| | Nico Marble Index CD Nico Discography of CDs
 (3 Customer Reviews)
At the time that Nico released her first album, Chelsea Girl, in 1968, she was the toast of the Warhol crowd, a familiar face in the society pages, featuring in fashion magazines throughout the Western world. By the time The Marble Index appeared the following year, her record label advances went largely towards medical bills, as her beauty and talent diminished in the face of something very familiar to the Warhol crowd: a heroin habit. Produced by former Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale, The Marble Index established Nico as a songwriter. Her gothic compositions, intoned in her unearthly voice, captured all too well the angst of one whose much-heralded looks hid a soul that was unable to allow itself to feel or express love.
Live Recording
Includes liner notes by Richard Williams.
Personnel includes: Nico (vocals, harmonium).
Uncut (p.92) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "THE MARBLE INDEX isn't a record you listen to. It's a hole you fall into....One of that rare breed of recordings which, the better part of four decades later, still has no adequate peer, existing in a genre all of its own."
The Wire (6/00, pp.35-6) - "...[A] glacial classic....shimmering song-mirages which disappear with the harmonium's dying notes..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.108) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Freed from pop conventions, Nico wrote stark, symbolist lyrics that appear to have issued from her subconscious..." Marble Index Music Review Average Rating: (4 out of 5 stars)  Amazing Nico
This is an amazing release. My Dad got me listening to this and I love "Frozen Warning". Thanks Dad.
Submitted by Gavin Heim (Irvine, CA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 1 found this helpful.  Haunting and bleak, icy and cold - but beautiful
Nico's 'THE MARBLE INDEX' is one of the most important albums of the rock era. It is timeless and unique, thanks in part to John Cale's decision not to go with any fashionable production techniques.
Instead, the album is a relentlessly bleak and icy run-through of ancient, archaic medieval-style dirges...but the result is strangely beautiful. Nico's voice, deep and brooding, is perfect to deliver these dark, cold, enigmatic songs. It's a world away from the high-fashion chanteuse of The Velvet Underground, largely because here she's singing all her own material.
Her harmonium accompaniment is sparse and brutal, and Cale's arrangements are alternately stark and delicate, but always haunting. The effect is similar to imagining Nico playing these songs in an ancient cathedral in the 14th century. Her melodies are simple but European and achingly beautiful, and her imagery vivid and unusual. It's a stunning, challenging album that deserves a larger audience.
Submitted by Lee (England, UK)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
 Unique and matchless voice
The most important woman singer and composer in the rock history for all time. Unique and matchless voice.
Submitted by verklarung (Medellin, Colombia)
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Purchase Marble Index CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Nico Chelsea Girl CD (1968)
Marble Index
 $6.89  
Nico first became known in the music world as a singer on the first Velvet Underground album, and her later solo records would plumb even darker depths than that famed New York band of iconoclasts. Her first solo album, CHELSEA GIRL, however, is another matter entirely. It's a delicate collection of orchestral pop and chamber folk, with Nico's deep, Teutonic voice adding a subtle sense of discord. Like many interpreters of the time, Nico took on tunes by some of the era's ...
| | Elliott Smith Xo CD (1998)
Marble Index
$11.99 
The Cinderella-esque climb from lo-fi indie cult artist to Grammy nominee/major label darling must have been a perilous one for Smith, who makes the leap to the big time here after three well-regarded albums on small labels. He's lost none of his bite, though. The production values on XO may be slightly higher, but Smith's vision remains undiluted.
The production, centered around acoustic guitar augmented by keyboards and lush vocal harmonies, recalls pop icons like the Beach Boys (especially on the closing acapella cut), Beatles and Big Star, but this is no sunny Cali-pop album. Leavening the instrumental brightness are Smith's Nick Drake-ish whisper and his thoroughly downcast lyrics, which cast him squarely in the Mark Eitzel/Smog camp of unrelenting self-effacement and misery. The combination of Smith's internal angst and his ...
| | John Cale Paris 1919 CD (1973)
Marble Index
$10.39 
PARIS 1919 is considered by many critics (and Cale fans) to be his best. Released in 1973, 1919 was recorded in Los Angeles with members of Little Feat, Wilton Felder and the UCLA Orchestra, and stands as one of the best "rock/classical" fusions, mainly because Cale (who is a classically-trained musician) avoids the heavy-handed pomp and pretensions that besiege so much "art-rock." He also manages to maintain the qualities of tunefulness and whimsy.
