Reviews (page 2 of 13)
It was ok. Enjoyable musically in parts but I didn't get on with his voice. Obviously a couple of strong songs but they seemed a bit out of place to me with the rest of the album. 2*
that sonnoffabitch.......
408/1089 - Seriously, I think the only reason people like this guy is because he talked (certainly not sung) about gay sex in the 60s when it was taboo. Atrocious voice and rudimentary songwriting and instrumentation.
What a fantastic album. I knew next to nothing about Lou Reed going in but I loved nearly everything about Transformer. I'm hoping there is more on the list for me to experience. 4.5* Rounded up to 5*
The album Lou Reed was born to create. Masterpiece.
“I thought it was dreary for gay people to have to listen to straight people's love songs." - Lou Reed
Just a perfect album
Lou Reed manages to find the apex of pop music, shoving it up up and away to the point in which it stops being pop music and starts being pure musical magma. Each song is alive and vibrant, even if they play the genre game fast and loose and seem unshapely at first. It comes together in due time, and it starts to feel as if these songs are small stories in one sick, sad world. If there's any album that makes a solid case for Lou Reed being a one in a generation songwriter, it's this one.
Another one of my all time favorites. Bowie is at the height of his powers here with production that’s dense and lush, and Ronson adds some really sick riffs to pair with Reed's "part the kimono" style of songwriting. It's sleazy, funny, sad, and effortlessly cool. Standout tracks: Vicious, Perfect Day, Andy's Chest, Walk On The Wild Side, Satellite of Love. 5/5.
Unique sounds, catchy hooks, unique voice. Lyrics range from layered and insightful to flippant and silly. A truly great album. Perfect day is a personal favorite. Five stars.
magique
buenisimo
Angst, cynicism, dark humour. It reminds me of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. Reed’s stark figure on the cover evokes the image of the 1931 Frankenstein, a monster of a modern, post-war age.
Perfect for a cozy rainy day
Here's where Lou found his voice, thanks to an assist from David Bowie and Mick Ronson, who seem to have tamed the wilder instincts Reed brought to his Velvet Underground efforts and helped him focus on telling timeless stories about people we might meet everyday ("New York Telephone Conversation") and people the likes of which we might never have the good fortune to run across ("Walk on the Wild Side"). An absolute top-tier, essential album.
klassiker ikoniske låter 70-talls lydbilde veldig fremoverrettet
What a funny and so eclectic album! I've loved every single track, and it's also been a very enjoyable one, with so many layers in which to dive and warm your ears. It's truly a masterpiece and, surely, a perfect album: every single song is great and a different sound within the album, which is a very glam record, with some very theatrical moments, other more jazz-inspired songs, some psychedelia... Such an amazing musical experience, for sure. Lou Reed is such a great composer with a very big talent, and this album is a manifestation of one of the many forms his music can turn into, being bewitching and extraordinary. And such a pleasure to listen too.
Have
4.5/5 https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/lou-reed/transformer/ Little dip towards the end of the album, but my god what a level for the rest. Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, Satellite of Love, Vicious; maannnnnnn so good. RIP legend.
Mi primer pensamiento fue: suena como si bob dylan no fuera aburrido. Se recontra puede escuchar la influencia de bowie a lo largo de todo el album. completamente adelantado a su tiempo. Tengo el vago recuerdo de que algun profe de la facultad me lo haya recomendado o hablado de este album. tal vez es por eso que ya conocía algunas de las canciones. Estaba haciendo los coros de wagon wheel antes de que vengan sin saber que venían acaso soy una master de las armonías?
I love this album. Always loved Lou Reed. I remember I was on my way to pick up my friend Katie from her dorm room for a night of debauchery when she called to tell me that he’d moved on. October 27, 2013 was terrible for us Velvet Underground/Lou Reed fans. I cried and she cried also. I was gonna use the word “gritty” when I was going to write my thoughts about Transformer but then I read about the production of the album and the word was used several times in the various articles (Wikipedia) I found. I may not be original but at least I’m not wrong. I love this album. The theatricality and the intimacy of it. It’s perfect poetry and storytelling. It feels like a switchblade in between your fingers.
How interesting. Day 1 Log. This is very unique. Like he's talking. Scary cover More talking than anything. Good vibes, guitar, happiness, and just talking things. Not musical as much as talky? IDK but its really good. Shouldn't say that, it is really good. Feels nice and old. Actually its kind of eccentric idk Listen Again: 9.5/10 Stay Awake: 7/10 Hw: 10/10 there are words but feel meaningless or something? This is so trippy Walk on the wild side is really weird but also awesome
Reed is one of the best sorts of weirdo.
Excellent album
Love this album, definitely awakened something in me when I first heard it at 17.
The singles are seminal and the album tracks are also amazing. Easily one of the best ever. Also, this listen through was the first time I heard distinctly Bowie’s vocals at the end of Satellite of Love. That’s him going awoooo
It's vicious how you feel this music in your chest on a perfect day. Even when hangin' round or walking on the wild side one needs to make up his mind if he is more of a satellite or wagon wheel type. Afterward, when talking on the telephone you feel free. And it always ends by telling the ladies goodnight. A great album.
What an extrodinary album this was. I had no idea I knew so many songs off it when I pressed play! ‘Perfect day’ sounded amazing, ‘walk on the wild side’ too. ‘Make up’ so catchy and just drew me in just as ‘satellite of love’ and ‘wagon wheel’ did too. It wasn’t until the last track ‘goodnight ladies’ came around that I felt disappointment in a track. Absolutely solid album for me bar that ending but that doesn’t take the score down at all 10/10 from me. Fave track- ‘perfect day’ but if I had to go for one I hadn’t heard before then ‘makeup’ was right up there! Worst track goodnight ladies’ Once again… 10/10 🥰
Lou Reed - Transformer An album dripping in sex, menace and killer hooks. The production by Bowie and Ronson very much comes across with the results being that the collection sounds like a companion piece to Hunky Dory. The 'hits' are the stars of the show but the supporting tracks all have their qualities. And collectively the imagery of walking amongst the hustlers, druggies and bohemians of 70s New York city is laid bare. Pick for me is Walk on the Wild Side. Herbie Flowers basline is timeless, the high hanging strings pull everything towards the wonderful saxophone coda that closes the song but makes you wish it went on further. Worst track - Make Up. But just because something has to be. 10/10
What a great record and just perfect encapsulation of New York City in the 1970's. What a great pro Trans album too almost every song is coded and is just great.
Firstly, a huge shout out to the production on this. David Bowie and Mick Ronson work wonders with what is generally an awful voice, often off kilter guitar playing, and mismatched percussion. That they manage to blend it together into something greater than the sum of its parts must have been a huge challenge. In doing so, Reed’s ascerbic lyrics and pseudo-spoken vocals carry the weight it needs against the arrangements behind it. Perfect Day is massively overplayed, but there is something about the coda that I still enjoy regardless of how many times I’ve heard it (even if it is Heather Small oversinging it…). I really get the sense of New York life here, from the good, to the bad, to the ugly; something that the Velvet Underground also did, and although John Cale adds a great deal there, this more stripped back outing also suits the vibe well.
