The Rewind Button is a group blogging project that I’m participating in. We’re taking on Rolling Stone‘s Top 40 albums of all time and writing our own reviews of them. There will be a new album and review each Thursday (or there about).

My first band, Kilted Yak*, ended a lot of our shows with a cover of “Sister Ray.” We chose that song because Joy Division used to cover it, and we were obsessed with White Light/White Heat, the Velvet Underground’s second album.

I didn’t bother listening much to the band’s first, self-titled album. I wanted the chaos and noise of their second album, not the prettiness of Nico’s voice glossing over Lou Reed’s tales of dirty streets and deeds. Over time, though, The Velvet Underground and Nico has become a regular rotation in my personal playlist.

The songs sound familiar, and they never get old. They don’t sound dated. I suspect this album will sound as relevant 500 years from now as it is today, because there is no expiration date on humanity’s obsession with sex and life’s underbelly. As long as we have rebels, we’ll have people influenced by this album, wanting to emulate it, wanting it for the soundtrack of their lives.

Dave Lefebvre, over on MusicQwest, says he feels cool listening to this album. I do, too. Great albums have swagger that jumps from the songs into the listener, giving him a feeling of invincibility. Let me listen to some Velvet Underground, and I won’t take shit from anyone.

On my recent vacation, I found myself in a Copenhagen bar called Floss. It’s a small, narrow bar upstairs, with a young, party-worn clientele. But make your way to the back and down the spiral staircase. There you will find a huge room housing pool tables and sofas beneath a haze of cigarette smoke. This is the place for an album like The Velvet Underground and Nico. Put it on repeat, grab a two-dollar Tuborg beer and chalk your cue stick. You’ll feel like the world’s coolest person, no matter who you really are.

*Who can guess where our band name came from?

BONUS: Check out this bootleg, Live at End Cole Ave., a 1969 Velvet Underground show from my city, Dallas.

Please visit these other blogs participating in The Rewind Button project: