor would I truly consider it a Velvet Underground record, as none of the original members are involved. It's more of a novelty, really.
I'm at a loss as to why I bought this album, except that I was in the right spot at the right time, and knew that the single dollar asked for this pristine collector’s item was worth more than all the money in my pockets. Recorded in the UK with no other members from the Lou Reed era Velvet Underground, except multi-instrumentalist Doug Yule who managed to secure the band’s name, or perhaps stole it, though listeners might just consider this a Doug Yule solo project, as he wrote all the songs and played all the instruments, with Ian Price of Deep Purple on drums, along with a couple of guests adding saxophone and backup vocals. Anything one thinks they know about The Velvet Underground goes out the window with this mostly flat and unlistenable addition, as it's a Velvet Underground release in name only, though years later, some like The Huffington Post claim, “If you pluck it from the shackles of its murky backstory, ‘Squeeze’ is nothing short of a quintessential listening experience.” And there we have it, bury anything in the sand for ten thousand years and it’s going to become priceless, which is the course now being charted by unknown hands for Squeeze, and I say ‘unknown’ because I know of no one who’s listened to this mix of odd pop, rock and charm lacking Beatle-ish material more than once. Had the record come out under any other band name, it would have gone nowhere and been instantly forgotten. Of course, many argue that Yule stepped in proficiently to take John Cale's place in a trial by fire, especially when you consider that Yule was asked to sing the opening track “Candy Says.” Though to me, that only strengthens my assumption, because whatever he did, he did with the remaining Velvets to back him up and create his atmosphere. Here on Squeeze, there is no atmosphere, no direction and no hint that Doug came from one of the most influential bands of all time. Others would counter this by saying that at the end, the Velvet Underground was splintered and fragmented, with Cale having dropped out, Maurine Tucker on maternity leave and also disillusioned, Sterling Morrison could be found sitting undefined in the background, leaving more of the day to day activities to Reed and Yule. Be that as it may, that still does not make Doug Yule one of the primary architects of The Velvets, even if his collaboration with Reed was a close one. So yes, Doug Yule was more than a competent bass player, and that leaves Squeeze as nothing more than a series of character studies that lack the phrasing and believability of Lou Reed … meaning that Yule was not merely attempting to extend the life of the band, he was attempting to capitalize on something that was not his to sell. **The Fun Facts:** According to Chris Difford, the British band Squeeze took their band name from this album, also claiming that he found the record enchanting. Review by Jenell Kesler
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