Transformer

2.5

It's like Lou thinks he can sing, but he can't. Then everyone else thinks he can sing too, for some reason, so he made a bunch of people like him, and all he does is ramble on with music going on in the background.

Just not crazy bout his voice

Apart from perfect day and walk on the wild side there is a lot of clunky wobbly voiced shenanigans on this record. It would be trendy to say this is a great record. It really isn't though. Reeds voice is enough to set a thousand car alarms off. A mercy killing would be to pick up the lp and throw it against the wall. Its a 2 song album.

This sucks. Never heard of lou reed before, had zero expectations. But the album cover evoked the feeling this would be very boring and it was right. This man isnt singing, hes just reading the lyrics to the rhythm. With a very soulless voice, might i add. Theres just something annoying and creepy about his voice. At every song i was asking why anyone would make this music. What was the vision, please tell me as i cant see it. Now that i am familiar with lou reed, i know to avoid him like the plague. Thank you, 1001 albums I would give a 0/5 if i could.

Nope. Not for me.

This is album is masterfully produced and recorded. This is the conclusion of anything good I have to say about it. The only worse album I have encountered on this list was a Velvet Underground album. There's a common thread here, and it's "Lou Reed fucking sucks." The Velvet Underground album, I wish I could have rated zero stars. Since this one is better than that, it has earned the one star I'm giving it ⭐

Bit too old and not really my taste

Some boring white guy talking over guitar

it’s annoying i’m sorry, i’m not in the 70s rock and roll phase anymore and his voice is quite grating. struggled to get past the first song. unable to appreciate it 2/10

Basic ass lyrics, maybe it was before my time. Best song is Walk on the Wild Side. Will probably lever listen again. If anything ATCQ made Lou Reed more famous.

We’ve listened to a ton of artists so far on this list, lots that I’ve enjoyed, many more that I’ve found to be unenjoyable for one reason or another. I’ve yet to find another vocalist that I despise more than Lou Reed. His vocalizations are just unreasonably annoying. I can’t even put my finger on why, but something about the way he enunciates words in his music is absolutely infuriating. From a songwriting perspective this album is vapid, bland, and frankly just fucking bad. Musically it’s boring, predictable, and just simple in the worst way possible. I don’t ever want to hear Lou Reed again. You should know that my 1* rating is incorrect, as it being above 0 implies some sort of redeeming qualities, but there just isn’t any. 1-5* rating is a mathematically flawed system and this album deserves negative stars.

Are you kinda curious about this whole “music” thing, but find it overwhelming and scary when people use words with more than two syllables? Do you think singing is overrated, and that simplicity doesn’t always need to be elegant? Do you think controversial lyrics are a good substitute for something approaching a point? If you answered “yes” to any or all of these questions, this might be the album for you! With such titillating lines as “the funny thing is what happened to her nose / it grew until it reached all of her toes / now when people say her feet smell, they mean her nose”, this album has the nutritional value for mind and soul as some oxycontin-laced children’s cereal poured with rotten milk.

more like Boo Reed

Practically noise

"And the colored girls say Doo, doo-doo, doo-doo [you think this album is kinda bad]?"

Track 1 (Vicious) Didn't care for it Track 2 (Andy's Chest) Flop Track 3 (Perfect Day) isn't bad - not going to listen to again Track 4 (Hangin' Around) Didn't care for it. Track 5 (Walk on the Wild Side) Had its moments, mostly boring. Track 6 (Make Up) I don't care for Track 7 (Satellite of Love) Best track so far, might save Track 8 (Wagon Wheel) Actually this might be the best track... still mid Track 9 (New York Telephone Conversation) Feels like an ok "glue" track, not really sure what it's gluing together... Track 10 (I'm So Free) Too long, don't care Track 11 (Goodnight Ladies) Too long, didn't care for it Struck me as minimalist. I didn't care for the musicality. I didn't care for the choice of instruments or mixing. I'm not a super fan of these intentionally "low-effort" styles of singing, especially when it's an entire album of that. Maybe the message was important back then... but that doesn't mean I have to like it today. This album is already on the shorter end, yet I felt like most of the tracks were overstaying their welcome. 1/5

I don't like this song because of what he is saying . I don't like any of the song I do not recommend it .

the first song started off weird I don't like it just from hearing it in the first few lyrics its buns why are the lyrics like that they is weird cs why is it saying hey babe or smth idk its bad I would never want to hear this song again. this song is buns I don't like this type of music js to lyk its really bad don't ever play anything like this again.

