Reviews
Ranked #7 on Nme's `Compilations of the Year' List for 1995., Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's.", "...in splendid isolation, it not only eclipses the competition, it raises itself to heights which few (if any) rock boxes have ever attained...", 4 Stars - Excellent - "...All of this fantastic music...very often sheer genius....mind-boggling....The Velvet Underground changed people's values about music...", 9 - Near Perfect - "...The demo makes a valuable and even touching point about this great band....they started out as fakes, which puts them in good rock'n'roll company--from the Stones to Dylan himself. Modern acolytes with nothing to lose but their pretensions should take heart from knowing that, in its recklessly early days, even the Velvet Underground wasn't the Velvet Underground...", 5 Stars - Classic - "PEEL...offers fresh perspectives and some hidden truths, even for longtime Velvets fans...their sonic minimalistic aesthetic...their all-around grasp of rock's roots, vocabulary and resources...makes this some of the most inspirational and ultimately timeless music you'll ever hear...", "...corroborates the notion that the Velvets were big-hearted art fucks perceptive enough to trust the logic of blue-collar ethics....Heard with modern ears, their grizzled guitar extrapolations didn't strive for escapism, they burrowed into and boldly italicized the most interesting cultural anomalies of the day....Value? Immeasurable...", Ranked #1 on the Reissues List of Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll., "...The meat of the package is breathtaking....No other band wrote about the things they did in the '60s,...no other band wore black or took the piss so royally. They changed people's attitudes towards music forever and wrote some fantastic songs about bad things in the process..."