I love Satellite of Love so much
A perfect mix of dark and light, earnest and ironic. Poignant pop, debauched glam, seedy rock. Loads of great lyrics, tender intimate arrangements, understated but deeply affecting vocals.
Excited about this because of my great love for White Light/White Heat. I love a contrast between form and content, I love a tonal clash, I love some violent imagery. I love his gay little voice (I’m allowed to say that). This is incredibly silly and lovely. Perfect Day does deserve the hype. I really really really like this. The bass! Some kind of horn! The piano! God it’s camp. What did Sontag think of Lou Reed? Were they both simply too cool to be friends? A respectable length too - I do not feel a second of my time has been wasted. I adore this completely. Goodnight Ladies.
I’m getting a lot of albums I like a lot. Some of my most favorites. I’m afraid this thing is front loaded and going to get a bunch of garbage at the end, but I know… I got a long way to go. Lou Reed is one of my most favorite songwriters of all time. I know he’s kind of divisive artist, but I’ve never let that be a deterrent. Most of my favorite artists are notorious grumps with unconventional singing voices, but isn’t that more interesting? It’s like getting the news from a grizzled, trustworthy old school journalist over some plastic, smiling talking head with perfectly coiffed hair. You just know they’re lying. Lou Reed ain’t lying. He’s giving it to you straight. The ugly truth. Street level. Lou Reed is the Edward R. Murrow of rock and roll. If he says “I thought I was someone else, someone good”, it cuts deep… Perfect Day, what an incredible song. This album is like the punch in the gut that you didn’t know you needed. 4.8^
Apparently I'm the outlier who prefers Lou Reed's solo albums to Velvet Underground. Punk card revoked? Whatever, but the solo stuff is just BETTER.
There’s a temptation with Transformer to talk about transgression, decadence and influence first, because the album arrives trailing fifty years of mythology behind it. But listening to it now, what strikes me most is how extraordinarily controlled it is. For a record with such a louche reputation, there’s remarkably little excess. No hippie drift. No endless jammed self-exploration. The songs are concise, sharply lit and structurally elegant. Lou Reed sketches entire lives in a handful of lines, then moves on before sentimentality can settle in. The effect is less “counterculture sprawl” than urban nocturne - fragments of people briefly illuminated in passing headlights. And that Bowie/Ronson/Reed triumvirate wrought an enormous amount culturally. Reed provides the characters, the moral ambiguity, the dry street-level observation. Bowie understands framing - how to turn damaged people and marginal lives into modern myth without flattening them into sociology. Ronson supplies architecture: strings, guitars, arrangement, sheer physical lift. Together they produce one of the key operating systems for post-sixties British culture. Not just glam, either. Vast stretches of British pop and adjacent culture seem to emerge from the emotional permission this album grants. Morrissey’s camp melancholy. Jarvis Cocker’s anthropological nightlife observations. Suede turning alienation into perfume. Blur understanding that character itself can become structure. The idea that style might carry emotional truth rather than conceal it. And for many listeners, this became the route by which ambiguity first arrived. Not through political discourse or theory, but aesthetically. Through atmosphere. Through glamour, wit, posture and theatricality. That matters. Because Transformer quietly teaches that pose is not necessarily dishonesty. Sometimes pose is how vulnerable people survive long enough to communicate at all. The album understands that performance and sincerity are not opposites. Human beings often require artifice before they can safely reveal anything genuine. For me, the route into this world actually came through Marc Almond and Soft Cell. That was the gateway. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret already contained many of the same emotional mechanics: urban melancholy dressed as glamour, damaged people bathed in sympathetic neon, loneliness disguised as style. By the time I reached Lou Reed properly, the emotional grammar already felt strangely familiar. Which perhaps explains why the album’s cultural legacy feels simultaneously liberating and slightly unresolved. Because while the record undeniably widened emotional and aesthetic possibilities, people absorbed its lessons unevenly. Some absorbed the empathy. Others mainly kept the eyeliner. That tension still echoes through British culture now. Entire generations became adept at signalling ambiguity, sensitivity and outsider awareness aesthetically, while sometimes remaining less comfortable with those realities once encountered directly in ordinary life. Glam made transgression inhabitable through style long before many people fully metabolised its social implications beyond the frame. Yet the remarkable thing is that Lou Reed himself never entirely loses sight of the human beings underneath all this. The songs don’t leer at their characters. They don’t sentimentalise them either. They simply allow them presence: funny, lonely, performative, exhausted, composed, ridiculous, tender. The album’s humanity survives because it refuses both moral panic and patronising uplift. And that may be why Transformer remains alive rather than merely influential. Beneath the posture, beneath the myth, beneath the eyeliner and the cigarette smoke and the cultural aftershocks, there are still actual people wandering around inside these songs. That’s the part that lasts.
Particularly love hearing Bowie in the background
Easily Reed’s best solo work, and an important glam rock album. Produced by Bowie and Ronson (whose nasally guitar tone is heard throughout. This is peak glam. Perfect Day and Satellite of Love and my favorite tracks.
5 One of those albums that just flows together so well, absolutely more than the sum of its parts
One of my all time favourite albums the soundtrack to many European Roadtrips in the 80s. Perfect from start to finish. And produced by David Bowie!
I’ve always heard about this album but was not expecting how much I would enjoy it, all the songs fit and the length is perfect. Great songwriting too and I know a lot of people don’t like Reed’s voice but to me it’s very charming and works with the art he’s telling. Goodnight ladies is also such a perfect song to finish the album with, so much fun.
'Perfect Day' is one of my all time favourite songs and Lou would really have to screw up for me to give this record a bad score. Thankfully this record is stacked. Reed sings about people he rubbed shoulders with at Andy Warhol's Factory and it makes for a colourful cast of characters to write songs around. Reed might not have the greatest vocal range, but his deadpan delivery makes his songs all feel uniquely his own. If you wished Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie had more snark and bite, then this glam rock masterpiece is the record for you.
Fantastic vocals and guitars/horns. One of my favorite singers … chill, creepy, catchy. Loved the whole album beyond “take a walk on the wild side” 4.5+
Great album - almost transformative.
What can you say? Every track is brilliant. One of the most important albums for me as a teenager. Bowie and Ronsons contribution is huge.
disco foda de um dos maiores compositores da história
Can I kick it? Yes, you can! That homie just robbed my tribe, because they robbed him
perfect album to me #tbh
Yeah this rules. Something I’ve learned from this list is that I’m a huge Lou Reed/VU fan…nearly all of it has gotten 5 stars. Same with Nick Cave. I’m a little uncomfortable with what that reveals about my personality tbh. But the heart wants what it wants I suppose. Anyway, this record, my favorite thing about it is that it’s this exuberant glam record but it has this constant undercurrent of gloom and melancholy. Also, I never realized that when my dad would sing “Walk on the Wild Side” when I was little he was referencing a trans anthem, that’s pretty cool. Must-listen #342.
