Lou Reed & Metallica - Lulu

The Lulu album has been out for a while. To say the album has polarised people's opinions would be inaccurate - from my observations, everyone hates it - from the goatee-bearded metal dudes right down to the cerebral Lou Reed tragics, some of who were appalled enough to send Lou death threats!

All of which, being perverse as I am, made me wanna dig it!

I've gave it a few (virtual) spins a month back and was impressed. But given my comment above, I suppressed my urge to recommend the album until I was sure I liked the album for the right reason.

Since then, I've heard the album a few more times, and also managed to catch the performance Lou and Metallica gave on Rockpalast (from which the YouTube clip above arose). And I finally feel like I can rave for all the right reasons.

But I need to provide some background - I've been a huge fan of both Lou and Metallica at different times in my life.

As a teenage metal dude, Metallica were the beez kneez. They revolutionised mid-eighties heavy metal, but somewhere along the line metamorphosed into Spinal Tap! The turning point was probably the death of bassist Cliff Burton. He was the X-factor. After his death, Metallica became just. another. metal. band.

Around this time my musical horizons were expanding, and I finally found the Velvet Underground, and later Lou's solo albums - and Berlin remains one of my favorite albums to this day.

So I approached Lulu as a fan of both artists - albeit a fan who felt that neither had recorded any decent material for over twenty years! And maybe being a fan of both is the key to liking the project?

I've included the link to the soundtrack of the Rockpalast performance below. Much as I like the performance of the songs from Lulu, the version of White Light, White Heat is truly appalling - it's been Metallicarized, and Lou's vocals are woefully out of tune. Included for interests/completists sake only!

As usual, I welcome people's opinions, but hold back on the death threats, please!

Lou Reed & Metallica - 2011-11-11 - Cologne, Germany

1. Iced Honey
2. The View
3. Mistress Dead
4. The Dragon
5. Junior Dad
6. White Light, White Heat

MP3