Shake Well Before Opening

Bottom/ Loaded (Cotillion Records) is the fourth album released by American rock band The Velvet Underground. The album was released in September, 1970, one month after Lou Reed had left the band. Loaded is a commercial effort aimed at radio play, another step away from the Warhol-influenced days. The album's title refers to Atlantic's request that the band produce an album "loaded with hits". The album holds two of the best-known Velvet Underground songs, "Sweet Jane" and "Rock and Roll." When bassist John Cale was eased out of The Velvet Underground in 1968, Doug Yule (who had befriended the band in 1967) joined as Cale's replacement. Yule's contribution to their third album, The Velvet Underground (1969) was considerable, and his distinct melodic style suited Reed's desire to move into a more mainstream direction. On Loaded, his role became even more prominent, singing lead vocals on several songs on the LP (Loaded’s spin-off single "Who Loves The Sun", "New Age", and "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'"), and playing six instruments (including keyboard and drums). Reed was critical of the album's final mix. After its release, Reed discovered that Loaded had been re-edited and resequenced without his consent. The band essentially dissolved while recording the album, and Reed walked off just before it was finished. Almost three decades later, the album would be reissued as "Fully Loaded" with the edits restored and all versions included. In 2005, Loaded was #109 on Rolling Stone's reissue of their 500 greatest albums of all time. Middle/ Tommy is the fourth album by the English rock band The Who, released by Track and Polydor in the United Kingdom and Decca and MCA in the United States. A double album telling a loose story about a "deaf, dumb, and blind boy" who becomes the leader of a messianic movement, Tommy was the first musical work to be billed overtly as a rock opera. Released in 1969, the album was mostly composed by guitarist Pete Townshend. It has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The cover is presented as part of a triptych-style fold-out cover. All three of the outer panels of the triptych are spanned by a single pop art painting by Mike McInnerney. The drawing is a sphere with diamond-shaped cutouts and an overlay of clouds and seagulls rendered with a figure-ground ambiguity similar to that in the work of M. C. Escher. Top/ It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah (Radioactive, 1995) by alt-dance band Black Grape from England was Shaun Ryder's first musical project after the disintegration of Happy Mondays, due to his multiple drug addiction. The album cover featured a photograph of international terrorist Carlos the Jackal colored in pop art style. Shaun Ryder appears on "挑戦 (DARE)", a single by Gorillaz from their 2005 album Demon Days.