Favourite track: Satellite of Love. David Bowie inclusion goes nuts
Album #143 Lou Reed: Transformer Ok, fine, I’ll listen to Transformer again if I must… You really don’t need to pull my leg, though, because this is one of the most fun and easy listens you will ever have. 36 minutes of pure glam rock bangers, oozing with charisma and charm. Lou Reed may not be the greatest lyricist of all time; however, he certainly has the most swagger of any singer. Nobody else would be able to pull off the line “you have a hairy-minded pink bare bear” without it sounding ridiculous. To be honest, anything that David Bowie touched in the 70s I’m partial to thinking is a masterpiece; and when you pair him up with an artistic collaborator on the level of Lou Reed, it really isn’t any wonder that they produced one of the greatest albums of all time. One thing about Reed, which I’ve always admired, is his versatility, the fact that he is able to make albums such as this and the Velvet Underground’s self-titled, in which he is incredibly vulnerable and soft, yet also capable of releasing a White Light/ White Heat and a Metal Machine Music, which are incredibly experimental and abrasive; is rare to find in an artist. This album is a litmus test to see whether or not someone has a soul, since the only reason you would ever dislike it is if you legitimately hated everything or were deeply homophobic. Best Songs: Perfect Day, Satellite of Love, Hangin’ Round Worst Song: None Score out of 10: 10
Classic Lou Reed
Good
I feel like this is a hard record to rate and comment on without looking at the whole picture of all the parts involved. If you had never heard of Lou Reed or the Velvet Underground before, you may not really appreciate this album as much. This album in context of what else he had his hands in over the years makes it much better. Not that you'd need to be well versed in his music to enjoy it, but it helps for sure. I suppose that can be said for any artist though. But for this album - Lou Reed produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson? Sign me up. I've always loved this album, long before I knew Bowie produced it. In my mind, Bowie can really do no wrong, and that includes producing albums by other artists. This album doesn't seem like much of a stretch - it has a lot of Bowie in it and I wonder how much of that was Lou Reed and how much was Bowie/Ronson. All that aside, I love that this album is a completely different vibe from his first solo album and the Velvet Underground records before that, but that both of those can be seen in this one. It shows intentional growth and evolution. Lou Reed isn't exactly one that flew under the radar, but I still feel like he is wildly underrated and underappreciated in the opinion of the general populous. 5/5
Perfect Day // Walk On the Wild Side // Satellite of Love // 4.5/5
5 de 5 Pilar importante de el Glam Rock que cuenta con un sonido sofisticado y variable, combinado con letras crudas y realistas sobre un bajo mundo neoyorquino en el cual podemos encontrar diversas historias, las cuales, lograron llamar la atención de el público, dándole reconocimiento a Reed y el arte que lo lanzó a la fama internacional.
album que cura
Płyta kompletna. Tekstowo, wokalnie, konceptualnie. I co najważniejsze, nie jest przegadana, nie wlecze się, nie trwa 6382 godzin. 9/10
This album is whimsical genius.
Great performance and production compared to other LR or VU stuff I've heard. Amazing songs bump it up from a strong 4 to a definite 5.
Great Bowie-helmed Glam. Probably Reed’s best overall solo album.
Perfect mix of songs with a couple being a different style which makes it better. 5/5
Es un album muy particular...una joya
Fantastic album, such great lyrics, just a great sound
I heard Lou Reed before only in passing. This album brings people to NYC at a very specific place and time. Walk on the Wild Side would be subversive now; crazy it was recorded in 1972. Perfect Day is an absolute bang
Tha best. A very special music figure for me. And for a lot of people I guess. But suffice to say this wavelength is kinda my favorite stuff ever.
amazing album, almost all great songs
perfect
Take a walk on the wide side
This is my first time listening to this album, doodododoooododododoooooo. I love the song Make Up and how the tuba just goes "Du du du du 🥳" when Lou sings "we're coming out!"
08/10
Perfect album. To me.
I'm usually pretty certain about my rankings, but I'm a little stuck between a 4 and a 5 for this album. It's an incredible album. Not quite a wall-to-wall masterpiece, but certainly better than 90% of the list. I'm currently at 34 five-star albums out of 395, or 8.6%. So it's somewhere right in there.
Classic album. Chill head rockers hip swaying with smart lyrics. A perfect and much more digestable introduction to Lou Reeds work catalogue if the Velvet Underground and Nico was too experimental and strange for you.
Classic album from the iconic Lou Reed. From the opening Vicious, through the classics Perfect Day, Walk On The Wild Side, Satellite Of Love. great production from Bowie and Ronson, a milestone of the genre.
It's a great album
Can’t believe I spent 40 years without going systemically through this album. Variating songs with good texts, without going to advanced. I will definitely spend my next 40 along with this album.
Fantastic album. The classics are great. The lesser songs complement the classics. The lyrics are great. He was never better
i think this is a great album, no notes
Amazing
I’ve loved this album for a long time and revisiting for this was a treat.
What a welcome album for my Tuesday! :) Lou Reed is legendary, and he has inspired/collaborated with several artists I respect (David Bowie of course, and The Killers’ Tranquilize come to mind.) Transformer is an album I’ve previously explored and really enjoy so this was a great opportunity to revisit. Upon relisten I realized I’m less familiar with the final few tracks (Wagon Wheel to conclusion), but the majority of these songs were oh so familiar and still hold up. Credit to my father for first introducing me to ‘Walk On the Wild Side’ but really this album is chock full with classics.
Lou managed to stay awesome even after TVU disbanded, now fully betting on the glamorous style that would define the early 70s rock music
top 3 - Satellite of Love, New York Telephone Conversation, Perfect Day. Love his voice and love all the tracks on this! Maybe one of my favourites on this list so far :))
A top 10 of all time for me and a formative album for my young brain. I was obsessed with The Strokes when their debut dropped and hearing this for the first time not long afterwards made me realise just how deeply influenced (at the time) modern music could be classic material such as this. This is such a fun, cool, bop of an album, personality and charisma out the wazoo and just the right amount of depth. After all these years it just keeps me hangin' on.
Going to be hard to top this album, this was awesome
Great tunes and talent, thx
hot
Thought this was an auto-five, but my project partner’s write-up gave me pause. I did have to put in a lot of effort to love this album. It did not come naturally. If the 1001 was my first exposure to this, I may have given it one spin, assigned a dismissive three, then moved on. But there is joy in repetition, and I feel this one still has decades and decades of life left in it for me. And that has to be the definition of a classic.
makkelijk een van de top 10 albums ooit gemaakt mijn god wat een plaat. wederom ga velvet goldmine kijken xx
The non-hit tracks have really grown on me over the years. It's like an old friend at this point.
I mean of course this was amazing. It’s Lou Reed at his best. “Perfect Day” and “Walk On The Wild Side” are the two most well known songs on the album for a reason, but “Vicious” ended up being my favorite. Great record top to bottom.
This is the fuckin reason I wanted to do this adventure. I never put the time in, and now, I’m gonna dive deep on Lou Reed. The production is so interesting and moving. Perfect day is amazing. The arc of the album is fantastic… ugh!
