What an incredible piece of proto punk. Absolutely phenomenal through and through.

By far my favorite Velvet album. I really find it hard to get into their first and second record, though this has everything. And it's beautiful!

Hey, where did the noise rock go? Oh well, they’re still a solid punk band. A great one if your definition of punk is solely retro and DIY. But to me rawness is a key characteristic.

This album should be firmly in the top 100. Second bedt VU album. Too many people trash on Doug Yule. His vocals on this album are absolutely incredible.

Hauntly beatiful, Lou Reed's compositions are at his peak. "Pale Blue Eyes" is Velvet's Underground masterpiece.

This suffers from the lack of John Cale. Still a fantastic album, but some songs would benefit greatly if they had a Cale style arrangement. Candy Says, Pale Blue Eyes and After Hours are perfect as they are, everything else is very good but could be even better.

The seismic shift from the loud, abrasive sound of White Light/White Heat to the tuneful melodies of The Velvet Underground in the space of just 14 months is unprecedented, and TVU’s self-titled album is certainly the most aesthetically pleasing album in their discography. That’s what this album is all about: aesthetics, it’s art rock in the purest sense of the word.

Candy Says and Pale Blue Eyes are essential listening for any self-respecting rock fan, and the album is chock full of great rock ‘n’ roll songs, like What Goes on and Beginning to See the Light. My personal favourite, though, is After Hours, a subtle morceau about depression and loneliness; it’s a special end to a special album.

The Murder Mystery, which is an avant-garde experiment that feels like it was an outtake from TVU’s previous material, is the only song on the album that I don’t like, although, it is resurrected somewhat by the piano outro, which I love. My biggest issue with the song is that it does not belong on this album; it’s its only example of dissonance and spoken word, and I find the flow from That’s the Story of My Life to The Murder Mystery jarring.
9.5/10.

Though not always the experimental powerhouse of the group's previous two records, The Velvet Underground serves as a synthesis of what the band seemed to discover in the prior years. With a shift towards something more accessible and cohesive, this album serves as what I believe to be the band's finest and most emotionally rich album, and points towards the illustrious career Lou Reed would cultivate in the years that followed. It never misses a beat.

I just don't get them, I'm sorry.

Not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but the departure of John Cale was a major loss to the Velvet Underground (losing your most talented member is never good) and it led to a less experimental and less interesting album.

The album is generally quite good, "Pale Blue Eyes" and "After Hours" are nice, "The Murder Mystery" is the strangest and most experimental track (and it really works) and "Candy Says" is one of thier best ever songs, a real gem.

The flaws, however, come with Lou Reed's more bland lyrics, these shine through on the middle three tracks "I'm Set Free" "Beggining to See the Light" and "Jesus". Especially "Jesus", maybe I just don't connect because I'm not a religious man (whatsoever), but I don't think the fault lies with me for not liking the song.

Overall, this is a fine album, just missing that dose of Cale that would have made it perfect.