The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat

it's a good pressing. sounds as good as I need it to! yeah the bonus tracks are unnecessary but they are at the end of each side so if you care that much just skip 'em. cheap and sounds good, worth a buy in my opinion.

its been said countless times before but the bonus tracks on this pressing are bewildering.

Sounds like crap ... the way it was intended to! I don't understand the hate regarding this edition. You don't want to hear the bonus tracks? Skip them. Apart from that, no audible surface noise nor scratches, which is all I need.

The album in its original form is a perfect album but the bonus tracks do not fit the album at all.

"White Light/White Heat" never was about sound quality, it's the early noise record. This edition sounds absolutely adequately. I do not welcome bonus tracks on the any old record, but this time they are easy skippable. And "Hey Mr.Rain" is my favourite VU song. In other words - it's a good and desireble press.

I don't think the bonus tracks are that bad honestly, first off they're at the end of each side and were made during the same era.

Besides this the album is well mastered, good pressing overall.

Honestly, this sounds fine to me and is perfectly flat too, which is more than I can say for most new pressings. The only significant knock I have for it is inserting the bonus tracks in the middle of the album, I really don’t care for that and would have probably bought a different version if I had looked hard enough when buying it. All in all, it’s a decent pressing, just buyer beware about the track listing if that sort of thing bothers you.

It sounds fine, it’s not great but it’s not terrible. The bonus tracks do not fit and it just throws the momentum of the album off.

Lame. Just lame all around. The bonus tracks stick out like a sore thumb. I know they are period appropriate but there's a reason a song like Stephanie Says was not on the original LP. It doesn't blend with the overall sound and mood. And if you're going to add tracks to an iconic album, put them at the end of the side or on another disk. Don't play God and interrupt the order of the tracks. The searing final chord of Sister Ray should be the last sound you hear on White Light/ White Heat but instead you get the already weak Hey Mr Rain, which now sounds even weaker after the marathon the listener has just experienced. Side 2 is over 26 minutes long now. Talk about groove cramming. The formerly beautiful cover is ruined by the ugly, hand drawn "Vinyl Lovers" logo instead of Verve. This release and their similarly botched and mistreated version of the Velvets Banana LP are both travesties. There are many other reissues of these out there on vinyl and you can easily do better than this.

If you're wondering if the bonus tracks they inserted in the middle of the album fit, they don't. Just avoid this pressing.