Album of the Day

If the Velvet Underground was notorious for walking on the musical wild side, co-founder Lou Reed had solid commercial instincts honed as a staff songwriter for budget label Pickwick Records. Those instincts came to the fore on 1970's LOADED, the Velvets' final studio album with Lou, and a collection “loaded” with such potential hits as “Sweet Jane” and “Rock And Roll.” With top-notch production and Doug Yule's pop-friendly vocals on several songs, it's arguably the band's most accessible work, and was ranked by Rolling Stone among the 500 greatest albums of all time. Rhino's 5-CD/1-Audio DVD 45th anniversary RE-LOADED edition puts the seminal set into context with stereo and mono versions of the original, a generous selection of demos, early versions and alternate mixes, a remastered LIVE AT MAX'S KANSAS CITY (recorded at Reed's final VU show on this night in 1970) and a previously unreleased concert from Philadelphia's Second Fret club.