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- Vaishnavi

With unconventional lyrics and tune, Velvet Underground’s third album, which is self titled, has one of the most underrated tracks of all. It is the song Murder Mystery. An extremely complex and conflicted song with overlapping parts and mysterious, incomprehensible and sometimes even nonsensical lyrics, Murder Mystery is a must listen. It has narratives of all four band members and the song runs to nearly 9 minutes.

It almost seems like the bandmates are giving alibis or their own views about how an incident occurred with clashing, incoherent viewpoints. It almost seems like this number is an audio poem or a story with tunes and instruments added to enhance the effect. With phrases like “silkscreen fantastic”, “denigrate obtuse and active verbs pronouns” and “objections suffice apelike” and “tactile bassoon oboeing me cordon the virus’ section”, we can see the creativity and presentation of the lyricists, almost as if they decided to compete with the likes of Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl while spouting what seems like nonsense in the first listen, but seemingly makes sense progressively.

The whole track creates an entire alternate reality using an extra extreme metallic style. However, while the song in the first listen doesn’t seem to be a typical Velvet song, on close analysis, we can unearth the unique aspects of the band - wild, edgy and a play with a melange of vocals and instruments.

Though this album might not be considered one of their best, it is a quintessential representation of their sound and style. With Murder Mystery making references to the death of pop, to fantastic lyrics that bring forth stunning visuals, it makes us connect colours, sounds and feels to one single element. Though the theme of the song is unclear, with some parts seeming to bear no connection to the title of the song, it is still regarded as a masterpiece due to its effect on listeners. While some parts are vague, seeming to be random words thrown about in haste, or a faint attempt at keeping up a difficult-to-discern rhyme scheme, the song has baffled many a theorist at coming up with a solid explanation to every single verse.

While we will keep on ruminating the words in our mind, Murder Mystery continues to enthrall and provide food for thought to all those whose senses it comes in contact with, giving an almost synesthetic feel to it.

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