(Disclaimer: This review may sound gothically cliched, but it's the honest to Goth truth! Just buy it and listen!)

Nico's The End was way way way WAAAAAY ahead of it's time. It sounds much like Coil's collection of "seasonally adjusted" EP's or Musick To Play In The Dark Vol's 1 & 2. John Cale's avante gardist approach to production and Brian Eno's very spooky modular synth treatments make for a very suggestive atmosphere.

"You Forgot To Answer" sounds like a cold and dark autumn night complete with dead spirits howling into oblivion(synthetiques thanks to Eno) and a very gothic piano composition; it is quite creepy and melancholic with Nico mourning into the darkness. I want to say more about this track, like how it completely conveys despair and smoldering horror, but I can't say it how I want to...so just listen to it.

"Innocent & Vein" is disturbingly noisey: Eno tweaks the modulars into a banshee-like screech which then turns into the sound of batwings fluttering into the night. In this track Nico seems like she has finally become the "Death Angel" that many have called her, being at the front of a brooding mass of black, humming demons(the synths).

"It Has Not Taken Long" has a wonderful chorus of back-up voices providing what sounds like a chilling Christmas carol or pagan chant.

Nico's voice, subject matter and arrangements exist perfectly within this nocturnal and just opressively ominous collection of songs. She writes and composes in a very hypnotic way; two notes at the most, fluctuating back and forth to create a very dreamy and druggy texture. To sum it up(and keep me from writing and ranting endlessly about this beautiful album), this is gothic incantation and invocation personified. Pete Murphy and a dozen vampires couldn't come close to this. There is no pretense here...Nico is real!

Nico's fourth album found her on her fourth label, which says what? That she was too difficult, too uncommercial, too visionary for record companies to market? Or that she was too ornery, naive or lazy to market herself effectively--if at all. As a fan, I like to think the former, but I suspect that the latter traits also contributed at least somewhat to her lack of success. But the times seem to have caught up with Nico to some degree. You see more favorable critical commentary about her now than you ever did when she was alive. Younger people now seem more aware of her music and influence than my generation was twenty-five years ago. Her fourth solo effort may well be the best introduction for the uninitiated. Each song is more haunting than the last. The lyrics are cryptic and often quite jarring ("It has not taken long...to feast our naked eyes upon/ the open plain, the hungry beast). Occasionally, the lyrics take an awkward turn, but as her arranger, John Cale, points out in his recent book, the quality of her writing is astonishing when you consider that English was not her first language. Cale's production is as bold as ever. I consider his work with Nico to be among his best. He was able to give shape and color to her visions. This album is alternately spare ("We've Got the Gold") and lush ("It Has Not Taken Long"). Throughout, it is somber, reflective and profoundly disturbing. It's noteworthy for its Gothic treatment of the Doors "The End" and for its somber, ironic take on "Das Lied der Deutschen" (aka "Deutschland Ueber Alles") but ultimately, her own compositions are the core here. They are haunting, literally unlike anything else you've ever heard.

I had only heard Nico's work with the Velvet Underground before I bought this CD.I love it!Her voice on here is top-notch,the same chilling sound I hoped to hear.The music is extremely dark and scarey,utilizing a minimalist approach with synthesizers(Eno and Cale)painting a BLEAK picture.Guitar and the occasional piano and various percussion accent Nico's tragic and haunting voice.Lovers of experimental music would dig this.

"marble index", "desserthorse" and "the end" are Nico's triology. The standard of these three records are similarly high, but if you force me to choose, I think this one lacks the power of the former two. One of the reason is that the "all star lineup" of Brian Eno and Phil Mazarena interfere with John Cale's stark arrangement in the former two record, and sometimes the synthesizer sound is too dominating and dated (e.g. the secret side... it could be far better)The treatment of The End is in avant-grade genre,as mystic as the original work, yet the sexual theme is diluted and replaced with an intense picture of death. The most hollowing cut is of course "Das Lied Des Deutschen", the Nazi anthem, the image of death is very vivid, the chaotic arrangement suits the theme very well. It's still a good record on its own right, but still I think marble index is better. Of course, if you like Marble index, check this one out too.

These songs are far from depressing. They are evocative, threatening, and they always fill me with light. Granted, they are savage and sparse. They aren't pop songs for happy little people to hum around the water cooler. Most obsessives of Nico have a bit of experience with dark, desperate modes of being. Hell, who doesn't? She isn't a camp picnic for most folks because...well, I don't know why, exactly. Her voice is often majestic and pure. Her lyrics are quite poetic and wonderfully strange. I understand that hers is the number one most requested music at birthday parties for those under 6. That may be just hearsay, though. I dunno.

"It Has Not Taken Long" has the sounds of scraping knives throughout. It is creepy and makes me think of what purpose those knives are meant to be put to. Her lyrics are documents. They evoke circumstances. There is history in her utterances--the kind with carnage and sacrifice. Nothing is watered down.

Eno and Cale bring plenty of sorcery to these songs. "You Forgot To Answer" envelops me in a sublime melancholy that is perfectly intoxicating. "The End" is supremely terrifying--but so are "We've Got the Gold" and "The Valley of the Kings". There is just something about Phil Manzanera's guitar, Eno's spooky keepboard effects, Nico's harmonium/voice, and Cale's percussion on "We've Got the Gold" above all. It all comes together for me and it is menacing and gorgeous.