John Cale looking very bespoke on the cover of "Paris 1919"

Paris in the year 1919 saw the victorious of WWI (USA, Italy, Britain, France) banding together to form the Council Of Four to hammer about a peace treaty with Germany after the Great War. Why Velvet Underground co-founder, John Cale chose "Paris 1919" as the title of one of his greatest albums escapes me but I do know I've come to adore the musical excursion unspooled here. I downloaded "Paris 1919" by mistake while searching for some bracing John CAGE but I love the genteel, faded quality of these songs, most notably "Antartica Starts Here", a whispered masterpiece that manages to be both nostalgic and sinister. Think of Paris 1919 as an elegy to the world that was destroyed with WWI, all that Hapsburg splendor and the politesse that was so treasured in that culture. Litearary pop music is so hard to find but this is Album No 1 in that category for me.