Nope. Absolutely not. This is considered good music?

I don't really like this. Not terrible but not for me.

I pretty much hate this. Mostly what I dislike has to do with his vocal performance, which I understand doesn't make sense with my status as a big fan of The Strokes, since everyone thinks Reed and Casablancas apparently sound alike? I see it a little bit in the delivery but Casablancas actually legitimately sings. Reed doesn't, even when he sings intelligible notes. I was really surprised to recognize two songs. I would maybe listen to one of these songs again. The only song I truly like his performance on that I've heard is "Some Kind of Nature" by Gorillaz. And after hearing the Velvet Underground and Nico and now Transformer, I'm feeling like that must've been autotuned or otherwise digitally altered. If nothing else, there his voice is surrounded or carried by much more lush instrumentation (and Damon Albarn's voice) than anywhere else.

Not for me. 1/5

Boring album. Did not like at all.

Fun Fact: this album is completely unavailable for streaming on any Chinese music apps. I had to use YouTube instead. I would like to think this restriction has nothing to do with the trans symbology of the cover, and is simply because this album is so bloody boring.

"Walk on the Wild Side" Today's Democrat theme song. Way ahead of its time. Sorry Lou. The Glam Rock genre did not move me.

Didn't like

70’s

Weak vocals, forgettable songs, and severely dated lyrics rendered this album embarrassing to listen to. Some good instrumentals keep it afloat (Perfect Day is a great song, and the last minute of Satellite of Love is really hypnotic), but I could get better versions of these experiences on a David Bowie release. And the colored girls go: "Meh, I'll pass." 1.4/5 -> 1/5

At first this sounded alright but the more it went on the more irritating I found it. Some of the lyrics are absolutely shit and Lou Reed was a right mardy twat.

Not for me

It bored me to death. That's all.

Для меня - обычный балладно-блюзовый проходняк. Довольно попсово и в плане текстов, и в плане музыки, не нашел в предложенном альбоме ничего цепляющего, кроме Vicious - отдающей панк-настроением, чувствуется некая искренность в этой песне. Забавной для меня оказалась Goodnight Ladies, где присутствуют джазово-блюзовые настроение + кабаре, со смешными текстами. Супервкусовщина, не знаю, как это можно было записать в альбомы, обязательные к прослушиванию до смерти. Потому что при прослушивании хочется, чтобы смерть наступила быстрее, а это первый альбом, с которым я познакомился из списка. Хотя следующие работы музыканта мне нравятся больше. Общая оценка - 2/10

No likey.

Perfect Day and Take a Walk on the Wild Side are by far the best thing about this album. Weirdly sounds like either Bowie or show tunes for the rest of it. Vicious for the former, Goodnight Ladies for the latter. Not sure how I feel about it over all. If it wasn’t for the two classic songs, I think I’d hate it - his voice grates. In fact, this has made me dislike the only Lou Reed songs I already knew. 3/10

I hate Lou Reed's singing, makes every song either instantly more boring or like you have slugs in your ears. Whatever salvageable song this album may have is immediately followed by the most annoying slimy garbage it's a shame really. Stand-out: I'm So Free

How is Lou Reed as popular as he is/was. This is awful

Can't stand the vocals. The only songs I could stand to listen to were Perfect Day and Take a Walk on the Wild Side. TaWotWS is only listenable if I can block out the vocals. Love the groove and the sax solo. The rest of the album was painful to listen to. 1 star, bumped up from 0 stars because: 1) This site won't let you give 0 stars, and 2) those

I actively hated the lyrics of every song on this album. I wouldn't mind listening to instrumental versions, though.

Not great. I was not a fan of his voice. A few recognisable songs but overall did not enjoy

OHHH WALK ON THE WILD SIDE IS SAMPLED BY A TRIBE CALLED QUEST still don't like it

meh

the most interesting thing about this album was ATCQ sampling walk on the wild side and i think that says enough

i do not like it :/

Uncomfortable to listen to

Nicht meine Art von Gesang

Not my thing

Interesting but really annoying

I've never understood the appeal of Lou Reed's campy lyrics. Transformer has never struck me as being the seminal albums many people bill it as. The songwriting is basic, lyrics are amateurish, the recording quality is mediocre, and there was much better music being produced at the time. How this ever made it to release is beyond me.