Hard not to say this is pretty much a perfect album. Such simple, timeless, well executed songwriting and recording.
I guess this is 'the famous one' of Lou Reed's albums. I enjoyed it.
Absolute classic. Excellent, raw production from Bowie. Classic track after classic track displaying Lou’s unique songwriting and character building. Showed the world there was life after Velvet Underground and set him on the path to be a legendary, controversial, and divisive solo artist. Essential.
cómo te quiero viejo weko
Hay que darle las gracias a Lou Reed y a todo su entorno vanguardista por cantar y mostrar la diversidad (sexual y no sexual) con la naturalidad y al mismo tiempo valentía con que lo hacían a comienzos de la década de los 70. Cantar sobre salidas de armario, ambigüedad, libertad, aventura, expresión de género… en esa época era bastante arriesgado, pero la sociedad lo asumió, ciertamente porque se consideró su música más como expresión artística antes que política, aunque Reed, Bowie, Bolan y compañía estuvieran sin saberlo haciendo política desde el glamour. El disco estuvieran una delicia de principio a fin, con hitazos como “Vicious”, “Walk On The Wild Side”, “Satellite Of Love” o “Perfect Day”.
This is an interesting concept album; a journey of the wild places, and conversations in The Big Apple. Without a doubt, David Bowie's influence on this album played a major part in why it's so successful. Every track took me through a story in the crazy mind of the late Lou Reed. More like TransFIVEmer. Favorite Track: "Walk On The Wild Side".
So so good. Never heard the first 2 songs before but instant favs. And this album contains 2 of my all-time fav songs (Perfect Day and Satellite of Love) so it was starting off well. Surprised I've never listened through the album before. Make Up is creepy ("slick little girl" vom) but I can forgive it.
Именно то, что я и ожидал услышать от Лу Рида в этом альбоме. Я давно хотел послушать Transormer полностью, и вот, в рамках "1001 альбома" я сделал это. Сотрудничество Рида с Боуи определенно пошло ему на пользу, получился очень крепкий, отлично скроенный альбом. Как по мне, здесь есть вещи перекликающиеся как и с дебютником VU (sunday morining чем-то схож с Perfect Day и Walkin On the Wild Side) так и с альбомом Loaded (Vicious, Im So Free). В общем, мне понравилось! Обязательно буду переслушивать его дальше.
Lou Reed - Transformer (1972) Вывод: искусство быть одновременно поп-звездой и поэтом маргиналов Transformer - это альбом о контрастах: между ярким внешним обликом и внутренней пустотой, между сценическим театром и личными переживаниями. Музыкально он гибко сочетает глэм-рок с мягкими, камерными моментами, что делает каждую песню самостоятельной мини-историей. Рид играет с голосом, поет (скорее рассказывает) слегка сдавленно или наоборот отдаваясь саркастическому, театральному тону в зависимости от истории. Атмосфера Нью-Йорка начала 70-х здесь ощущается буквально: это город, где блеск и упадок идут рука об руку, где герои песен - странные, одинокие, но удивительно живые. Альбом не теряет актуальности в звучания и темах, потому что темы самовыражения, одиночества, отчуждения и поиска места в мире остаются вечными.
Ya lo había escuchado anteriormente. Me encanta.
Déjà écouté. Lou Reed produit par David Bowie et Mick Ronson, ça donne une exploration glam rock des dessous interlopes de la société new-yorkaise, et un sommet du cool 70s. Just a perfect disc. Top : Perfect Day Flop : Make Up
I bought this album in about 1980 and have loved it ever since, unfortunately I’ve been disappointed by pretty much everything else Lou released! Maybe it’s the Bowie influence?
It doesn't get any better than Perfect Day.
Love this one!
A huge classic for me, beautifully produced by David Bowie. Lou is really focused on that one and without really being conceptual the songs just flows really well. I'll never get tired of that album
Ahhhh, Transformer is such a hard album to rate for me. I love Lou Reed, but Transformer always felt a bit uneven. The highs are the highest, but some of the lows get on my nerves a bit. Like New York Telephone Conversation... who really wants that? ...in spite of that, I think I probably have to give it a 5. That's not to say that it's perfect, but Satellite of Love alone elevates it to that point.
Aw yes
Love Walk on the Wild Side!
I was an improbable fan of Lou Reed during my early teenage years, after seeing the video of Dirty Blvd on MTV in 1989, which surprisingly was in heavy rotation for a while then. I had that album, which is still one of my favorite albums, and then U2 played Satellite of Love on the Zoo TV tour and everything U2 did then was gospel to me. And his albums were in extensive supply at the Westerville Public Library. I've never actually heard this whole album before although familiar with a majority of the songs. Some weird wild stuff on here, but what the hell I'll round up for sentimental reasons.
I still listen to this album from time to time, and it always has something to offer.
As I was listening to this - which I have listened to many times before - it struck me how well produced the album was. I had no idea that it was produced by David Bowie and his guitarist Mick Ronson. No wonder it sounds so good. A brilliant album.
Lou Reed. Another artist I should really listen to more often. What an excellent songwriter he is! I don't know if I'm intimately familiar enough with this album to give it a 5, but I'm going to go on faith and on the comparison to the full scope of albums that we've been dealt.
Beyond the big singles of Walk on the Wild Side and Perfect Day, there are a lot of great songs full of NYC weirdos. There are a few good rockers like Vicious, but I even like the songs that go farther afield of VU like the New Orleans jazz of Goodnight Ladies or New York Telephone Conversation which is almost musical theater, I guess. I really like Street Hassle, but I think this is probably his best solo record.
Fantastic. Never listened to the whole album before - just the singles - but glad I have.
Way better than I expected. Great vibes.
Only knowing "Walk on the Wild Side", this was fun. Understated, silly, fun. He doesn't take himself too seriously. It's a short album, good for a commute. It's interesting he put a closer on the album. My Rating: 5/5
Day 195 Not a dud on here, timeless album. Highlights Perfect Day Satellite of Live I’m so Free
I like Lou Reed!
‘Perfect Day’ yeah Perfect Song more like am I right fellas haha (This album is absolutely stellar)
What can I say? Lou Reed at the top of his game. Very logical continuation from Velvet Underground.
I have said it before but Lou Reed’s voice and lyrics are so palpable you can actually smell the hot dog stands, see the steam rising from the sidewalks and feel yourself nearly get run over by a yellow cab. It’s unusual for songs with such a punk ethic to be so melodic, these are. His voice is so knowing, it’s like he recognizes the people he writes about but is always standing a step away. Huge fan.
Excellent. 4.5/5
Done
As much as I love Lou, it's hard to ignore that this record is as much a Bowie/Ronson achievement as it is a great Lou record. Still, he wrote these songs and they are some of his best. No shame in getting outside help to make them their best selves. But we also have to note that Lou probably never did another record quite as good as this one. Maybe New York? Too bad they didn't work together again
love this album
Just fantastic. So good to hear this, especially to be listening to the whole album. The well known tracks are great of course but actually every track was great. Delighted to be hearing some for the first time. The production sound is distinctive and makes use of a wide range of instruments to create some of the best music ever made.
