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The Velvet Underground & Nico – Boxset

David Cavanagh, Uncut, November 2012

AN EXHAUSTIVE, ENTHRALLING BOXSET reissue of the iconic album — with rare and live cuts galore!

The banana's back. Not before time. Late last year, Lou Reed's reputation suffered a serious blow when his ill-fated collaboration with Metallica met with hostility not witnessed since Metal Machine Music. He even had death threats. This 45th-anniversary edition of The Velvet Underground & Nico is a timely reminder that Reed at his best had few peers and no equals, and that his writer's eye — literate, probing, explicit — was unflinching right from the start. He was always hardcore.

Total word count of piece: 930

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