No. 344: Berlin

Band: Lou Reed
Album: Berlin
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Lou Reed's third album is something of concept album (Robert Christgau calls it a "song cycle") and includes reworkings of Velvet Underground songs and traverses the usual places where Reed is familiar.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: How much Lou Reed do we really need? At some point, how much do we need to hear about heroin, cross-dressing and failed romance?
Best song: "Caroline Says (II)" is pretty good and the title track is great.
Worst song: "How Do You Think It Feels"
Is it awesome?: It's good, sure.

I understand Lou Reed is one of the truly unique voices in rock and roll. I understand that his work with the Velvet Underground is nearly unparalleled in its influence on the underground. I understand that his edginess was incredibly important for the culture.

With all that said, Lou Reed in his post-Velvets days was basically a more guitar-based David Bowie. There's a lot to like about that, but it also gets a little tired.

There's beauty in Reed's soft-spoken vocals on "Caroline Says (II)" and the title track, both reworked versions of earlier Reed songs. The cacophony of "Oh, Jim" is cool, even if the horns are a little much. "The Kids" is a cool experiment, though creepy. "The Bed" is evocative and cool.

But, again, it's all a little trying.

No. 194: Transformer

Band: Lou Reed
Album: Transformer
Why Rolling Stone gets it right: Lou Reed's second post-Velvets album is a wonderful extension of "Loaded" in its simplicity. Reed didn't push any musical boundaries on "Transformer," though, lyrically, he continued to explore the seedier side of humanity.
Why Rolling Stone gets it wrong: Musically, the record is strikingly similar to "Loaded," so I'm not totally clear as to why it needs to be on the list.
Best song: "Satellite of Love" and "Perfect Day" are both pretty great.
Worst song: People like "New York Telephone Conversation," though I'm not clear why.
Is it awesome?: Not really, but it has its moments.

"Transformer" reaks of David Bowie. Bowie and Mick Ronson produced the record, Bowie sings backup on the record, the sax solo on "Take A Walk On The Wild Side" was played by Bowie's sax teacher and Reed appears on the cover of the record in thick eye shadow.

"Transformer" is, in effect, a glam rock record. While that term isn't really indicative of the sound of the record -- anything from the blues stomp of T. Rex to the disco beats of Roxy Music is considered glam -- it does start the transform of American style. Androgyny was becoming the norm and in the '80s, it would become mainstream.

The music isn't anything too exciting. "I'm So Free" is Ziggy-knockoff while "Goodnight Ladies" and "New York Telephone Conversation" are basically just Vaudeville numbers. "Andy's Chest" is some sort of insider Warhol thing while "Vicious" was inspired by Warhol himself. Neither is anything more than a standard rock song.

Nevertheless, "Transformer" has some of Reed's best post-VU work. "Perfect Day" is a beautiful ballad on par with the Velvets' work. "Satellite Of Love" has Bowie's voice deployed well towards the end. "Walk On The Wild Side," the first real chart song about drugs and cross-dressing, features some of Reed's most inventive lyrics.

It's Reed's best solo work (that Pitchfork review never really tells us why it's great, by the way), but that's more like damning "Transformer" with faint praise.