An absolute classic. Perfect Day and Walk On the Wild Side do steal the show, but that doesn’t diminish the rest of the album. Every track here is quality.
Pretty much everything about this album screams of 70s cool. The cover. The Bowie / Ronson production. The Walk on the Wild Side. There are timeless songs on this album - Perfect Day might well be one of my all time favourite songs, and Satellite of Love was a song that is hadn't heard before but instantly caught me with it's gorgeous melody and cracking outro. Elsewhere, there's lots of fun in songs like Andy's Chest, Hangin' Round and the jazzy Goodnight Ladies. It's just a joyous listen. I've never considered myself a fan of glam rock, and I don't consider this album an example of that standard. This is just a meeting of mavericks working together to create a 5 star album.
For my first real dive into rock I was really impressed. Carried by the guitar, which inspired me to want to learn how to play some of these songs, I enjoyed listening to this album more than I thought.
Klasyka, muzyka klasyczna
10/10 underrated need more fam
The album that propelled Lou Reed to a level of popularity that Velvet Underground hadn’t yet reached. With Bowie and Mick Robson in tow, Lou Reed drops some of the more obscure art rock sounds for more of a cleaner glam rock approach and what we get is a fantastic record. I absolutely love White Light/White Heat but both albums deserve high praise. Vicious is a strong open with some sharp guitars and they change up the pace completely on track three with Perfect Day, tossing in some pretty strings and piano. Both Walk on the Wild Side and Satellite of Love are forever classics as well. One track I could do without is Make Up although I suppose it serves its role, I don’t know, I just don’t care for it that much. The frumpy horns kick in at the end and Lou wishes all the ladies a goodnight. 5 stars
Great album. Lyrics are so outstanding and how could that be played on the radio at that time? Weird...
Why have I never listened to Lou before?!
FIRE
Genial !
Never listened to this before but it might be one of my favorite albums now. Somehow both cynical and warm, finding beauty in what others would consider ugly. 'Perfect Day' would sound insanely corny coming from almost anyone else, but this love song sounds a lot more sincere when you know it comes from the same guy who wrote 'Walk on the Wild Side'. You know when someone who never smiles laughs at a joke, and it's more meaningful than hearing someone laugh who laughs at everything? It's like that.
Walk on the will side is one of the best songs ever
Heard Many Times; 5; This album combines so many elements I really enjoy: lo-fi sounding production, deadpan delivery, driving, straight-forward rhythm, scraggly guitar, etc. This is all mixed together with memorable, catchy hooks and sweet sounding harmonies and production. Somehow both base and transcendent at the same time. And there is (almost) no filler - every track feels memorable and distinct. Favorite Track: Perfect Day
Reed+Bowie+Ronson es la combinación ganadora. Pienso que la obra maestra de Lou sigue siendo Berlin o tal vez New York, pero éste disco no falla. Junto al Coney Island Baby, la versión más amigable de Lou para el nuevo escucha
And curtains laced with diamonds, dear, for you And all the Roman noblemen for you And kingdom's Christian soldiers, dear, for you And melting ice cap mountains tops for you sofi me vas a hacer llorar, andy's chest no solo es la mejor canción del disco, es una de las canciones más preciosas que he escuchado. tmb es muy boba pero eso es lo que la hace tan bonita, te digo que te quiero con chistes tontos e imágenes disparatadas xq de qué otra forma expresar y dimensionar lo que eres para mí. tmb es muy gay. todo el disco es muy gay.
Fantastic, classic album that stands the test of time
One of my favourite album discoveries of recent years
Spectacular. You can practically feel Bowie's fingers threaded through the music. 5 very happy stars from me.
Biased review here ... 5 stars absolutely no doubt. I LOVE Lou Reed. Simple, powerful, cutting edge for 1972, perhaps cutting edge even for 2026 given the current American "situation".
Awesome
more gay 😄 love the funky sounds. brave and fun.
'Vicious' opens this album like a charm. It's immediately compelling and sets the stage for the songs that follow. The guitar, bass and drums chug along, often simply but powerfully. Reed's unique voice and syntax are charming, although I imagine they are an acquired taste. I wonder if someone who didn't grow up with that voice would appreciate it hearing it first as an adult--like Neil Young's :)
Nice
Lou Reed is the One Good Cis Chaser and the OG at that, they'll never make me hate you.
Wow
90
9/10
Нраица
So weird and so good. "Vicious" "Andy's Chest" "Hangin' Round" "Walk On the Wild Side" and "Satellite of Love" were faves on here.
I love this fuckin album
The album is almost perfect. The biggest thing holding this back for me is the more goofy songs like Make Up, or New York Telephone Conversation. But besides that this album is great. Of course Perfect Day and Walk On the Wild Side are great, but I also want to shout out Vicious and Satellite of Love. I also really like Goodnight Ladies and how it closes out the album. Overall a super strong album with a couple of duds. Low 5.
i like it
So good
One of the very best ever.
Banging. Every song is memorable and charismatic. Trans visibility too. I love the messaging on these songs but they also don’t feel preachy, it’s very personal. This makes me feel like I understand glam in a way I didn’t with T. rex. It might technically be closer to a 4 because his voice is so lethargic that after awhile you may get a little worn out but I think that’s something that will grow on me like it usually does with voices. I’m giving it a 5
Great mix , rather risque with a touch of cabaret. Fun to listen to
Great album - captivating lyrics and a distinct tune to all his songs.
i love this album
Perfect example of an album you have to hear before you die. Regardless if you dislike VU or Lou Reed it's undeniable he had massive influence on bands you actually do like. 5/5
Perfect Album
Top album, full marks
This is annoying now. This doeant save my notes but reverts to the previous album notes. Cant be arsed thinking what i wrote. Five stars.
This is a great album. There's an earthiness to Lou Reed's songwriting that gives it that edge of darkness and danger. Brilliant!
Brilliant
Perhaps controversially this is not Lou's best, for me. That said, it's still great.
Classic. Uno de mis discos favoritos. Lo asocio a mi primer año de carrera y eso siempre hace que gane. Perfect Days es la mejor canción de la historia. Todavía tengo pendiente el plan de beber sangreia in the park y después ir al cine. Walk on the walk side y tal. Y luego un montón de temas que son chorradas divertidísimas como Andy’s Chest o New York Telephone Conversation. Es un discazo. Lou Reed un pedazo de duro. Siempre en mi equipo.
I play this one all the time…so good!
This is probably the 5th time I've listened to 'Transformer' this year on my quest to know Velvet Underground and Lou Reed better. This is a favorite album of mine now. Generational talent, bangers and influence. I rank this up there with the best debut solo albums after a successful career in a band (up there with Peter Gabriel). I love the fact that David Bowie & Mick Ronson were producers and helped play/sing on the album.
