Consumer Guide Album

The Velvet Underground: Loaded [Cotillion, 1970]
The Velvets are to Manhattan what the Rascals are to New York--that is, they really make "Rock & Roll" (a title), but they're also really intellectual and ironic. Lou Reed's singing embodies the paradox even on beat-goes-on throwaways about cowboys and trains. Other subjects include drag, poverty, not loving nature, and the new age, mysteriously connected to an over-the-hill actress who would like her old age back. A