This was a welcome surprise. Paris 1919 couldn't be more far removed from the Velvets. It's an uplifting pop album with a wonderful warm and homely production. Not exactly an album in which to take Class A drugs to. I'm never really a fan of concept albums. They require too much investment for a narrative that probably doesn't interest you. But a pop album about the Paris Communes worked well for me.
I was expecting to enjoy this more than I did. I mean the guy was in the Velvet Underground, after all. I could see (hear) that this hangs together neatly as a body of work, but none of the songs grabbed me much, or were familiar. I would have liked a bit more experimentation - this sounded like standard '70s rock ballad fare, to me, with none of the smarts that Cale’s playing for VU displayed. Black Angels Death Song this is not..