TPE => SEA Series: A three album binge on a 11 hour flight (Evermore, Kind Of Blue and Transformer). 3 yuge albums for VERY different crowds My last album spun in flight. The fretless bass (at least thats my guess) is an amazing touch to a lot of these songs. Im surprised that I dont hear this used in other pop rock? It adds thar smokey slithery sound that fits the VERY mature lyrics. The themes in this album are far before their time. In that way, this album is far more than just a rock record. Loved a handful of these cuts and found myself spinning immediately after. 4.5 stars and rounding up
Great tunes
I love this album and when through an intense phase of listening to it all the time. For me most early 70s albums are ripping off this sound, and it’s a great sound to rip off. Nearly nothin but gas, but it reaches into 5 for me because the big songs are just so fucking big. 5/5 Best Song: Satellite Of Love
Incredible songwriting, he really set the bar for what a song can make you feel and be about. I can't think of two more culturally significant songs to modern music than, take a Walk on the Wild Side and Perfect day. Dark subject matter, but he puts it in the most beautiful way, always. Best Track: I think it could be satellite of love? Is that mad to say?
LOVE! heard a lot of people say Cameron Winter is my gens Lou Reed, i think, yes. ate this one up. Perfect Day added to playlist!
Very good love all the songs on this album but my favorite has to be satellite of love its just so good ❤️
Ughhh, goddammit, I'm a hipster. 5/5, an incredible, influential album. Growing up listening to skatepunk and going to DIY shows at fire halls and rec centers, essentially backed my way into appreciating this. Of it's course it's a top album.
I don’t know how to capture the wavelength on which I connect with Lour Reed. It’s not save-my-life music. It's not transcendent, borderline holy music. I am not now nor have I ever been a casual user of drugs, let alone an addict. It’s just music that I must have heard on the right day in the right mood, and it permanently wormed its way into my soul. Lou Reed is something like the North Star of my taste, the skeleton key that connects all the disparate bands I love across a mess of genres. The element they all have in common can be traced back to what Lou (and John Cale) brought to music. The “elegant and brutal” mission statement John Cale presents in Todd Haynes’ superb documentary a few years back. There’s something about him — his persona, his talent, something — that makes everything sound cool and weirdly profound, even if it might be nonsense. (His lyrics in a British person’s voice would probably drive me batty.) But this isn't supposed a review of Lou Reed the man; it's meant to be a review of Transformer. I’m not sure this album alone would have shaped my musical taste — the reckless adventure of the four canonical Velvet Underground records made me a convert to this particular religion. I'm not even sure this is a five-star album. I maybe only love half the songs. The production is clear and mostly unfussy, missing that messy undertone that marked the best Velvet Underground songs. Bowie and Ronson have too heavy a thumb on a few of the songs, and a few of the straight rock songs feel a little phoned in. But the best parts of Transformer capture most perfectly the thing I love about him. Vicious, Andy's Chest, Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, Satellite of Love, and Goodnight Ladies feel distilled from the substance that makes him Lou Reed. His unassuming voice and perfect guitar tone. The way it sounds like he's in the room with you, and you can't tell if he's playing these songs for the first time or the hundredth time. The simple and elegant nature of his songwriting delivered with just enough bite to make it deceptively dangerous. I'll never love his solo stuff as much as his VU stuff; Cale is too potent for that magic to exist without him. But I probably reach for this one more often than anything else in his storied discography.
A landmark celebration of the nastiest bits of life. Reed's character and lyrics find a perfect match with Bowie's production and Ronson's everything. Favourite tracks: Andy's Chest, Perfect Day, Take A Walk On The Wild Side (those last two songs have become so ubiquitous that I needed a reminder how fucking great they really are), Make Up, fuck it - everything is brilliant. Five fucking stars.
Excellent
From 1971 we move to 1972 and just a mere days after I get **The Velvet Underground & Nico**, the algorithm throws me up Lou Reed! The first time I saw Lanegan solo in 2013, he played _Satellite of Love_. He covered it brilliantly, it was the first time I'd heard of course but that moment put me onto Lou Reed. I checked out this album and loved it, more so than the band that made him. Not only does it contain 3 all timers in _Perfect Day_, _Satellite of Love_ and _Walk on the Wild Side_, with a bass line so good that the song that sampled it is also an all-timer; but with Bowie and Mick Ronson on production this album really delivers great songs throughout and it's one I return to quite a bit!
03/12/2025 I actually surprised myself and really quite liked this. Short and sweet. Spotify listeners: 3.5 million
Before listening, I had no prior experience or knowledge of Lou Reed as an artist. Straight in with "Vicious", this has a classic rock and roll vibe, that distinct muffled twang of a guitar going back to the 50s. A strong start, I took to this song right away. Reed's near-conversational singing hits the mark in line with the vibe of the lyrics. "Andy's Chest" makes it crystal where Beck got his inspiration from, as the track sounds like he could have performed it himself. The thumping bass, droning guitar and absurdist lyrics make them indistinguishable. "Walk on the Wild Side" I instantly recognised the opening bassline, not knowing that this song belonged to Reed. The lyrics were so much more explicit than I realised for a song so popular. "Perfect Day" and "Satellite of Love" both had incredible feel good energy to them, especially Satellite with it's uplifting backing brass. "New York Telephone Conversation" absurdity has playful childish energy to it, backed by what I describe as a Primary Teacher's "Music Time" harmony on the Piano. Really fun. Overall, I really liked this album. It didn't take itself too seriously, both lyrically and musically. That's something that we could all do with right now as we get swept away in the constant need for looking rich and successful by any means necessary.
Hate when an album I am really digging winds up only being 37 minutes long. Why is it always the tortuous prog rock ones that have the 2 hour special edition with alt takes, live versions, and extras?
Love Transformer. Perfect timing as this came up while I was listening to the No Dogs in Space series on the Velvet Underground. Always happy to listen to it.
New record for most saved songs
What an odd, yet delightful masterpiece. You can tell the Bowie flair in there with his production but Reed makes it his own and nails it. What an album.
So much soul, softness, wonderfully created songs that hide this sadness while being deeply cool, beautiful, and warm. Has a delightful analogue sound. Great guitar lines and introduction of proto-punk heaviness. Has some incredible stand-alone singles but the album itself is super cohesive and creates this very particulr image of being cool and young in NY in the 70s
Cutting edge music that holds up today and the anchor of the NYC punk scene. Great songs that challenged the social mores that are as fresh today as they were 50 years ago.
What a fantastic album this is. Don't waste words on this, just listen to it.
I wonder if I need to listen to any other Low Reed album. All his hits are here, with a few more hidden gems. A must hear record for sure !
It definitely kept me hanging on
I love this album. Lou Reed has the opposite arrangement to that I saw on the recent Ray Charles album : can’t sing, can’t play, but damn he can write a song tailored to his own narrow band of talent. ‘Perfect Day’ is one of my favorite all time songs and
Great album, I listen to this a few times a year. This is my favorite of his albums and is loaded with classic songs. Few other albums have this melancholic lofi poppy sound, hard for me to even describe this.
Great albums don't date
Have loved all of the velvet underground albums I’ve discovered through this project, and this solo album is no different, dells even a little more intimate and personal, but still has that same raw energy.
