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Topic: Lou Reed's worst concept albums Posted: September 24 2016 at 06:19
It's not given to many to release albums (both extended works) that have received simultaneous critical and popular disfavour but Lou managed it. Twice. I think that is some kind of record. Well, both were double volumes.
i.e. not a record company plot but yer actual creativity.
Which, if any of them do you dislike the most?
Your valued input is encouraged.
Oh yes. RIP Lou.
P.S. If there is any which match these for quality do please mention. I've not experienced every album for various reasons which I need not explain just yet. If at all.
P.P.S. I'd include the Velvet's first album for sheer appalling quality of production but latter-day revelations proved the songs were ok once they learned how to play 'em. I do not mean Lou's lie albums when he had a superb band distracting me from his ability to sing out of tune.
P.P.S. Do avoid Lou's former colleague Nico's 2nd and 3rd albums (the record company gave up hope after that). Unless you like endless dirge death music . No, not the good stuff with metal / goth / dress up pop appeal. Oh no. They have no redeeming features (choruses, tunes, interesting bits, any sort of entertainment value, lyrical insight, any sodding thing). Not even pro-Nazi revelations. Nothing but self-pitying whining with har-(moan)-ium accompaniment. No wonder the recording staff resorted to smack use to get through these... sessions. There were extra tracks as well. They have no mercy.
P.P.P.S. RIP Nico.
This is like a, er, concept poll innit. Themed, in parts too. Hopefully more fun than listening to any of these audio travesties. Just, not by much - I know.
By the way Responsible PA Person, if this does not count as a prog rock poll then hide it in the just for fun section. I just saw the polls and went ahead regardless. Hmm, sounds like that Nazi revelations thing....
Joined: October 03 2008
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Posted: September 24 2016 at 10:18
I didn't hate Lulu, I just found it... "bizarre": I couldn't tell if it was a Metallica album with Lou Reed singing or a Lou Reed album with Metallica as a backing band.
Not sure if I'm very clear with that sentence... Let's be clear: for a Metallica album, it was far from the quality of their early albums (Ride the Lightning or Master of Puppets); for a Lou Reed, it sounded out of his style. Yet, strangely, I find the combination of the heaviness of the instrumentation and the outcentered vocals of Lou Reed worked well enough not to shock me.
About Metal Machine Music, even if I know it was a way to end his contract with RCA by saying them to go... "enjoy their inner selves", I still enjoy it. Yes, I enjoy it: it reminds that Reed knew the music of LaMonte Young, and I even tend to think that MMM is the kind of albums that Fripp or Richard Pinhas (Heldon) never dared to record yet...
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Posted: September 24 2016 at 12:18
Lulu fan signing in! Very, very hard to find other fans of it. But it wasn't the disaster so-called collective knowledge has it down. I've lent the album to people who were poets and they thought it was OK. Lent it to non-poets and they were more lukewarm about it. You couldn't fill out stadiums playing it from start to finish, but you could fill out a good couple of theatres.
MMM however, I have to be in a certain mood for that. Probably the bravest album released in turns of what it consists of. And no "Berlin" in the poll?
EDIT: Oh WORST concept albums. That explains no "Berlin" then!
Joined: February 01 2011
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Posted: September 24 2016 at 18:16
Never cared for Lou Reed. The songs that he wrote that were actually worth a damn were played better by someone else, and his best album, Transformer, is only redeemed because David Bowie's fingerprints are all over it.
This version blows away the original:
As does this:
I guess it's just a matter of not being able to stand Lou's voice.
...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
Joined: May 12 2009
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Posted: September 25 2016 at 15:11
Metal Machine Music has some value as an experiment, especially for its time, but Lulu is an abomination. Hudson River Wind Meditations sounds pointless to me, important only to Reed himself.
The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"
Joined: August 22 2010
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Posted: September 25 2016 at 16:06
Hmm...Lou Reed.....being an old fart I was there when VU came out. Some of that was interesting and some of his early solo things early are ok , but I always thought he was a poor singer and musician who wrote a handful of cool songs.
The only album that I still would play would be Rock and Roll Animal....best actual rock album he did.
One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin
Hmm...Lou Reed.....being an old fart I was there when VU came out. Some of that was interesting and some of his early solo things early are ok , but I always thought he was a poor singer and musician who wrote a handful of cool songs.
The only album that I still would play would be Rock and Roll Animal....best actual rock album he did.
Yes, that and Lou Reed Live as both were taken from the same concert.
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Posted: September 27 2016 at 13:09
Lulu
Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect.
I'll give him and Metallica some points for the Lulu idea but recording a couple of guitars feeding back, releasing it as well, is only mitigated by the fact that some people can be talked into anything. Not only liking this rhythym-less, melody bereft disharmonic mess but using it as a real influence. Real effluence actually.
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