Is Coney Island Baby the best Lou Reed album?
 

Every other one I tap into leaves me disappointed. They all have great songs but I can't find another one that reaches that level of near-perfection.

Metal Machine =)

I listened to 'Rock and Roll Heart' and 'Street Hassle' today for the umpteenth time.

Sometimes I'm reminded (especially with Rock and Roll heart) of those jaunty late-period Dylan albums that sound like the theme for Mr Belvedere.

Are these late night albums for punk rock women in the late 70s? I feel like there is something I'm not getting.

inb4 THE KING

This is a great conversation we're having here.

Blue Mask doesn't do anything for you?

A lot of the time guitar playing on these solo records that isn't Reed sounds real bad to me Robert Quinn (Voidoids wooh!) does alright though

Yea the guitar playing on Blue Mask is good. My problem is that there aren't any perfect albums. All of them are plagued by shitty songs placed next to great ones.

Coney Island can't be "the one".

Maybe that's the learning curve. You have to deal with shitty songs to appreciate the really good ones.

Rock and Roll Heart has 2-3 great songs and 2 mediocre ones and the rest are basically garbage.

I assume the first two albums don't count being 80% VU songs or so

or you got something against Transformer

Sometimes I feel like he's given too much credit. Like if BC continued making solo albums I'm sure none of them would have been as great as any SP album. Let's face it. He's a great songwriter but he's nothing without the band.

they don't count because they were re-recorded VU songs

Transformer is shit. Too much Bowie gender-bender influence of the times if you ask me. Too much theatrics, not enough solid tunes.

There's a reason those songs were left on the VU cutting room floor.

I guess I shouldn't complain - Neil Young only has a few perfect albums too

And the rest are spotty and mostly shit

I think "How do you think it feels" is one of the greatest songs I've ever heard even though Steve Hunter's tone is so cheeseball and there's a gratuitous solo idk it starts off classic

Transformer is gorgeous you've lost me now

youtube's new embed feature is fucking garbage. i hate everything.

listening now.

I just don't understand where this whole showtune vibe came from.

feel like it's a Broadway type thing

I can't believe that he went from VU to this in the studio, suddenly directing brass instruments and such. Is Bowie to blame? Can't be.

Who's fucking idea was it to put an orchestra behind almost every Lou Reed solo song?

If it was done well I would be behind it 100%. It mostly sounds stupid.

men of good fortune auto-played next. solid good song.

why all the previous showtune bravado?

fucking song features a harpsichord

FOR REAL THOUGH this was Bowies problem too. Lots of great songs, but not enough solidly amazing albums.

This is the problem with late-70s pop music, you have a bunch of idiot ex-rock and rollers trying to make sophisticated music. most of it falls completley fucking flat.

are you into John Cale solo stuff

very much agree with this