Editing The Velvet Underground & Nico (section)

===Contemporary reception===
A capsule review from ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' published ahead of the album's release praised the "haunting" vocals of Nico and the "powerful" lyrics of the band, calling it a collection of "sophisticated folk-rock" and a "left-fielder which could click in a big way."<ref name="billboard-review">{{cite magazine |title=Album reviews |magazine=Billboard |date=March 4, 1967 |volume=79 |issue=9 |pages=8, 40, 43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CykEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40 |access-date=August 17, 2021 |archive-date=August 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817061811/https://books.google.com/books?id=CykEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''Vibrations'', a small rock music magazine, gave the album a mostly positive review in their second issue, describing the music as "a full-fledged attack on the ears and on the brain" while noting the dark lyrics.<ref name="Heylin">{{harvnb|Heylin|2009}}</ref> Wayne Harada of the ''[[The Honolulu Advertiser|Honolulu Advertiser]]'' and Dave Donelly of the ''[[Honolulu Star-Bulletin]]'' both praised the album's banana-sticker cover; the former terming it "the wildest" front cover of any album yet and the latter calling it a [[conversation piece]].<ref name="harada-1967">{{cite journal | last=Harada | first=Wayne | date=March 1, 1967 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/260367717/ | title=On the Record | journal=The Honolulu Advertiser | page=B5 | via=Newspapers.com | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126225141/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/260367717/ | archive-date=November 26, 2021 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=November 27, 2021 }}</ref><ref name="donelly-1967">{{cite journal | last=Donelly | first=Dave | date=March 4, 1967 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/270530558/ | title=The Teen Beat | journal=Honolulu Star-Bulletin | page=B14 | via=Newspapers.com | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126225942/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/270530558/ | archive-date=November 26, 2021 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=November 27, 2021 }}</ref> Harada wrote: "Inside, the eating's good, too: 'Sunday Morning' has a definite psychedelic hit sound. 'Run Run Run' still is another Underground gem gaining ground."<ref name="harada-1967" /> Donelly called the album "not Commercial with a capital 'C' but an experience in sound."<ref name="donelly-1967" /> An anonymous reviewer in the ''[[American Record Guide]]'' praised Reed's lyrics as "penetratingly contemporary", comparing them to the work of Dylan while calling Reed on the basis of the record "an important new (to me) talent". The reviewer also praised the variety in sounds presented by "Sunday Morning", "European Son", and "Heroin" alongside from the more Dylan-esque songs.<ref name="arg">{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=May 1967 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uo0rAQAAIAAJ&q=%22the+sound+is+electronic+and+you+are+going+to+have+to+learn+to+live%22 | title=The Velvet Underground & Nico | journal=American Record Guide | volume=33 | issue=2 | page=893 | via=Google Books | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906152039/https://books.google.com/books?id=uo0rAQAAIAAJ&q=%22the+sound+is+electronic+and+you+are+going+to+have+to+learn+to+live%22 | archive-date=September 6, 2023 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=March 19, 2023 }}</ref>

Meanwhile, [[Richard Goldstein (writer, born 1944)|Richard Goldstein]] of the ''[[The Village Voice|Village Voice]]'', published in Velvet Underground's hometown of New York City, was more reserved in his praise. Goldstein called "There She Goes Again" a "blatant" lift of the [[the Rolling Stones|Rolling Stones]] rendition of "[[Hitch Hike (song)|Hitch Hike]]" and called Reed's vocal performances on other songs "distressingly like early Dylan". However he ultimately wrote that "the Velvets are an important group and this album has some major work [within]", singling out "I'm Waiting for the Man", "Venus in Furs", "Femme Fatale", and "Heroin".<ref name="goldstein-1967" /> Of the latter song, Goldstein wrote:
{{blockquote|
[It] is more compressed, more restrained than live performances I have seen. But it's also more a realized work. The tempo fluctuates wildly and finally breaks into a series of utterly terrifying squeals, like the death rattle of a suffocating violin. "Heroin" is seven minutes of genuine 12-tone rock 'n' roll.<ref name="goldstein-1967">{{cite journal | last=Goldstein | first=Richard | date=October 28, 2013 | orig-date=April 13, 1967 | url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2013/10/28/the-voices-1967-review-of-velvet-undergrounds-debut-album/ | title=The Velvet Underground & Nico | journal=The Village Voice | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127003740/https://www.villagevoice.com/2013/10/28/the-voices-1967-review-of-velvet-undergrounds-debut-album/ | archive-date=November 27, 2021 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=November 27, 2021 }}</ref>
}}

The ''[[The Tampa Tribune|Tampa Tribune]]'' writer Vance Johnston dismissed it as a collection  of "several confusing sounds{{nbsp}}... most depressing and whatever the message I failed to get" but wrote that Warhol aficionados would declare it his best "at any rate".<ref name="johnston-1967">{{cite journal | last=Johnston | first=Vance | date=March 5, 1967 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/331583939/ | title=Connie Francis Swings at Vegas | journal=The Tampa Tribune | page=33 | via=Newspapers.com | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126231235/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/331583939/ | archive-date=November 26, 2021 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=November 27, 2021 }}</ref> Don Lass of New Jersey's ''Asbury Park Evening Press'' was similarly dismissive, finding the music "as lifeless and inanimate as the discarded banana peel, touching every cliche in the rock 'n' roll spectrum while missing the genuine fun that good big-beat renderings can offer."<ref name="lass-1967">{{cite journal | last=Lass | first=Don | date=March 18, 1967 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/143755833/ | title=Singing the Blues | journal=Asbury Park Evening Press | page=B14 | via=Newspapers.com | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126232114/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/143755833/ | archive-date=November 26, 2021 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=November 27, 2021 }}</ref> A staff writer for the ''[[Pensacola News Journal]]'' defined the album overall as "one big savage sound", with its lyrics "equally frenzied": "The result sounds like the merger of [[Dracula]] and some of the long-haired wailers of today".<ref name="pensacola-news-journal-1967">{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=March 19, 1967 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/264111258/ | title=Music Calendar | journal=Pensacola News Journal | page=4D | via=Newspapers.com | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126233557/https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/264111258/ | archive-date=November 26, 2021 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=November 27, 2021 }}</ref> [[John Szwed|John F. Szwed]] of ''[[Jazz & Pop]]'' called the band's performance on the record "tedious despite their ventures into electric viola ''et al''", acknowledging the strength of their "loud whine" but ultimately writing that "something is lost in the translation" in the absence of the visual accompaniments of ''Exploding Plastic Inevitable''.<ref name="szwed-1967">{{cite journal | last=Szwed | first=John F. | date=June 1967 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vnQJAQAAMAAJ&q=%22velvet+underground%22+%22something+is+lost+in+the+translation%22 | title=The Velvet Underground and Nico | journal=Jazz & Pop | page=23 | publisher=Jazz Press | via=Google Books | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906152039/https://books.google.com/books?id=vnQJAQAAMAAJ&q=%22velvet+underground%22+%22something+is+lost+in+the+translation%22 | archive-date=September 6, 2023 | url-status=bot: unknown | access-date=March 19, 2023 }}</ref>