Chelsea Girl
Nico
1967
Album Summary
Chelsea Girl is the debut solo album and second studio album by German singer Nico. It was released in October 1967 by Verve Records and was recorded following Nico's collaboration with the Velvet Underground on their 1967 debut studio album. It was produced by Tom Wilson, who added string and flute arrangements against the wishes of Nico. The title is a reference to Andy Warhol's 1966 film Chelsea Girls, in which Nico starred. Much of the album features instrumental work and songwriting credits from Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, and John Cale. The song "I'll Keep It with Mine" was written by Bob Dylan, while three songs are by Jackson Browne, who contributes guitar.
WikipediaWe all piled on Rebecca black for having no talent but Nico makes the list of albums You Must Listen To Or Else You'll Die? At least RB's song was catchy and she paid for being famous with money rather than blow jobs. A goat being vivisectioned would be more melodic and in key. If I could give this zero stars I would, Nico is the fucking worst.
Don't deny the greatness. Don't deny the sadness. Don't deny the beauty.
Alright, I'll say it. I'm a sucker for this dark, pretentious, avant bullshit. I like the instruments, I like the vocals, I like the production. This is fanfuckingtastic.
Needs an injection of The Velvet Underground. It's nice, but a bit boring. The kind of thing Iris Law listens to on the tube I'd imagine. 𩱠Chelsea rent girl, Chelsea rent girl, whoooaaa whooooaaa
It is rare that I can't make it through a full album even it's not my thing. Nico's voice makes me want to cut my ears off.
You call it âartisticâ...I call it âdog in painâ. Not gonna lie. This was one tough listen. It literally could be used as a form of torture. I could just imagine a Russian spy opting to spill the beans in preference to being subjected to another tune from Nico. Someone please tell this woman she cannot sing, for everyone elseâs sake. The out of tune droning with the comical flute playing in the background had me Googling if this album was in fact a parody. Unfortunately it is not and it is very real. Apparently real enough to be selected into this list and thatâs embarrassing. The only reason anyone would ever choose this album is because they are insecure and think selecting the shameful piece of noise would somehow elevate their coolness by the âinâ crowd. Hopefully Nico was locked up and institutionalised after this and they threw away her key. -100 Stars!
I love Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground so much that I have an automatic soft spot for Nico, but I'm not sure it quite carries a full album for me. I kind of liked the flutey compositions that I take it she hated. Sort of interested to hear some of the later stuff she had more control on.
Absolute shit. Production is awful - guitars quiet and muddy with terrible tone. Would have been better without strings and flutes. Bad lyrics, worked into even worse melodies. Not as smart as it thinks it is. Ended up skipping through a lot as I couldn't take it any more. Pretentious wank.
It's painful, in so many ways. It goes beyond interesting and weird into the awful.
Nauseatingly bad. Two more albums this bad and Iâm quitting this list.
This was horrible. Not my genre, awful voice, weird sounding pieces in between. Never again please.
not a fan of her voice. I'm guessing this is held in high regard due to her Warhol / Velvet Underground association? First one in awhile I opened Spotify to see how much was left...
Fucking horrible. I turned it off after 20 minutes cause it was too boring. These Days is still a jam tho
It sounds medieval and boring. In addition to being grating, the singer's voice doesn't fit the backing instruments at all, and the audio tracks sound like they were unmixed or at the very least mixed extremely poorly. Nothing in this album meshes, and I don't understand why this would be on this list.
Well friends, that was painful. Vocals are flat, monotone and boring. Some of the instrumentals would have been good as background music, but then Nico starts singing again. And what was that noise about 2/3 of the way through "It Was A Pleasure Then"? I've tried to avoid giving out 1's as a rule, but I think this one deserves it.
Oof. I hated this. Some pretty instrumentation on some songs, but not all, and her voice was terrible. Songs were also slow and sad. Not a fan. Song I didnât hate as much: âSomewhere Thereâs a Feather.â
It's so bad that even Nico herself refuses to listen to it. Wondering if this album was included in the 1001 as an example of good intentions gone horribly wrong?
Great album. Love her voice and the instrumentation is beautiful. Like getting a Velvet Underground record with just Nico vocals!
This album was interesting for several reasons. Nico's deep and untrained voice has a way of cutting through the often lush instrumentation that lends it an air of mystery and sadness. This is truly an enigmatic album, songs written by men sung by a woman who nobody really seemed to know. I was a bit tired of it by the end, but I believe this album deserves a few more listens.
This was going to be 2 stars, but I recognized that some of these songs have been in Wes Anderson movies. Giving them some context, and associating them with a time and place really allowed me to appreciate these songs more. They are certainly 'of an era'. They're the kind of thing you'd put on when someone broke up with you, or if you were having a very specifically-themed party.
Et bien moi j'ai beaucoup apprecié cet album, et d'ailleurs j'en profite pour dire à rob que je l'emmerde.