A great continuation of Lou's work with the velvet underground. Glam rock was already becoming a thing by the time this album got released, but alongside Hunky Dory, this album gave the genre the subversive edge that makes it so fascinating looking back. Best songs are the satellite of love, perfect day, but every song is great on here - lots of pop hooks but it never feels like he's sanding down his edges at all
Brilliant. Perfect. Possibly the best. Certainly his best solo album. Seedy, lost and lonely people in bright urgent confident songs.
I loved the sound of this album, it came to me on the perfect day
It seems like everything Bowie touched in the 70s turned to gold
Perfect … another album that I listened to on repeat in my late teens and even though I haven’t heard it in several years all the memories came flooding back and I sang along to every word. Loved it ❤️
Deserves to be on 1001 for many reasons.
Super Dope
First time listening to Transformer cover to cover. Pretty familiar with the hits, so I think I expected more from the album as a whole. Still, can see why it's held up as a classic, its peaks are incredibly high. Fav tracks: Vicious, Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, Satellite of Love. Saved a song: Y RYM: Y (#467)
I was never a huge fan of Lou Reed until I started listening to the Velvet Underground. This was my first time listening to this album and I loved it. Its always good hearing Walk on the Wild Side and Perfect Day.
Hey honey, take a walk on the wild side
I love this album. I can’t remember how or why I got into it, but I have loved it since the first listen. It’s the Velvet Underground in eyeliner and suspenders. This has a scruffy cool feel to it. It is short blast of raw and abrasive glam punk. REM’s Monster and The Strokes owe everything to this album. I can’t imagine there is a garage rock band that doesn’t nod to this album. Great stuff.
Fav: Satellite Of Love Least Fav: New York Telephone Conversation Satellite Of Love is my favourite Bowie song
I know how lucky we are that Bowie gave us such an extensive and varies discography in his life, but I'm greedy. I wish he also produced more music for other artists too. He had such an incredible talent for bringing out the best in artists while also bringing them into new territory. Lou Reed's "Transformer" is no exception. The Velvet Underground had been a cult band in their name and Reed's first attempt at a solo album failed to match the excitement of his old band. Many people might have written him off as past his 15 minutes of fame. But Bowie was a true fan and knew that there was more great work in him. "Transformer" is an incredible album. True to his style, Reed was able to take simple rock n roll and marry it to lyrics highlighting the unseen people of New York. "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" is a sweet and catchy about the trans community decades before that was a public discussion. "Perfect Day" sounds so much like a song about simple pleasures with a loved one that many people don't realize the true meaning. It's only the closing lines "You're going to reap just what you sow" that give you a hint that it's actually about drug addiction. Bowie's backing vocals shine on "Satellite of Love". There's plenty more to unpick here as every track has something great. It's hard to argue that Lou Reed ever made a better solo album that this one. It really is perfect and even rivals some of The Velvet Underground's work.
9/10 Favorites: Vicious Perfect Day Hangin’ ‘Round
Really cool album. Didn't realise I knew so many lou reed songs. I enjoyed the bizarre content and raw style.
Fuckin' classic.
tutto quello che tocca David Bowie diventa oro
do I even need to comment?
Have always loved this album.
Lou Reed is always a fun time...
One of my top fives of all time, and completely etched to my core. I still remember where I was when I heard that Lou Reed had died, and that’s because of this album, more than the Velvet Underground stuff, which is saying a lot about how much I revere this. My favorite memory is putting Transformer on while shooting pool with my cousin. I’ve always respected his opinion, but this time we really differed. He was like ‘this guy’s singing about honey bears losing baby hair? What the $&@* is this shit?’ If only he could see the truth.
Phenomenal. This is one of those albums that grows on me more and more upon each visit. Bowie's contributions here are what really makes this something special! Here's my track ranking: 1. Satellite of Love 2. Goodnight Ladies 3. Perfect Day 4. Walk On the Wild Side 5. Make Up 6. Vicious 7. Wagon Wheel 8. Andy's Chest 9. Hangin' Round 10. I'm So Free 11. New York Telephone Conversation 4.5/5
Love it
Pretty much everything Bowie touches turns to gold, and this album is no exception. Such an easy album to listen to with some classic singles. Lou Reed deserves all the credit he gets as a songwriter.
Eu amo
Yay
bruh
Hey were is the 6 button!?!?!?!?!? Amazing album
This is nearly a 5 for me. I'm trying to keep 5's sacred, but this is makin it hard. Lou is effortlessly cool. His song writing clever, cheeky, and his delivery suits it all perfectly. the balance and restraint in his music with what i percieve as nonchalance is fuckin cat nip I love songs that have the female vocals ringing in, or have a dopey tuba (is that a tuba?) Is that a recorder...or a pan flute out of no where? Its fucking awesome. shit i talked myself into a 5
More than meets the eye
Muy bueno
Quintessential Lou Reed. Such a fantastic record. He pioneered a sound and this is it- New York Punk/Hippie Rock & Roll. Nothing too fancy but revolutionary and timeless in its simplicity and sound. Can't go wrong putting on any Lou Reed record. This one brings the goods, with such classics throughout. Starting with Vicious, throw in Walk on the Wild Side, Perfect Day, Satellite of Love and Wagon Wheel and you got yourself a 5 star album.
Just about perfect.
My favourite Lou Reed album ❤️
After having listened to Lou Reed, or more importantly The Velvet Underground, on acid it is impossible to be too critical. Even in a more sober state, it it easy to groove on these tunes. I enjoyed every fucking minute of this album.
It's just a perfect day.
amazing
The Godfather, absolute classic.
Awesome album
ну это вау... понравилось!!! ох уж эта величайшая сила дэвида боуи превращать в золото все, к чему он прикасался, великий
Five stars for me. Special place in my heart because we spent hours listening to this album at our place on monastery lane. It’s also just beautiful and cool.
Certamente um dos discos que mais ouvi na vida, perfeito do início ao fim.
Oh, to be a young, glamorous queer icon in 70s NYC. Flawless...
Sounds like the number 13 (Bacon Egg and Cheese with Avo and Chipotle mayo sauce on a hard roll), the "Jack Special" at Lemon Tree Gourmet Deli, on the corner of Grand & Broadway in Tribeca on a hot summer morning. That is to say, good.
Absolute classic
LOVED THIS ALBUM!! I really liked all the different tracks and their unique sounds, and the subject matter of the songs was compelling and fun.
Incredible album. Concise and fantastic variety, enjoyed a lot more than I expected! Would buy.
Jees jees ja Jees. Monta klassikkobiisiä ja kivat hihhulivibat kokonaisuudessaan. Like much
He gives off such a cool vibe. He could sing numbers from the phone book and I'm convinced it would still sound so good
Wow, I hadn't listened to this for years. It's truly a classic, and when you read who was involved, it's no wonder. It's arty, it's touching, it's powerful; it's cabaret, it's glam, it's edgy. And it was ridiculously influential. The 1970s was surely the decade when ALL of the building blocks for pop/rock/dance were cemented; I can't think of a single genre that can't be traced back to the 70s or before, and here, already a hugely influential figure, Lou Reed helped ensure that several of the more interesting avenues we enjoy today would continue to be explored and developed.
