The Velvet Underground were never going to coast onto a second album. An overhaul of their scene, sound and line-up was in order. The Velvet Underground and Nico, while both a monumental listening experience and an influential powerhouse, felt like too many cooks in the kitchen. Too many creatives pulling this way and that, trying to assure their presence. White Light / White Heat removes that. Airplay bans, less sales than their first record, but a white-hot sense of production and sound. They learn from their live performances, push on from the Avant Garde-like experiences and impressions of their first and cut through with the vibrant, early sounds of punk. John Cale is the grand change here, the most audibly significant part of White Light / White Heat when frontman Lou Reed steps back. Monumental plays on popular tones all the way through.
Constant noise is key. This is a style of sound which still influences artists. A title track with a heavy rock tone, an instrumental barrage where the floaty vocals and lighter charms are found in the vocals. It happens all the same for The Gift, with Cale’s spoken-word story an absolute charmer and the instrumentals not far off what The Rolling Stones and all the rock outfits of the time were doing. But even in their artistry, there is a commercial tinge, a desire for easy access. White Light / White Heat is not hard to interpret or even at all tricky to ascertain, but its clunkier instrumentals, that choice for jagged and distorted sounds, and whining guitars, is a tremendous way to set The Velvet Underground apart. Those spoken-word joys of self-mailing on The Gift are a blur of hilarious and forthright storytelling. Stern with a sense of whimsy, popular at the time and attempted in the modern day, fail after fail.
Lady Godiva’s Operation is the reverse of The Gift. Standard-like instrumentals which still hold a distorted effectiveness but provide a stable foundation for some vocal choices. Tapping the microphone to create a heartbeat, Reed and Cale overlapping one another with some crackling like surgeons at the table. White Lite / White Heat remains one of the best album experiences around. Focus on one piece in isolation and it all falls to pieces. There is merit spread across every track, but it works in conjunction with another. I Heard Her Call My Name works when it has the twenty minutes of build-up before it, those aggressive guitar tones and the constant drumming, the ever-pounding momentum, is fantastic.
Strip away the influence The Velvet Underground has and they remain an accessible and frankly brilliant art rock band. How lucky we are to hear the spoils of their efforts. Sister Ray serves as a powerhouse of an album closer, a seventeen-minute production where the culmination of all these instrumental parts boom along with one another. Feedback and one-upmanship are not to be feared. They are treated as necessary pools of influence for White Light / White Heat, which leans into the erratic and crazed moments with such a liberating outcome. Where is the line between noise and rock? The Velvet Underground finds out with their flashy and incredible assault on the ears with White Light / White Heat. Loud, extravagant, and a hell of a listening experience.