Honestly just... dull. The arrangements were okay, even interesting sometimes. The songwriting was passable. But man, Nico herself just does absolutely nothing for me. She was bearable on that Velvet Underground record, but here she has nothing to support her. Also, apparently she is super duper racist, so I am glad I didn't care for her music lol.
First Listen. At first, I didn't like it much. But, as the day went on I started enjoying it more and more. This is definitely different than what I was expecting. I like her when she sang with the Velvet Underground - and that was what I was expecting. This album definitely sound like the 1967, flower-power, peace-and-love scene, and I thought she would have more of that Berlin rock sound. After getting used to the sound, I started liking it more and found myself singing along a couple of times. I'll give it a strong 2/5 for now. It might be a 3/5 next time I hear it.
J'aurais envie d'écrire une joke, mais l'album me laisse tellement indifférent que j'ai rien de drÎle à dire. SKIPPPPP
nope. Sound like someone is singing in the kitchen to themselves, kind of amateur
Dreary, one-note. The only reason itâs not forgettable is because of how annoying Nicoâs voice is over 10 songs.
An album that really hits all the notes on boring music from the sixties. An album that drags on for an eternity that has absolutely nothing to say.
I think this algorithm is fucking with me. They gave me this after I went about panning Velvet Underground. This is a slight improvement altho the German accent makes it seem almost satirical. Getting some nice Beatles vibes off the melodies and chord progressions but generally I found it a painful process trying to just get thru it. Had to listen to it one song at a time with breaks in between.
She sounds bunged up and posh. I sound bunged up and posh sometimes too, but I'm not sure it's something to aspire to.
Nico has talent... if talent is defined as an ability to sing every other note flat. Awful to listen to.
It was a folk album. I did not care for Velvet Underground and I did not care this album even though it is a solo album. Lyrically unnoteworthy. Nothing about it was good. I ending up skipping through some of the songs because I just wanted it to end.
Manages boredom and irritation. "It was a pleasure then" is a collection of cacophony. Did those great songwriters (Dylan, Jackson, Hardin) write bad songs, or did she wreck them? After listening to some other versions, the answer is that Nico can't sing
Just how old is Jackson Browne? Was he signed by Columbia when he was 4? How is it that These Days pops up on an album made in 1967, about 6 years before he recorded it? This odd record has so many cultural intersections, The Velvets and Jackson writing most of the songs and poor Tom Wilson having to do the impossible and "produce" this. To think he went from Highway 61 Revisited to Nico. Andy Warhol wreaked havoc on popular culture, and for Nico alone he stands condemned. If the climate change activists really want to make their case they should throw Campbell's soup over his Campbell's Soup paintings and then stick Nico album covers all over the soup, what a fitting finale that would be. Nico, dead on arrival. She'd be the Schrodinger's Cat of popular music, except Andy opened the box. Imagine wandering into a New York coffeehouse and sitting down to Nico in 1967, what price a cup of joe? The Wikipedia notes on this are hilarious, that she cried because Tom put strings and a flute on this record and denied her drums. I can't begin to contemplate what he was trying to do to cover up her appalling drone. There are some fine arrangements here in a desperate search for someone who can actually sing. I will never forgive her for the rendition of These Days (ditto I'll Keep it with Mine). I had to immediately play Glen Campbell's (oh aye, there's a Campbell's theme here) brilliant 2008 version, where, with the onset of Alzheimer's looming large, he so perfectly captured the pain of a four year old Jackson Browne lamenting day of yore. Nico needs to be deleted, thrown into the dustbin of history.
The blueprint for this album was laid out by Nico's performance on 'Femme Fatale' off of the Velvet's banana album; a lush and gorgeous instrumental that had all the life sucked out of it by her drowsy and uninteresting vocals. On Chelsea Girl, that same process is repeated 10 times in what is a 45 minute snooze-fest that perfectly encapsulates Nico's mediocrity as an artist. It is utterly remarkable how many listeners gloss over just how tone deaf Nico truly is. Each track sounds like she recorded the vocals before even hearing any instrumentals. Her vocal range and register are as wallpaper and monotone as one could imagine, yet this album has been lauded by critics as a timeless masterpiece. Not only did this album fail to push any boundaries, it hardly got out of centre field. The only redeemable quality going for this record are its arrangements and production. For the 10 to 15 seconds before Nico's voice puts me to sleep, the instrumentals are whimsical and pleasant on the ears, with the clear intention for a strong vocalist to realise the potential of each song. Nico squanders that potential time and time again, that said it would've made for some nice lobby music as an instrumental album. Nico was essentially handed these beautiful instrumentals on a silver platter, to which she adds absolutely nothing of note. In the same year as the Beach Boys release Pet Sounds; an album filled with diverse arrangements, ingenious songwriting and adventurous vocal melodies, it is one of the great mysteries as to how this album has remained relevant over half a century later.
