When I'm in the mood to listen to Nico's voice (which isn't all that often) I like playing her music (particularly Chelsea Girl), and I totally think the songs she sang with the Velvet Underground are the best tracks on their first album.
But I can't say I'm a huge fan of her's. She has an interesting and haunting beauty. I personally don't find her attractive (especially after I found out she rotted out her teeth), but she is nevertheless someone who's photos you wanna stare at for a long time and she has a presence. She also has a strange and sad (and off-key, and cold) voice that was put to good use by her collaborators. However, I don't believe she was particularly talented. It's more like...say if Paris Hilton hooked up with the right people rather than hanging out in the goofy circles she does. Nico hooked up with the right people. Andy Warhol wanted to give her 15 minutes, and then she managed to make it a bit more than that.
If you've seen the documentary Nico: Icon, you know she was an awful person. For example, she fed her kid a diet of chips, then addicted him to smack, and when he went into a coma her main concern was to record his heartbeat for a song. (Yet another example of a vegetarian who is a terrible human being. This is so common that I have started to wonder if vegetarianism is sometimes used by people who treat others like shit in order to have some area where they can feel they are a good person.)
I learned a long time ago that you have to separate the artist from their art. But was Nico a great artist, or mostly just an object used by great artists? I think it's the latter, and so I do like playing her songs sometimes, but I consider her more of a prop and instrument.
