Originally released in 1985, V.U. fell like manna from heaven for a generation of fans and musicians who had belatedly discovered The Velvet Underground’s genius. Culled from studio outtakes recorded between 1968 and 1969, it presents the band stepping toward the more straight-forward r’n’r melodicism of final album Loaded while keeping one foot in their Warholian enfant terrible past (the hypnotic “Temptation Inside Your Heart” and delicate “Stephanie Says” still feature John Cale). Despite being a posthumously released selection of cast offs, it holds together as an album just as well as any of their towering 60s releases and features some of the best songs the band ever recorded. Lou Reed clearly thought so and would dust many of them off to retool for his solo career the following decade.