Amazon.com: New York is arguably Lou Reed's greatest hour as a solo artist. A song-cycle about his beloved city in the '80s, Reed adopts a conversational tone to discuss politics, AIDS, romance, TV preachers, and whatever else is on his mind. While his voice never ranges far, the album kicks into high gear with the twin guitar attack of Reed and Mike Rathke, which takes simple, three-chord rock into a truly transcendent space. "Romeo Had Juliette" cruises like a cab down a bumpy avenue, while "Strawman" curls with rage. Like the city that gives it its name, New York never rests. --Rob O'Connor
Paradigm from the South I bought this album on cassette in 1988 from a mom amd pop record store on the seeming advice of a Rolling Stone critic whose name I do not recall. In retrospect, this album was named one of the top 100 of the '80's by that aforementioned magazine. Anyway, the reviewer was accurate in his description of Reed's work. Being from the South, a small rural town in Georgia, I know almost nothing of the realities of New York City so Mr. Reed's truths are quite possibly wasted on my limited insights. Movies offer only sketches of dramatized truth. I can assert, however, that Lou Reed's "New York" is one of the best albums throughout that I've ever heard. Mr. Reed and his band garage rock from provincial musing to provincial musing with no seams, no falterings. This CD, album, tape whatever one wishes to refer to it as is brilliant, showing no weaknesses at any point. There are no best songs, only tone driven ambiance - songs for moods and inclinations. Finally, as Mr. Reed states in the liner notes, this is an album to enjoy in one sitting, as an entire work. Yet, if one is driving to his/her neighborhood convenience store, "Strawman" is a great listen when the sun is going down and a refreshing chill is in the air. This album has no comparisons. It is a meshing of alternative, guitar driven rock with poetry. It contains no wedding reception or dinner party songs.
My First encounter with lou This is an exelent Album, very harsh, very personal, this is the firs Lou Reed Album I ever got, and what a way to start.
New York Lou Reed-New York *****
Next to Berlin, New York may be Lou Reeds best solo effort. New York is a distructive tail about his beloved city during the citys all time low period, the 1980's. Tales of sex, drugs, aids, romance, poverty, and even politics at time. On New York Lou Reed holds nothing back what ever he felt or thought comes through in the songs. This also marks the first Reed album with has absolutly no trace of Velvet Underground sound or anything that resembles the past (except of course for the city of New York).
Mike Rathke is brought on board to help out on guitar with Reed which helps to make New York not only Reeds most hard rocking album but also one of his most powerful and most concistant, especially with tracks like the strong 'Strawman.' Songs like 'There Is No Time' shows that there was good music in the 1980's, and its right here. 'Busload Of Faith' is agreat song of self-reliance in a world where you cant rely on anyone else.
New York contains some of the very best lyrics of Reeds career, tracks like 'Beginning Of A Great Adventure' and 'Halloween Parade' show Reeds true love for his city, while others like 'Dirty Blvd.' let you feel his desperation for the city to grow and become better and yet at the same time you can tell he doesn't want it to change because he likes all the trash that goes down on the streets of New York. The lead song on the album 'Romeo And Juliette' maybe the strongest and best song that Reed has ever composed, rivaling all his material in The Velvet Underground.
To choose between New York and Berlin as to which is Lou Reeds best album would be nearly impossible as both albums are of the same callabor. For anyone interested in the man both albums are recommended over the criminaly overrated Transformer, and for any fan of The Velvet Underground these two are sure to please as well as The Blue Mask.
Literate rock This collection of 14 sketches represents one of the most powerful song cycles of Reed's career. On New York he deals with the wider world rather than personal concerns for a change, and in the enchanting core of New York City, he found enough to comment upon, like crime on "Romeo Had Juliette," the terrible impact of AIDS in "Halloween Parade," the tragedy and psychology of child abuse in the poignant "Endless Cycle," the plight of the homeless on "Xmas in February" and wrong priorities on the powerful rocker "Strawman," where he actually sings with open throttle unlike most of the other tracks where he employs his talking-style delivery.
Older themes are revisited too: "Dime Store Mystery" is a moving elegy to his former patron Andy Warhol. Not all the tracks are memorable though - "American Whale" and "Mr Waldheim" for example, are not up to the greatness of the rest of the album. In addition, due to the lack of any other but the basic rock instruments, the sound is not as varied as on some of his other classic albums. Neither is this Reed's most melodic work. However, the lyrics make up for that - in beautiful lines like "Caught between the twisted stars the plotted lines the faulty map that brought Columbus to New York", the poetry is full of sharp and lean images, driven by Rathke's guitar, Wasserman's bass and Maher's drums. This album is a beacon of literate, intelligent rock and amongst the top 5 of Reed's career.
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Perfect Wow! I still remember the first time I heard this one all the way thru when I worked at Cheapos on Snelling back in early '89. What a treat to hear Lou Reed create such a wonderfully visual, sarcastic, biting, brilliant piece of art after so many years of coming up short on every release. He has never again been this incredible. But, I'm still waiting, because I know he'll do it again one of these years...possibly when we least expect it.
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