Album of the day for Nov 20, 2006

Lou Reed - Berlin (1973)


Lou Reed's Berlin is one of those albums that does everything in its power to be terrible, from the over-embellished production by Bob Ezrin and bombastic drum sound, to Lou's own writing block, and ever-worsening singing voice. Yet despite all its faults, it serves along with 1972's Transformer and 1982's The Blue Mask one of Lou's definitive solo records.


The lush production (most notable on "Men of Good Fortune" and "Lady Day") often veers to the point that it should date the music, but taken in the context of the both time and setting of the album it tends to add to the feel of the record rather than detract from it. The production matches both the decadence of Berlin and that of the Glam scene that Reed helped create, a fact that helps to set the mood of depravity that marks many of the songs.


I have no excuse for the drum sound, I hate it, it doesn't sound like Rock n Roll drumming at all, it just sounds pompous. "How Do You Think It Feels" is perhaps the most noticeable offender.


The seeds of Reed's writer's block which had been planted on his first solo record, Lou Reed, in which he primarily just re-worked some unreleased Velvet Underground tracks for release, become fully evident on this album, as the title track was originally released on Lou Reed. Add to that "Caroline Says II" which is a re-worked version of the Velvet's "Stephanie Says", the acoustic coda on "Oh Jim" mirrors the VU demo "Oh Gin", as does "Sad Song". While it might be unfair to criticize Reed for nicking from his own back catalogue, it does indicate his inability to truly free himself from his Velvet past.


Further evidence of his block is his use of stock phrases such as "2-bit friends" on "Oh Jim" a phrase that would appear on several other Reed songs, and his rhyming of 'vial' and 'vile' on "How Do You Think It Feels", along with many other clunky lyrics. As bad as they seem, they do add a certain charm to the record.


That being said some of Reed's verses are just brilliant, namely "How do you think feels/to always make love by proxy", a fact that helps to justify the excesses and limitations of the record.


This review may sound predominantly negative, but this album is truly a classic. Lou Reed has the rare ability to make records that are greater than the sum of their parts, and this album succeeds in spite of and perhaps because of its faults. That combined with Reed's ability to tell a convincing and engaging story as he does on "The Bed" and "The Kids" both of which are tear-inducing epics.