His lyrics are absurdist/Dadaist-style poetry and word play, sung in a plaintive, unaffected, almost choirboy style. The songs have a longing, haunted feel to them-"Half Past France" is a perfect distillation of the musings that often accompany late-night travel. Throughout, ...
| | Nico Desertshore CD (1970)
Marble Index
$10.35
Nico is the German-born model/actress who became part of the Warhol Crowd and a vocalist on the Velvets' first album. She soon left the band and ventured out on her own as an avant-garde soloist. DESERTSHORE, produced by John Cale, is highly atmospheric music making, with crashing percussion and droning harmonium. Nico's decisive vocals wail and wind through an ambient adventure of obscure self-penned songs. "Afraid," gracefully backed by acoustic piano is by far the most accessible.
There's a dry timbre to her vocals which is reminiscent of Marianne Faithfull, but DESERTSHORE is more performance-oriented, set in a more textured setting. Nico's influence might be more wide-ranging than one might think; it sounds like many contemporary female rockers have some of her solo records next to well-worn copies of THE VELVET ...
| | Arcade Fire Funeral CD (2004)
Marble Index
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Favorably compared to the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, and Broken Social Scene, the Arcade Fire's sound seems to come from a lifetime of listening to the Cure, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, and many others--even a dose of soul gets worked into these grand anthems. Chassagne delivers some spellbinding vocals on ...
| | Best Of George Kranz CD (2000)
Marble Index
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| | Deftones Around The Fur CD (1997)
Marble Index
$9.95
AROUND THE FUR, the follow-up to Deftones' passionate, aggressive ADRENALINE, sees the California quartet expanding on the sheer rage of their earlier work, adding new, more sinister shades to their already extreme sound. The opening "My Own Summer (Shove It)," serves as an introduction to the album's sonic theme: sinewy guitars and ...
| | Smooth Grooves CD (1999)
Marble Index
$8.19
| | Big Head Todd Sugarloaf U.S.A. -Carrabassett Valley, Me CD (2006)
Marble Index
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Live Recording
| | Modern Talking Nur Das Beste CD (2006) (Import) Germany
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| | Switch 20th Century Masters The Millenium Collection: The Best Of CD (2001) Remastered
Marble Index
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Originally released on Gordy Records. Includes liner notes by A. Scott Galloway.
Throughout the '90s, alt-rock pioneer Perry Farrell became caught in the DJ culture emerging from the underground and slowly permeating the mainstream. Two years after the nasally singer contributed a pair of drum-and-bass-driven tracks to the Jane's Addiction/Porno For Pyro compilation REV, the father of Lollapalooza returned with a solo debut more steeped in electronica and shaped by a renewed interest in his Jewish background.
Aided by an array of talent including reggae legend Mad Professor, Jane's guitarist Dave Navarro, PFP's Martyn LeNoble and Jon Brion, Farrell hop-scotches through a number of different dance-driven styles. "Seeds" is a light, swirling stab at Orb-flavored techno, ...
| | Santino Nadie Es Como T CD (2007) (Import)
Marble Index
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| | Family Values: The Biggest Show Of Stars For '98 CD (1999)
Marble Index
$5.69
Recorded live at Patriot Center, Fairfax, Virginia on October 31, 1998 and Uno Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana on October 18, 1998.
Like the H.O.R.D.E. and Lilith Fair concert spectacles, the 1998 Family Values tour zeroed in on its market and presented the artists most admired by the target audience. In this case, the musical order of the day is the cross-section ...
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