10 Masterpiece Albums Everyone Ignored

The Velvet Underground might be the ultimate example of a band that everyone got after the fact. Ever since they hit the New York music scene in the late '60s, their mix of avant garde, poetry, and rock and roll became the blueprint for the more abrasive side of the genre. Even though their self-titled debut with Nico gets celebrated as a classic nowadays, White Light/White Heat certainly gives it a run for its money.

For the uninitiated rock fan, that kind of assessment would sound awful seeing how cluttered and noisy this album is. While one track to the next feels like its about to fly off the rails, it actually works to the advantage of the songs in a way that nothing else has. From the opening title track's random bits of distortion to Lou Reed being louder than any of the other instruments on Lady Godiva's Operation, you can tell that these musicians are at their wit's end, trying everything they can to push the music forward.

Nowhere is this experimentation more apparent than on Sister Ray, where everyone spends nearly 20 minutes creating as much sonic chaos as they can as Reed pleads towards whatever sick pleasure he can find. The Velvet Underground might not have been the rock band that many people wanted in the '60s, but the inner rage behind White Light/White Heat might have been what they needed.