In the case of Loaded, the stereo and mono mixes don’t exist merely to satisfy differing listener preferences, but to present conflicting visions for the album. Like the previous box sets in the Velvets’ current reissue campaign, Re-Loaded is less about unearthing rare tracks (much of the bonus material here first surfaced on 1997’s Fully Loaded) than getting the story straight, and properly contextualizing the output of a band whose official albums have been overwhelmed by a continuous stream of posthumous live albums, rarities compilations, and bootlegs. Compiling remastered stereo and mono versions of the album, demos, alternate mixes, outtakes, a surround-sound DVD album mix, and two live sets, Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition highlights the painstaking tweaks and tinkering that went into making a seemingly effortless rock'n'roll album. As this six-disc box set expansion of Loaded makes clear, the Velvets’ most airtight album ironically bears telling signs of their unravelling. Atop the immortal riff of "Sweet Jane", Reed declares, "me, I’m in a rock'n'roll band," before adding a " huh"-and, after a million listens, it’s still hard to tell if it’s being delivered with a smirk or a shrug.Īlas, all that contradictory tension proved emblematic of deeper fissures running through the band. Whether answering the Beatles’ optimistic "Here Comes the Sun" with the withering "Who Loves the Sun?" or crashing the Byrds’ country-rock rodeo on "Lonesome Cowboy Bill", Loaded feels as much like a sardonic comment on pop’s ruling class as a bid to join its rarefied ranks. But while Loaded may constitute a concerted effort to play by the rules, the Velvets come off like boarding school-bound delinquents who spend their class time stifling giggles and sneaking snarky notes. Past provocations gave way to carefree kicks: "Head Held High" is "I’m Waiting for the Man" fresh out of rehab "Train Round the Bend" is "Sister Ray" sent to the confession booth. This is, after all, a rock 'n'roll album that advertises its populist intent with a song about rock'n'roll called "Rock & Roll". In that respect, Loaded stands as one of rock’s first truly meta artifacts, prefiguring such label-baiting in-jokes as Neil Young’s Everybody’s Rockin’ rebuke to Geffen Records and Nirvana’s "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter". That pressure was baked into the very title of the record, a directive from their Atlantic Records bosses to produce a record "loaded" with potential hit singles-and the band delivered on every count, except, of course, the sales part. It’s the album that plays least into the myth of the Velvets as transgressive avant-rock outsiders and speaks most loudly to their reality, as a working band playing half-empty bars, desperate to deliver a hit to their antsy major label minders. When stacked against the dark, droning psychedelia of The Velvet Underground & Nico, the flesh-melting distortion of White Light/White Heat, and the disarming quietude of The Velvet Underground, there’s nothing overtly contrarian about Loaded. However, in the latter sense, that distance is amplified with Loaded, and not just because Moe Tucker-the pounding heartbeat of the band-sat out the sessions to tend to her pregnancy, necessitating a drumming-by-committee approach. Part of what makes the Velvet Underground’s official discography so unique is that each of the four dramatically different albums they released between 19 could be considered their definitive statement, and yet each could also be considered the outlier. But being a perfect rock'n'roll album is a very different thing than being a perfect Velvet Underground album.
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