The Good: We get to see a car turn into a robot! The Bad: No we’re not… The Ugly: Realizing one can not be transformed… This album contains two of my favorite tunes on my top 1000 tunes one needs to hear before one dies! Yet, I had never listened to this album as a) take a walk on the wild-side is just a classic and one will have heard it on countless classic rock radio stations (if you are old enough) and b) a perfect day was ingrained into my memory via Trainspotting and Rents journey to the bottom… So, I was excited to sit down and listen to this album, and by the second spin I kept thinking that Lou had been stealing from David… to then read that Bowie produced the album, and all made sense… This one is not getting a 5* rating, not because I don’t believe that it should, but more so because those should stay reserved for the absolute banger 5* which, potentially, this album might turn into if I have had the opportunity to listen to it several more times and finding that I look forward to listening to it again… fuck it, 5* it is
Classic good one
Makes New York in the 70s come alive
One or two forgettable tunes amidst a sea of stone cold classics. An influential album that plays just as well today- if you can get down with his speak-singing.
i really liked this. this might be a soft 5 stars. like a 4.6 or 4.7 for me.
One of the greatest albums ever released in the 1970s which means one of the greatest albums of all time. The thing is perfect, and it very much is a thing- not quite human and completely out of place in the musical landscape of 1972 as it feels completely out of place in 2025 and I imagine as it will sound to listeners in 2125. Some of the music from the past still feels like the future to me. Did we learn anything besides gooning and being offended by everything outside of a very narrow world view? I wish my generation had our own Lou Reed (we don't I checked) instead we get Billie Ellish. Our parents and grandparents are not supposed to have cooler music than us- WTF?
Just awesome.
Just another album I can't believe I've never got round to. I've been a Velvet Underground fan for a while now, and this is just as good as some of their best albums. Lou Reed truly is one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time.
Lou Reed in 'giving the people what they want' shocker. No wonder he had to make a depressing concept album about an abusive relationship next to put everyone off again. (The joke's on him though, because I like Berlin too.)
Dude can't sing, but he's great
Recognised a few songs, always fun to rediscover them.
This was a super enjoyable album that I can’t believe I’ve never listened to in its entirety. Perfect day and wild side are the standouts. Definitely Leonard cohen vibes.
Can't go wrong with this album. All time classic and a good entry point to Lou Reeds work.
Frekar erfið fimma, en gut feeling er að þetta sé fimma. Stóru lögin eru bara svo stór. Lou fer stundum smá í mig. En þetta samstarf við Bowie er auðvitað frábært. Mikilvæg plata (kannski ekki ALVEG jafn mikilvæg og hipsterarnir vilja meina) og á fyllilega skilið fimmu, þó það sé smá erfitt að gefa hana.
Fimma stóru laganna.
J - 5/5 Best Track - "Walk On The Wild Side" F - 3/5 Best Track - "Hanging Round"
Happy to see this on the list. Finally listening the whole thing, sounds so much like Julian Casablancas singing.
One of my faves. Nostalgia may play a factor
pas monotone, changements de rythmes et d'ambiances, ça fait du bien
My first time hearing this. I can imagine it becoming a favourite. Brevity is a bonus!
4.5
The height of solo Lou Reed thanks to David Bowie and Mick Ronson. Key early glam centrepiece, partner album to Ziggy and easy 5 for the website thanks to beautifully arranged stunners like Perfect Day, Walk On The Wild Side and Satellite Of Love. Other album cuts are maybe a little underpared but still tuneful and good with closer Goodnight Ladies the one main damp tuba-lined squib. High 4.5.
I already knew a handful of songs from this album, but there was no way I couldn’t love it. This music is at the top of the through line of inspiration for all the music I like. Reed’s poetic yet often silly lyrics, the instrumentation, the pacing and tone, all of it is perfect. I am so glad this album was on the list to give me a chance to go and finally give it a full listen. I’m glad I spent it with you.
9/10 A healthy smattering of classic tracks, and the roots of so muchusic I now love. There are some duff lyrics (rhyming nose with toes not once, but twice!), but maybe that's the point.
What an album, all of the tunes are short sweet and just a little weird, what more do you want, timeless listening, not many you just keep coming back too but this is one
>>>>>>>>>> the Beatles A perfect album
Perfect day is one of the best songs of all time
I liked this unexpectedly. Of course the hits, but there is a lot of variety in the rest. 4-5 stars, rounded upwards
This was lovely. I really enjoyed the whole vibe of the album and it did contain the one Lou Reed song I know which is Walk on the Wild Side. Overall beautifully crafted album!
New York Poetry Recorded in London 3:30am on a Tuesday staring at a street lamp.
Beautiful, seedy Lou Reed makes a great rock and pop album. He creates imaginable stories, characters, and emotions - some familiar, and some we’re just leaning into. It’s catchy as hell, every song has a memorable and singable chorus hook. Lyrically, melodically, musically - pretty much every song hits the mark. Plus, there’s tuba in multiple songs.
Perfect album
A Perfect Day indeed!
cool Album., always loved Perfect Day and Walk on the wild side
Genuinely a perfect album 10/10
Just a perfect album.
Already one of my all time favourite records. Deserves a 5-star for Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side, and Satellite of Love alone.
"Walk On The Wild Side" is one of the best gay anthems of all time. And "Perfect Day" is one of the best songs of all time. 5/5
Great tracks, great stories, great music.
"Perfect Day" la escuché en Trainspotting y desde entonces es de mis canciones favoritas. Hoy ubiqué el double innuendo a la heroína. Original en su visión, portada tenebrosa, y la voz de Lou Reed destaca entre instrumentos simples pero efectivos. 10/10 todos deberían escuchar este disco
Amazing album - I’ve listened to this a million times, and never get tired of it
Great album. The Reed, Bowie, Ronson collab makes the production, engineering, mixing top-notch. Lou Reed’s best solo album by quite a bit. Love this record.
great tunes from the Great Tunesmith of countercultural weirdos. the vague skeleton of 50s rock and pop that pop up in songs on VU&N like im waiting for my man rly feels like it comes back in technicolor for the full bowie/ronson production. aside from the catchiness, lou can also be disarmingly emotionally readable when he wants to...he seems like such an obvious pop master (albeit left of the dial) on this record that it makes me wonder if i actually even have a grasp on his avant garde instincts...ig id need to hear more of his solo stuff, see if i can trace any of the most out-there velvets moments to someone other than the obvious john cale? unless he just decided to make lulu out of nowhere in a few decades. anyway, front to back great songs, only a relative lack of my ability to conceptualize the record beyond the coherent sound of its production sessions holds it back if at all
Amazing album, doesn't unnecessarily prolong it's stay, it just arrives and goes "here's my music" and flies off justbas quick. Love his lyrical style and love the overall Bowie production
One of the greatest, I really enjoy it every time
Fantastic