John Cale
John Cale: Mercy review – the titan of cool misses a trick
The 80-year-old’s latest album features some inspired younger guests but cries out for less dated beats and a visionary producer
Kitty Empire
21, Jan, 2023 @2:00 PM
‘Humanity hit a brick wall’: John Cale on the Velvets, Nico, Covid and a gun-ridden world gone bad
As he hits 80 and releases a softly raging album inspired by the ugliness of the pandemic years, the ever restless and eternally avant-garde musician unburdens himself
Chal Ravens
18, Jan, 2023 @4:09 PM
The best new music to look forward to in 2023
Yo La Tengo, Billy Nomates, Låpsley and Paramore have hotly anticipated albums due out – while the BBCSO puts on an Everest opera and Simon Rattle waves goodbye to the Barbican
Alexis Petridis and Andrew Clements
29, Dec, 2022 @6:00 AM
The outsider’s outsider: John Cale by Cate Le Bon, Gruff Rhys and James Dean Bradfield
Before they take to the stage with Cale for his 80th birthday concert, the three reflect on how Wales’s greatest living musician subverted what it means to be a Welsh musician
Huw Baines
26, Oct, 2022 @2:44 PM
Lou Reed: Words & Music, May 1965 review – revelatory early cuts
The 23-year-old Reed and John Cale try things out for size in this treasure trove of previously unreleased demos
Kitty Empire
18, Sep, 2022 @8:00 AM
Laurie Anderson on Lou Reed’s lost demo tape: ‘He really wasn’t that interested in his past’
While sorting through her husband’s belongings, Anderson found a remarkable recording from 1965 that reveals the influence of Dylan, the seeds of the Velvet Underground – and a surprising sense of humour
Alexis Petridis
08, Sep, 2022 @3:00 PM
Lou Reed’s earliest Velvet Underground demos unearthed for reissue
Recordings from May 1965 were sealed for nearly 50 years, and reveal folk-like renditions of songs including I’m Waiting for the Man and Heroin
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
06, Jun, 2022 @12:02 PM
‘They didn’t go round the corner for beer’: Lou Reed and John Cale’s Songs for Drella
After years of estrangement, the two Velvet Underground musicians decided to make a record and filmed concert about their mentor Andy Warhol. Director Ed Lachman talks about how he captured the pair in action
Alex Needham
14, Apr, 2022 @1:56 PM
Songs for Drella review – Lou Reed and John Cale’s moving journey into Warhol
The filmed 1990 reunion of Reed and Cale performing their spiky album testament to Warhol was thought lost
Leslie Felperin
12, Apr, 2022 @12:00 PM
Todd Haynes: ‘This world is too cosy. Except cosy is almost too cosy a word’
Making a documentary about the Velvet Underground transported the film-maker to a ‘distant planet’ and more radical time. He talks about his envy of musicians, the spirit of Factory-era New York and ‘our lost spirit of revolt’
Xan Brooks
07, Oct, 2021 @2:00 PM
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song review – the inimitable mysteries of music
Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine’s respectful doc tells the story of the artist through the life of his 1984 song, by turns a modern prayer, symbolist poem and divine gift
Xan Brooks
03, Sep, 2021 @12:00 PM
The Velvet Underground review – Todd Haynes doc gets under the art-rockers’ skin
With insights by the band’s former members and friends, this film takes its job seriously – even if it shies away from discordant notes
Peter Bradshaw
07, Jul, 2021 @10:05 PM
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