Ć ta reÄi o ovom albumu osim da je blizu savrĆĄenstva? ZvuÄi jednostavno, ali je ovaj album mi puno znaÄi i definitivno mi je top 5 albuma koje si moram, al moram pustiti kada doÄe jesensko vrijeme. ZanemarivĆĄi njen privatni ĆŸivot, bila je vrsna umjetnica. Dakle ovo je album koji mi je jako blizu Äiste petice, i zato vjerujem da Äe dobiti peticu jer ono, 90% albuma je odliÄan. OdliÄne stvari na ovom albumu od 10 pjesama: "The Fairest of the Seasons, These Days, Little Sister, Winter Song, Chelsea Girls, I'll Keep It With Mine (mislim da je ovo cover od gospodina Dylana koji je oooodliÄno izvrĆĄen), Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams, Somewhere There's a Feather, a pjesme poput It Was a Pleasure Then i Eulogy to Lenny Bruce su groweri, i dobre stvari, ali ako veÄ moram neke slabije malo izabrati, to bi bile te.
Nico's vocals are absolutely splendid! This album is so gorgeous, I could listen to it 100 times over.
I listened to this a LOT in the early 2000s, it was one of my friends favourites - so I'm really familiar with it, it's lovely to hear it again. beautiful guitars, lovely wistful production and an unmistakable voice.
The instrumentation is lovely and Nico's vocals sound raw and authentic. No autotune here. Deliciously soothing.
Vitonen, koska haluaisin olla Nico. Levy on haikea, tyylikÀs, nostalginen, ja kyllÀ, vÀhÀn tylsÀ - mutta sen on tarkoituskin olla, eli tÀssÀ tapauksesssa tylsyys on vain plussaa. Kuvastaa jotain yleistÀ inhimillistÀ apatian kokemusta.
Chelsea Girls is an album that shows it's beauty in a subtle way. It captures the intimacy of somebody playing music for you (and you specifically) in a small room. This Aussie gives it four bags of Freddo Frogs out of five.
Sheâs got a unique voice, and the strings pair really well with it. A little like Joanna Newsom. Second half of the album didnât do much for me though
I'm kind of a sucker for anything related to sixties counterculture/New York/Warhol/Greenwich Village. This isn't up to the standards of the debut Velvet Underground album, but it's interesting and never dull. I can see why Nico wasn't happy with the production. In some songs the strings and flutes add a nice feel, but the album could use some drums as well. 4 stars.
Look, I like violins as much as the next person--maybe even more--but damn these overdubs (like they're trying to make every song sound like "Eleanor Motherfucking Rigby"). They're so tacked on, not matching Nico's voice at all, which sounds like she's pulling her jaw back into her throat. And then just listen to "Winter Song": the power is right there in the (rather frightening) lyrics. We don't need a flute to tell us "this is a pastoral song, in case you couldn't figure it out". RYM ranks "It Was a Pleasure Then" as the worst track on the album, but I think it's the best because it's not got those damn overdubs. Everything is more real--the music, the vocals. It's pretty VU at its heart, too, what with the short bursts of howling feedback and the minimalist experimental vibe threatening to explode into a welcome cacophony that never comes. Nope. Bring the flautist and string quartet back in. Break's over!
Have not listened to much of her solo stuff. What stands out is her haunting voice, it adds a mystical quality to the music. Unfortunately the same voice that charms me, grates on me before the end of the album.
This album is a total mood, and I quite enjoyed it. It has a couple of songs on it that I listen to frequently, but this is the first time I heard it all the way through. Had I known it was a part baroque folk, part stealth Velvet Underground album, I would have gotten around to it sooner. I see why Nico disapproved of the string and flute overdubs, because the arrangements aren't particularly well timed to her vocals. I quite agree when it comes to the flute, which is superfluous and doesn't really add anything to the album. I do think the strings in particular are suited to Nico's voice though. John Cale's viola, as always, is a gift. The rambling, noisy distortions of "It Was a Pleasure Then" were jarring, but actually really welcome. That song really cuts through the softer aspect of some of the other songs and it perfectly showcases the great musical chemistry of Reed-Cale-Morrison. "These Days" and "I'll Keep It With Mine" are pure perfection. Fave Songs: These Days, I'll Keep It With Mine, The Fairest of the Seasons, Somewhere There's a Feather, It Was a Pleasure Then
Interesting, but I don't feel it adds much to her output with The Velvet Underground.
Lovely voice - lovely songs - itâs very side A heavy - the most obviously beautiful songs lie there - it just had a little distribution problem - the sunnier songs are early and gets progressively darker so it feels like it tapers off towards the end. But all in all a wonderful record.
Nico is like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket on a brisk morning while having a cup of tea.
4.5/5 Quite the interesting and unique singer-songwriter album of the time. I can see how it influenced Bjork and Siouxsie + extra TVU vibes đ
Absolute Classic. Beautiful instrumentation and Nico's sonorous voice is such a good combo.
Sounds amazing at first but after a while it kinda blends together. Still great tho
strangely haunting and beautiful music. Her voice is unique and I am sure the style was fresh when this was released in 1967. 4/5