Some ok instrumentation but awful singing.

Might be my least favorite album ever.

Not a fan… couldn’t make it all the way through the album lol

One song. Don't really care for Lou otherwise.

Not so much a music album, more like talking style poetic lyrics. Songs out of tune really because it came across more like talking vs singing.

oh my god this shit is so boring lmaoo

Not a fan. Lyrics in "Walk on the Wild Side" turned raunchy.

Whew. Not a fan. I'm not a fan of his voice, which made getting into the lyrics difficult. But even at that, I wasn't very into the lyrics either :). Instrumentation was ok, but not necessarily in my wheelhouse. 1 down, only 1000 more to go!

Just odd....the tunes were somewhat catchy....but the lyrics were dark. Nothing really got me excited. Sorry.

I'm really not sure why this album made the list. It honestly sounds like it was made by a local band in a small town. Unrefined. Singing and lyrics are cringy. Not a fan.

Sleep inducing

bleh

So far this is not something I am enjoying listening to. The singing seems lazy and it's not very catchy. Maybe it's just not my style of music? Overall this just isn't very good music, lyrics, or singing. It all sounds lazy and is not very catchy at all. Nothing is drawing me into it. Pretty amazed at all of the high reviews and praise. It's like my ears are hearing something completely different. 1 out of 5 is being generous.

I think I liked Bob Dylan better.

Walkin on the Wild Side theme from Dewey (Malcolm in the Middle)

Meh

Didn't grab me.

Boring

At the time I rated this, the average rating was 3.74. That's 3.74 too much. This is a piece of garbage. I can't think of anything positive to say about, except Walk on the Wild Side has a cool bass line. People stop fooling yourselves. This is not good. Least hated song: Walk on the Wild Side.

Not again... As bad as I expected!

might be one of the worst albums I have ever heard "new york phone conversation" or whatever the album was called was so fucking dumb I wanted to singe all my nerve endings

Don't like Lou Reed. I think he's an annoying, pretentious ass.

Not for me

I don’t like Lou Reed

Meh…

I can't definitively tell you that the Velvet Underground is the worst music I've ever heard. But I wouldn't argue against it. I'm still angry that I got 2 VU albums in one week last month so getting Lou Reed today makes for a frustrating morning - but let's go, surprise me, Lou, you jackass. I knew the big hit of course but nothing else. Fortunately the album isn't nearly as awful as the sonic sewer of VU (how could it be). The music here is just fine at best - nothing totally unlistenable [yes my bar was extremely low this morning] but also not really ever interesting. And of course now we have to talk about the vocals - I'm never going to get around the double feature of Lou's dry (and fng terrible, just 100% terrible) vocals with distractingly-weird and awful lyrics. Having said that...if you're someone who really zeroes in on unorthodox / unsettling or weird lyrics (e.g. drugs, sexuality, etc.) - I could see the appeal here on that level. For me I'm always going to connect with the music first and it's just not enjoyable. So yes - this is not anywhere close to what I like in rock music and another 1 for Lou. If he's on this list again at all let alone anytime soon I'm calling the editors. 2/10 1 star.

Lou took a Walk on the Wild Side before it was hip to do so. That was one of my favorite so many years ago. Different piece of work can’t say I was impressed, just different🤔 Album cover is so boring… he should have followed his “wild Side” theme and done something way out there.

could not tolerate. Not music

my account

What a piece of trash! The awkwardness of the band trying to play a nice tune while the lead singer is raping the microphone is too much. At the start of each song he seems to pick a note and just sticks with that, barring half a note up and down once in a while. The Beastie Boys made horrible music, but at least they didn't claim they could sing - they just had a fun time recording. This dude is so much worse in that he had potential of producing nice music, if only he would shut the flip up and let his band play. Disliked, unsubscribed!

One of my fave albums. Satellite of Love ranks in my top 5 songs.

Samey, but fun I like some of the jazzy instrumentation. Reminds me heavily of Pavement's Terror Twilight, also Strokes-y. A sort of apathy/ wry look at the everyday with a combination of an appreciation of the good/ beautiful parts. Fav. Songs: Vicious, Perfect Day, Take a Walk on The Wild Side, Goodnight Ladies Least Fav.: Satellite of Love, Wagon Wheel, New York Conversation.