Transformer

Truly a brilliant, brilliant album. On first listen this blew me away with the tremendously cool (yet often gritty and dark) lyrical prowess of Lou Reed, and the laid-back, confident mix of funky, jazzy, bluesy and often punk influences. This is a must have for anyone's record collection - an amazing album - if you haven't heard any Lou Reed before I'd recommend this. Certainly if you enjoy this it's a must that you then explore his work with the Velvet Underground, which is equally original and equally immense.

A big, big recommendation to get this album coming from this reviewer!

There's an old saying that media exec's have been trotting around for decades, something along the lines of "any publicity's good publicity". I mention this following all of the negative responses 2011's Lulu the now infamous collabaration between Lou Reed and Thrash Metal demigods Metallica recieved last year. It's tempting to think the backlash was exactly what Lou had in mind, considering he's not enjoyed attention this widespread since the release of his 1989 opus "New York".

If my theory is correct, it's interesting to remember there was once a time back in the early 70's, where Lou didn't have to resort to absurd gimmicks to get people listening (Metal Machine Music aside). He just hooked up with the most popular rock musician at the time David bowie (you might of heard of him ) who opted to produce "Transformer" purely on the strength of his groundbreaking work with the Velvet Underground. Lou took the oppurtunity to release a great record that rightfully earned him a new audience for his tales of NYC debauchery.

The Albums two obvious highlights "Perfect Day" seen by some to be Reed's romantacization of his own heroin addiction and "Walk on the Wild Side" a more overt tale of gender bending prostitution hardly need any elaboration. These two songs are probably known by everybody with only a passing interest in rock music never mind Lou Reed and thats not because they've been arbitrarily over played since their release 40 years ago, they have effortlessly stood the test of time quite simply because they're brilliant songs. If they were the only higlights on Transformer than it would probably still be worth owning, fortunately there's also "Vicious" a rollicking opener, with an engaging pulse and sassy attitude that bears a passing resemblance to the VU classic "Sweet Jane". "Satelelite of Love" is another glam rock gem and still a popular favourite with it's alluringly unique melody and memorable coda of backing vocals courtesy of Mr Bowie.

The album slightly falls short of masterpiece status for me though, mainly because of the more insouciant moments throughout it's 37 minutes. Like "Make Up" which is delightfully understated yet a touch too whimsical and "Goodnight Ladies" suffers from a similar problem despite it's charmingly vaudevillian New orleans instrumentation. It's pedantic to focus on some of the minor pitfalls on here though, as everything else sounds great including the two bonus tracks that come with this particular release of the album. If you don't yet have this in your collection you really should not only because it's massively influentual it's also one of the best collections of rock and roll songs you're likely to listen to.

Co-Produced by David Bowie and with a Stella line up of musicians including the awesome guitar of Mick Ronson and the master multi-instrumentalist Herbie Flowers Lou Reed's chronicle of gay life in New York is a classic from the opening riff of 'Vicious' to the Flowers arranged cabaret of 'Goodnight Ladies'.

Needing a boost after the failure of his patchy 'Lou Reed' debut for RCA Reed agreed to allow Bowie to co-produce with guitarist extraordinaire and current Spider, Mick Ronson (this edition of the CD allows you to see how the team turned Reeds rough masters into polished classics with the addition of the acoustic demo versions of 'Hangin' Round' and 'Perfect Day')and what a meeting of minds it was.

Each of the eleven original tracks is a stunner the stand outs being the Herbie Flowers bass dominated 'Walk On The Wild Side' (the title was stolen from the Nelson Algren's novel but the lyrics were about the Factory Set), Reed is quoted as saying that this song was so edited in the States that only the 'Doo, Doo Doo's were left)), the simply orchestrated and beautiful 'Perfect Day', the chugging mettle that is the angst ridden 'Vicious', the joyful menace that is Hangin' Round' and the fabulously camp 'Satellite Of Love'.

If you already have a copy of this album buy it for the extra tracks, if you don't have it, start your Lou Reed collection here.