Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition

Of The Velvet Underground’s four albums (discounting 1973’s in-name-only Squeeze), Loaded is the straightforward one: The songs are short, the writing is direct, and the feel is closer to something you might hear on classic-rock radio than at a downtown happening. Aren’t they supposed to be transgressive and avant-garde? And here they are singing about cowboys (“Lonesome Cowboy Bill”) and trains (“Train Round the Bend”) and young girls who are lifted by the spirit of rock ’n’ roll (“Rock & Roll”)? Is this the counterculture, or is this “American Pie”? Listen to Loaded expecting White Light/White Heat and you might .

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