Much of the album features instrumental work and songwriting credits from Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, and John Cale. "I'll Keep It with Mine" was written by Bob Dylan, while three songs are by Jackson Browne, who contributed guitar. Wilson added string and flute arrangements against the wishes of Nico.
Some of the accompanists wrote songs for Nico to sing, and these form the backbone of Chelsea Girl. Browne contributed "The Fairest of the Seasons", "These Days", and "Somewhere There's a Feather", while Hardin contributed "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce". "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" by Lou Reed was part of the earliest Velvet Underground repertoire (which did not surface as a Velvet Underground recording until it was included in the 1995 box setPeel Slowly and See), and Reed, Cale and Morrison in various combinations contributed four more songs. Bob Dylan gave her one of his songs to record: "I'll Keep It with Mine".[citation needed]
Chelsea Girl can be described as a cross between chamber folk[1] and 1960s baroque pop.[2] The musical backing is relatively simple, consisting of one or two guitars or, alternatively, a keyboard instrument, played by either Browne or (a combination of) her Velvet Underground colleagues, but there are no drums or bass instruments, hence the absence of Velvets drummer Maureen Tucker, and adding to the chamber folk feel of the music are the string and flute overdubs added to the initial recordings by producer Tom Wilson and arranger Larry Fallon without involving or consulting Nico.[citation needed]
In retrospective 21st-century reviews, AllMusic described the album as "an unqualified masterpiece",[2] while Trouser Press said it "is sabotaged by tepid arrangements and weak production" and is "of interest mainly for its links to the band Nico had just left".[7]Chelsea Girl is listed the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, in which Mary Boukouvalas writes: "The public were unprepared for Nico's experimental art-rock masterpieces and their melancholic ambience, and the album made little impression upon release. But its desolate beauty — and Nico's unique, provocative later work with John Cale — has fascinated subsequent generations." She cited Patti Smith and Siouxsie Sioux as artists influenced by Chelsea Girl.[4]
Nico was dissatisfied with the album. In 1981, she said she could not listen to it. According to Nico, her requests for drums and more guitar were refused, and she disliked the orchestrations: "I didn't like [the strings], but I could live with them. But the flute! The first time I heard the album, I cried and it was all because of the flute."[8]
↑ Pitchfork Staff (August 22, 2017). "The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 15, 2023. ...Chelsea Girl is an even more accessible mix of pop and the avant-garde than the Velvet Underground had yet achieved.
↑ Nico quoted in Dave Thompson's liner notes for the 2002 Deluxe re-issue of The Velvet Underground & Nico, which includes all five Velvet collaborations for Chelsea Girl.
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