The Voice's 1967 Review of Velvet Underground's Debut Album
They were an "important group" capable of being "pretentious to the point of misery." "This album has some major work behind that erect banana on the cover." Sounds pretty spot on. 
Richard Goldstein's review in full from our April 13, 1967, issue is after the jump.
See also: The Voice's 1972 Review of Lou Reed's First Solo Performance
The Velvet Underground is not an easy group to like. Some of the cuts on their album are blatant copies: I refer specifically to the progression lifted from the Rolling Stones "Hitchhike" in "There She Goes Again." The lead vocal on other songs sound distressingly like early Dylan. Some of the mterial [sic] is dull and repetitive. And the last two cuts, "Black Angel's Death Song" and "European Son" are pretentious to the point of misery.But the Velvets are an important group, and this album has some major work behind that erect banana on the cover. "I'm Waiting for the Man" is an impressively understated vignette about scoring in Harlem. "Femme Fatale" is an unearthly ballad subtly fuzzed-up to drive you mad fiddling with bass and treble switches. Nico's voice is harrowing in its pallor, but chic, very chic.
Most important is the recorded version of "Heroin," which is more compressed, more restrained than live performances I have seen. But it's also a more realized work. The tempo fluctuates wildly and finally breaks into a series of utterly terrifying squeals, like the death rattle of a suffocating violin. "Heroin" is seven minutes of genuine 12-tone rock 'n' roll.
- Richard Goldstein
See the yellowed article page, scanned from our archives, on the next page.
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