The Velvet Underground — White Light / White Heat ( Super Deluxe Edtion)
I won’t go into any detail in this review about the original album it self here, as I’d imagine most people reading this review & M[m] are more than a little familiar with this classic. So instead I’ll give an overview of what this edition of the release conists of.
This super deluxe box set appeared at the tail end of 2013. It comes in the form of a slightly oversized vinyl sleeve sized hardback coffee table book, which features cardboard slots at the back of the book to fit in the sets three CDs.
The book is around sixty pages long, and features: a selection of band pictures from the time(in both colour & black ‘n’ white), reproduction of the albums original sleeve, colourful poster artwork, reproduced studio logs, and fairly sparing write-ups, and large text quotes which take up a whole page at a time. Really as already mentioned the book part of this set is very much of the coffee table variety, with only eight of the books sixty pages featuring a formal write-up about the band, the album & it’s impact- these write-ups are interesting enough, but there’s no great depth to any of it, or any new information for those already familiar with this classic album.
The first disc starts off with the albums original six tracks. These coming in the form of a new stereo mix, and really the tracks has never sounded better; with each element of the albums make-up been clear & defined, yet it all still retains it's original fiery & experimental edges that made it so distinctive. The remainder of the first CD’s seven tracks are taken up by alternative & instrumental versions of album tracks, and these make for an interesting insight into the albums development.
The second disc takes up the mono version of the album(which I believe is released here for the first time on CD)- this version of the album is ok I guess, and it’s interesting to hear how the albums often detailed & chaotic sound fares when channelled down into a mono form- but really I can’t see my self revisiting this very often. The rest of the second disc is taken up by four more tracks, and these come in the form of mono single versions of both the albums title track & "Here She Comes Now", as well as stand along vocal & instrumental versions of the track "The Gift".
The third & final set disc in the set takes in a live show recorded in New York City on April 30th 1967 at a venue called The Gymnasium. The live set takes seven tracks in all, and these come in the form of : “Booker T”, “I’m Not A Young Man Anymore”, “Guess I’m Falling In Love”, “I’m Waiting For My Man”, “Run Run Run”, “Sister Ray” and “The Gift”. Apparently this concert has been available on the bootleg market for many years, but the version of “The Gift” here has never appeared anywhere before. As you’d imagine with such an old recording( which has seemingly been left untouched or remixed) the quality is not too great, but the band are on great form here, and of course it’s great to hear early versions of the album tracks (Sister Ray” and “The Gift”).
So in summing up this super deluxe 45th Anniversary edition of White Light/ White Heat, I’d say it’s certainly a very plush release. The book it’s self is nice as coffee table book, and I particularly enjoy the reproduction of the posters from the time, but as a informative book it’s very much lacking. The new stereo mix is very good, and really the best form you’ll ever want to hear the album in, the mono mix is ok- but not really vital, while the extra tracks on the first two disc are most interesting. The third disc I guess is the most rewarding & replayable of all the extras here.